Is it true that from January 1, 2021 in China they legalized a national system of social loan?

At the beginning of 2021, publications began to appear in Russian -speaking social networks and the media that the Civil Code that entered into force legalized the rating system for all Children's Citizens. From now on, every Chinese receives privileges or is limited to rights depending on his behavior. We checked whether this is really so.

Soon after the New Year, the news about the introduction of a social loan system throughout China began to be actively distributed in social networks. A few days later, publications with a very similar content appeared on the portal dedicated cybersecurity Securitylab, and on news resources The Caucasus Post And "Arguments of the week". The author of the last of these notes even associated the introduction of new legal norms with the pandemia of the coronavirus, which could distract attention from such a radical decision of the Chinese authorities.

The social loan system is a kind of rating of all citizens and foreigners living in the PRC, on whom the Chinese government began to work more than ten years ago. According to this idea, thanks to the mass collection of information, the authorities and business will have the opportunity to evaluate the reliability of each person and in accordance with this or provide him with privileges or impose restrictions on him. The effectiveness of the system is achieved due to the fact that many social networks and Internet sites are blocked in China (Twitter, Facebook, Tinder, Netflix, Google and others), and their place was taken by Chinese analogues controlled by the state. Professor of the Higher School of Economics, and. O. Director of the Institute of the Far East of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexey Maslov He emphasizesThat quite quickly these services (primarily the WeChat messenger) turned into super -applications, through which the Chinese, for example, pay taxes and buy flights, and therefore it is impossible not to use them. Additional information comes to the authorities through numerous surveillance cameras and a person recognition system.

Although the Chinese authorities have announced plans to introduce a rating system throughout the country by 2020, so far there are rules in different cities and provinces. In general, the system works approximately So: Each citizen has a certain rating that rises thanks to “good” actions and decreases due to the “bad”. If you, for example, donate blood or make donations to charitable organizations, this rating is growing. Opportunities to reduce your rating no less - for example, in Shanghai And Hangzhou This will happen when the garbage is refused, in Nankin - with a five -fold violation of the rules of the road, and in Beijing - If you decide to have a bite in the subway car. If your rating is high, then the government considers you reliable and can, for example, support Opening a business or provide Discount for utility bills. Otherwise, a citizen can Refuse on the sale of a ticket or Do not take To work in a state institution.

The Civil Code of the PRC was adopted in May 2020 and entered into force on January 1, 2021. Its is already available on the Internet translation in Russian, made by Pavel Bazhanov - working in Hong Kong lawyerwho leads Blog About Chinese law. We were not able to find in the Civil Code the mention of the social loan system and the point system, which were written by the authors of publications in social networks and the media. Bazhanov in the comments Wikinews He emphasizes: “The expressions“ social credit ”(社会信用) are not in the Civil Code at all, there is only“ creditworthiness ”(信用). <...> The only mention of "creditworthiness" in the Chinese Civil Code is connected with the right to reputation: creditworthiness is recognized as part of the reputation of individuals and organizations, so they can request and receive information from the Bureau of credit stories and other organizations engaged in evaluating creditworthiness, and in case of error to demand correction. " According to the expert, the entry into force of the Code is just an occasion for the “next stuffing” into the media space, and the description of the rating in the Civil Code would look strange: this document regulates relations between citizens and legal entities, but not between citizens and the state.

Thus, a significant part of the information presented in recent publications in social networks and the media does not correspond to reality. In China, really Planning Enter a nationwide rating system, but now its functioning is significantly different from the province to the province. To compile the norms from Beijing and Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen on one list and say that the action of all these norms applies to all of China is incorrect. Moreover, it is incorrect to say that these norms are enshrined in the Civil Code of the PRC, which does not say about any points and related privileges and restrictions. Surprisingly, if it were said - the document was adopted in the spring of 2020, and in November the Chinese authorities We came to the conclusionthat the system still needs to be improved, and postponed its widespread introduction.

We thank the Associate Professor of the Department of Oriental Studies and Africanism to the Higher School of Economics in St. Petersburg Svetlana is crooked For help in preparing the material.

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Read on the topic:

1. https://carnegie.ru/commentary/71546
2. https://chinalaw.center/civil_law/china_civil_code_2020_russian/
3. https://www.hse.ru/news/expertise/357514874.html