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China Set to Ban People From Planes & Trains for Bad Social Credit

China Set to Ban People From Planes & Trains for Bad Social Credit


According to statements released by China’s National Development and Reform Commission, Chinese citizens may be banned from buying plane and train tickets if they rank low in the country’s ‘social credit’ system, which is set to begin in May. The full system is set to be rolled out by 2020, however some aspects of the social credit system are already in place. This system vows to “make trustworthy people benefit everywhere and untrustworthy people restricted everywhere.

The Chinese government is going to be rating its citizens on things such as criminal behavior, financial misdeeds, smoking on trains, causing trouble on planes, and more. There are some current issues with the part of the system that is in place, however, as citizens are as likely to be flagged for minor infractions as they are for more serious ones.

For example, a shopkeeper in Qingdao was blacklisted after he failed to pay a fine for leaving a bike illegally parked on a footpath, while Mr. Li, a defense lawyer, had been blacklisted after issuing an “insincere” apology.