Nine-year-old found liable by court for dead father’s debts, and punished under China’s social credit system when she couldn’t pay up
- Court ruling and financial sanction on young girl prompt fierce debate over the social credit system, a carrot-and-stick mechanism based on a range of data
- Publicity about the case and the girl’s troubled life – her father was executed for murdering her mother and grandmother – led the court to reverse its decision
A Chinese court’s decision to punish a nine-year-old girl for failing to repay her dead father’s debts has triggered heated debate about the growing reach and power of the country’s judicial system.
The social credit system is similar to a credit-scoring system. It punishes individuals and businesses that fail to follow rules and regulations and rewards those who perform actions deemed beneficial to society, based on a wide range of data it collects.
In 2019, a court in China’s Henan province ruled the young girl, Chen Man, was liable for her father’s debts. The debt centred around a financial dispute with a man named Wang who had bought a flat from the girl’s father for about US$84,000.
Wang never received the legal rights to the flat before Man’s father was sentenced death in 2013 for killing the girl’s mother and grandmother the previous year.
