Beijing, China – Social Credit System

By the year 2020 Beijing will be using a credit system to rate their 22 million residents by how they make purchases, their personal behaviors, if they have traffic violations, and how their financial history looks to rate their trustworthiness.   The system will then rank each resident by number.  The higher their number the better perks they will get like being able to ride the high-speed trains.  If their number is low, they might be blacklisted from using most of the transportation systems.

The matchmaking service Baihe has teamed up with the credit service Sesame to use this system to match the clients based on their credit scores.  Of course, your appearance is very important, but your job status and credit score make you look better at making a living.  If you spend most of your time online playing games, you might look like a lazy person.  Whereas if you buy baby items a lot online you may look more responsible to a perspective client.

The Chinese government is carefully taking in all the information from these private credit systems but the one that they use will be quite different.  The system will take into account whether or not the citizen has paid their taxes, traffic tickets, and if they earned their degrees honestly.  Some citizens will be watched more closely if they work in the medical profession, teachers, accountants, and journalists.

Even though some citizens believe that the new system is going to be a nightmare, they still believe that it is needed.  They also need to understand that if they have a bad credit score, they may not be able to get some loans or be able to get a lease for a home.

Right now, the credit score system is partly voluntary, but after the new system gets in place it will be mandatory.  They are hoping to get the people used to the system before it actually takes place.

They are hoping that the system will be a great help to keep con-men from being able to commit a crime in one place and then move onto another and commit the same crime.  The system is supposed to help build trust amongst all the citizens of China.