CHINA-INTERNAL: SOCIAL CONTROLS AND STABILITY
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The CCP CC's General Office and the General Office of the State Council on September 25, 2016 jointly issued the 'Opinions Concerning Acceleration of the Advancement of the Construction of the Institution of the Social Credit Supervision, Warning and Punishment System Against Persons Disciplined for Loss of Credit' (the “Social Credit Opinions”). The Social Credit Opinions mandate the full-establishment by 2018 of a comprehensive government-wide and society-wide social monitoring system. The “Social Credit Opinions” provides that persons (both individuals and companies) who are determined in a judicial administrative law proceeding to be socially uncreditworthy will be subject to prohibitions and other restrictions on their commercial, residential and family activities. The system incorporates the principle of “once untrustworthy, always restricted” (yi chu shi xin, chu chu shou xian). It will function through public and governmental databases which will maintain and share information on persons found to be socially uncreditworthy to enable discipline to be imposed against such persons wherever they may be in China. Ostensibly intended to create a trust-based economy and harmonious society by gathering, analyzing and disseminating information on the conduct of persons in the interest of making the economy more efficient and social relations more amicable, the system will impose disciplinary measures that will extend to social activities and personal consumption, including restrictions on participation in social associations (i.e., NGOs), higher-class train travel, air travel, real estate purchases for personal use, and tuition expenses for children.
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