China’s social credit system shows first signs of abuse, report says

State-run Legal Daily published a report saying some places are starting to show signs that punishments for “uncreditworthy” behaviour are being abused or applied too broadly. According to the report, titled “What kind of social credit law do we need”, a law professor at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou said the social credit system has to be connected with China’s current legal framework or it could damage the legal environment.

China has official guidelines for building its social credit system. The country aims to have a social credit system covering the whole country by 2020, but right now it mostly consists of several local systems with their own punishments and rewards. But there’s currently no legal framework for these systems. Some local systems have added blood donation, jaywalking and eating on the subway to lists of behaviours that could affect people's scores, but some of the initiatives face pushback online.