Wonder if it could degrade to something worse than the status quo where reputations are falsely tarnished by competitors purely as a weapon to get ahead…
The "Chinese social credit" system is vastly overblown.
I'm living here (China, Beijing and Jiangsu) now, and there are exactly two cases in the past eight months where the "social credit" system has had any impact at all:
- To open "take first pay after" vending machines. These are vending machines which are basically big locked fridges; if your credit score is high enough, you can open the machines, take whatever drinks/snacks you want, and they'll use (I presume) computer vision to charge you afterwards. If you don't have a high enough credit score, tough, you can't use them. (But there's almost always normal pay-first vending machines nearby).
- To borrow mobile charging packs (powerbanks). Some operators will let you "swipe your credit" (check your credit score) to take one without paying a deposit. If your credit score isn't high enough, you first pay e.g. a ¥99 deposit (~$15USD) which gets returned when you return the powerbank, not a big deal.
That's...it. My credit score is high enough on only one platform (Alipay), so I get to try what happens with both "high" and "low" credit, and I can confidently say these are the *only* two cases where I have even been asked to show the credit score. I have taken multiple train trips, bought lots of stuff in stores and restaurants, etc. without ever touching the "social credit score".
P.S. I literally don't even know how to raise my credit score, and neither do many of the folks who live here - again, not that it matters, because the score is simply not that important.
I haven’t seen normal pay first vending machines anywhere but airports. I’m in Chengdu ATM, but there is usually a family mart or Lawsons to go to anyways.
How many times have you been to Xinjiang? I’ve only been once, and didn’t notice any credits scoring going on even among Uighurs. I get that something bad must be going on sometimes, and maybe north Xinjiang (more populated, more Han) is a lot different from south Xinjiang (more Uighur), but if you visited Urumqi or Kashgar tomorrow, or even lived there, you probably wouldn’t notice much.
I remember in the west a few years ago we were seeing purported pictures of electronic billboards in China shaming low-social-credit-havers. Was that all a weird psyop?
Neither. Above poster is wrong. You don't require anything to own a house or car in the US except your own cash/equiv. If you wish to borrow other people's money or property (in some cases at all when counterparty risk is high enough or buyers competitive enough, in most cases it's more a matter of interest rate), a sufficient credit score is the most standard and easy way to "make the case" that you will repay. But that's truly not at all required. I bought my current truck for $8100 cash on the table, I just showed up at the other guy's place and inspected it and chatted, looked good enough, paid him and we did the title change document, I screwed on a new plate and off I drove with it. Effectively zero dealers will not accept cash upfront. You can buy land and just build your own place.
Obviously, a lot of us find having credit very useful. And it's also both convenient and good for fairness/economic velocity/efficiency not to generally have to explicitly put up any extra collateral to get it or go through some complex old fashioned social dance. Hence "credit scores" that systemize a lot. But claiming they decide "whether you're allowed to have a house or a car" warps things badly.
Like if you're arrested for some misdemeanor, that goes on your social credit score. If you're caught peeing in public your social credit score basically goes to zero (registered sex offender).
I'm living here (China, Beijing and Jiangsu) now, and there are exactly two cases in the past eight months where the "social credit" system has had any impact at all:
- To open "take first pay after" vending machines. These are vending machines which are basically big locked fridges; if your credit score is high enough, you can open the machines, take whatever drinks/snacks you want, and they'll use (I presume) computer vision to charge you afterwards. If you don't have a high enough credit score, tough, you can't use them. (But there's almost always normal pay-first vending machines nearby).
- To borrow mobile charging packs (powerbanks). Some operators will let you "swipe your credit" (check your credit score) to take one without paying a deposit. If your credit score isn't high enough, you first pay e.g. a ¥99 deposit (~$15USD) which gets returned when you return the powerbank, not a big deal.
That's...it. My credit score is high enough on only one platform (Alipay), so I get to try what happens with both "high" and "low" credit, and I can confidently say these are the *only* two cases where I have even been asked to show the credit score. I have taken multiple train trips, bought lots of stuff in stores and restaurants, etc. without ever touching the "social credit score".
P.S. I literally don't even know how to raise my credit score, and neither do many of the folks who live here - again, not that it matters, because the score is simply not that important.