from Fellowship Of The Minds:

Bloomberg reports, Nov. 21, 2018, that the Chinese Communist government is on course with a program to track and rate the behavior of each of its 1.3 billion people and assign social credits or points that will be used to reward or punish. The program will be implemented in two years, by the end of 2020.

According to the plan, various agencies, including tourism bodies, business regulators and transit authorities, will link their databases to get a detailed picture of every resident’s interactions across a swathe of services.

The tracking of individual behavior is made possible as economic life moves online, with apps such as Tencent’s WeChat — a multipurpose messaging, social media and mobile payment app — and Ant Financial’s Alipay — China’s leading third-party mobile and online platform for making payments, getting loans and organizing transport. Accounts are generally linked to mobile phone numbers, which in turn require government IDs.

More than a dozen cities have announced the plan, including Hangzhou and Beijing:

• On November 17, 2018, Hangzhou, a city in Zhejiang, eastern China, rolled out its personal credit or point system, whereby the behavior of every citizen 18 or older will be tracked. Those who exhibit “pro-social behaviors” such as volunteer work and blood donations will be rewarded, while those who engage in anti-social behaviors such as violating traffic laws and charging under-the-table fees will be punished.


• On November 19, 2018, the Beijing municipal government posted its social credit plan on its website. The city will pool data from several departments to reward and punish its 22 million citizens based on their actions and reputations. Those with better social credit will get “green channel” benefits. Those who violate laws or are deemed untrustworthy will be “unable to move even a single step”. According to the website, the social credits plan was written on July 18, 2018.