Guangdong Provincial Social Credit Regulations

[Source]https://new.qq.com/rain/a/20210327A005LE00

Chapter I: General Provisions

Article 1: These Regulations are drafted on the basis of relevant laws and administrative regulations, and in consideration of actual conditions in the province, so as to standardize management of Social Credit Information, to safeguard the lawful rights and interests of natural persons, legal persons, and unincorporated organizations, to advance the establishment of the social credit system, and to optimize the business environment.

Article 2: These Regulations apply to activities in this province's administrative region such as the establishment of a social credit environment, the management of Social Credit Information; credit rewards for the trustworthy, punishments for the untrustworthy; the protection of credit subjects' rights and interests; and the regulation and development of the credit services industry.

Article 3: “Social Credit” as used in these Regulations refers to the status of credit subjects' performance of legally-prescribed and contractual obligations in social and economic activities.

"Social Credit Information" as used in these Regulations, refers to objective data and materials that may be used to identify, analyze, and judge the status of Credit Subjects‘’ social credit, including Public Credit Information and Market Credit Information.

"Public Credit Information" as used in these Regulations refers to Social Credit Information produced or acquired in the course of lawful performance of duties or provision of services by state organs or organizations authorized by laws and regulations to have public affairs management duties.

"Market Credit Information" as used in these Regulations refers to Social Credit Information produced or acquired during production, business, and social service activities by market credit service establishments, credit service industry organizations, and other enterprises, public institutions, and social organizations.

Article 4: Activities such as the aggregation, collection, disclosure, sharing, querying, and application of Social Credit Information shall comply with the principles of legality, propriety, necessity, and prudence, and must not endanger national sovereignty, security, and developmental interests; must not encroach on public safety or the public interest, and must not disclose state secrets, commercial secrets, and personal privacy.

Article 5: People's governments at the county level or above shall include the establishment of a social credit system in the citizen's economic and social development plan, making overall plans for efforts on the advancement of the social credit system in that administrative region, coordinating the resolution of major issues in the establishment of a social credit system, and including efforts to establish a social credit system in targets of responsibility evaluation systems.

Article 6: The provincial people's government department in charge of social credit is responsible for formulating the province's management specifications and policy measures for areas such as the aggregation, disclosure, sharing, querying, and application of Public Credit Information, and strengthening management and policy guidance for the credit service industry.

The departments in charge of social credit for people's governments at the county level or above are responsible for coordinating implementation and oversight management work for that administrative region's establishment of a social credit system, and other relevant departments are responsible for advancing the establishment of the social credit system within the scope of their duties in the respective industries or areas.

The departments for the management of government service data for people's governments at the county level or above are to organize the aggregation of Public Credit Information in accordance with the Public Credit Information Directory and provide data support to the Public Credit Information platform.

Article 7: The Public Credit Information platform is to uniformly archive and publish policies, disclose information, provide public credit services, and support the application of Public Credit Information. The provincial Public Credit Information platform is responsible for connecting with the national credit information sharing platform.

The institutions undertaking public credit services are responsible for operating and maintaining the Public Credit Information platform, and providing services through the Public Credit Information platform such as the disclosure, sharing, querying, use, and acceptance of objections or applications for credit restoration.

Article 8: Entities aggregating, collecting, disclosing, sharing, and using Social Credit Information shall establish systems for information security management and protection of secrets, and shall perform information security management duties.

The Social Credit Information System shall comply with the requirements of the nations' multi-level protection scheme for computer information systems, and have security monitoring and backup functions.

Chapter II: The Establishment of a Social Credit Environment

Article 9: All levels of people's government shall establish systems for monitoring and governing creditworthiness in government affairs and systems for pursuing accountability for untrustworthiness in government, for creditworthy administration, action, and law enforcement, and to increase the transparency of decision-making and the credibility of the government.

All levels of people's governments and their relevant departments shall perform the policy commitments made to market entities and all types of contracts concluded in accordance with law. Where it is necessary to make changes in policy pledges or contracts and agreements for the national interest or societal public interest, it shall be done in accordance with legally-prescribed authority and procedures, and the market entities suffering losses as a result are to be compensated in accordance with law.

Article 10: All levels of this city's judicial organs shall advance judicial openness, a judiciary that is strictly just and embodies social fairness and justice, increasing the credibility and authority of judicial work, and increasing the extent of public satisfaction.

Article 11: The departments in charge of social credit of people's governments at the county level or above and relevant departments in charge of industries shall establish a credit-based regulatory system, to regulate market order. Innovate ex-ante credit regulation, follow state provisions to promote the system of credit pledges in matters such as administrative permitting, and make performance on credit pledges a basis for regulation during and after the matter.

The departments in charge of social credit of people's governments at the county level or above and relevant departments in charge of industries may carry out credit assessments and implement differentiated management on the basis of comprehensive public credit assessments and industries credit assessments.

Article 12: All levels of people's government and their relevant departments shall carry out education on social mores, professional ethics, family values, and personal character, and have honesty and trustworthiness permeate the entire process of establishing a public spiritual civilization.

The departments in charge of education for people's governments at the county level or above shall make honesty and trustworthiness an important part of student's personal caliber education.

All types of government service windows are to carry out credit awareness education at appropriate times in handling registration, approvals, filings, and other such operations, to increase proprietors' awareness of creditworthiness.

Article 13: All industries shall strengthen publicity on the culture of creditworthiness, carry out credit worthiness-themed activities, publicize advanced exemplars of creditworthiness, and promote the traditional culture and modern covenant on honesty and trustworthiness.

All types of media such as newspapers, radio, television, and the internet shall carry out publicity and education on honesty and trustworthiness.

Encourage credit service industry organizations, credit service industry practitioners, and also experts and volunteers to carry out publicity on the culture of creditworthiness and spread knowledge on creditworthiness by means such as going into communities and enterprises.

Chapter III: Management of Social Credit Information

Article 14: A cataloged management system is to be implemented for Public Credit Information. While enforcing the basic catalog of Public Credit Information, provinces and cities at or above the prefecture-level may also draft local regulations local Public Credit Information to supplement the directory, and update it as needed on the basis of updates to the national basic Public Credit Information directory and as needed for work.

The departments in charge of social credit for provinces and cities at the prefecture-level or above that, together with relevant departments, draft and update Public Credit Information supplemental directories, shall report them for approval by the people's governments and publicly announce them. When drafting or updating supplemental directories of Public Credit Information, matters such as whether [Public Credit Information] can be disclosed, shared, and so forth shall be clearly indicated; the directory shall be released to solicit public comments and where there is a larger difference of opinions or it might cause a larger social impact, a hearing or other assessment activity shall also be organized to hear the opinions of the relative parties and experts.

Cities at the prefecture-level or above that draft or update supplemental directories of Public Credit Information shall report for filing to the provincial level people's government's department in charge of social credit.

Article 15: Supplemental directories of Public Credit Information shall be restricted to the scope below:

(1) Registration information that reflects the Credit Subjects' basic circumstances in public administration and services;

(2) Information from credit pledges made when receiving public administration and services, as well as information on the performance on those pledges.

(3) Information on the receipt of commendations and rewards as well as participation in charitable activities and good samaritanship;

(4) Administrative punishments, administrative restrictions, administrative permits, administrative confirmations, administrative payments, administrative rulings, administrative expropriation, administrative compensation, administrative oversight inspections and other administrative acts, as well as judicial rulings, arbitration documents that reflect credit subjects' credit status;

(5) Information on the refusal to pay taxes, social insurance fees, housing providence funds, administrative fees, government funds;

(6) Information on the refusal to perform obligations set forth in effective legal documents;

(7) Information on violating laws and regulations by providing fake materials, by concealing the truth of matters, and by other deceptive or misleading acts;

(8) Other information provided for in other laws, regulations, or state provisions.

Article 16: Aggregation of natural persons' public Credit Information is to be associated with their resident identity card number; and where they have no resident identity card number, other valid identification documents such as household registration book and passport number may be used as the matching identifier.

The sole associated matching identifier for the aggregation of legal persons' and unincorporated organizations' Public Credit Information is to be their uniform social credit code.

Article 17: State organs, organizations authorized by laws or regulations to have public affairs management duties, and other units providing Public Credit Information shall record and store Public Credit Information in accordance with the requirements of the Public Credit Information catalog and relevant standards and specifications, and shall promptly, accurately, and completely aggregate it on the Public Credit Information platform.

Article 18: The public credit information that may be disclosed by legal persons and unincorporated organizations shall be disclosed in accordance with law, except those that must not be disclosed according to laws and administrative regulations.

Names, birthdates, identification numbers, addresses, telephone numbers, and other personal information in the Public Credit Information of natural persons must not be disclosed except for that which shall be disclosed in accordance with laws and administrative regulations, or with the consent of the person, themselves. Disclosed information related to individuals shall be processed to remove sensitivity and have security protection measures employed.

Article 19: State organs and organizations authorized by laws or regulations to have public affairs management duties may obtain relevant Public Credit Information through information sharing.

Information obtained through sharing must not the scope for performance of duties, and must not be disclosed without authorization

Article 20: Institutions undertaking public credit services shall clarify the scope of authorization and procedures for information inquiries and establish systems for registering and review of information query usage, using portal websites, mobile terminals, inquiry windows, and other such channels to provide convenient inquiry services to the public, and develop a system of logging inquiries.

Inquiry logs shall record the subject, time, and content of inquiries for long-term storage.

Article 21: Market Credit Information services establishments, and credit services industry organizations, as well as other enterprises, public institutions, or social organizations desiring to collect Market Credit Information, may lawfully record Market Credit Information that they produce in their operations in accordance with law, or record the Market Credit Information of their members, remote businesses, and so forth in accordance with law and as needed for services and management.

Credit subjects are encouraged to provide their own Market Credit Information to market credit service establishments, credit service industry organizations, and other enterprises, public institutions, and social organizations, through methods such as declarations, voluntary reporting, credit pledges, and signing sharing agreements.

Article 22: Where collecting Market Credit Information that involves natural persons' personal information, it shall be with the consent of the credit subject and the credit subject shall be notified of the content collected, the method of collection, the use of the information, and of the rights and interests enjoyed by the credit subject and the obligations they shall bear. Except for information that shall be disclosed in accordance with laws and administrative regulations.

In the collection of Market Credit Information, natural persons' income, savings, commercial insurance, real estate information, and tax amount information must not be collected. Except, however, where the credit subject has been clearly informed of the possible adverse consequences of providing this information or as agreed upon in the credit subjects' written consent.

In the collection of Market Credit Information, it is prohibited to collect information on natural persons' religious beliefs, blood type, illness, medical, or history, physiological information such as genetics and fingerprints, or any other information that laws or administrative regulations prevent the collection of.

Article 23: The disclosure, sharing, and inquiries into Market Credit Information may be through lawful disclosure, proactive disclosure by the credit subject, provision by Market Credit Information service establishments, or other agreed-upon methods.

Article 24: State organs and organizations authorized by laws or regulations to have public affairs management duties shall use Social Credit Information as provided in work such as administrative permitting, qualification level assessments, government procurement, government project bidding, routine oversight and management, commendations and awards, and recruitment of state employees.

Article 25: The use of personal Social Credit Information shall have clear and reasonable goals and the collection of personal Social Credit Information is to be limited to the minimum scope necessary to realize those goals.

Where personal Social Credit Information involves minors under the age of 14, the consent of the minors' parents or other guardians shall be obtained except as otherwise provided by laws and administrative regulations.

Article 26: The following acts endangering the security of Social Credit Information must not be engaged in by any units or individuals:

(1) Fabrication, alteration, or improper deletion of Social Credit Information;

(2) Stealing, or otherwise illegally obtaining Social Credit Information;

(3) Leaking Social Credit Information without authorization to make it public;

(4) leaking Social Credit Information related to state secrets, commercial secrets, and personal privacy;

(5) illegally selling or illegally providing others with Social Credit Information;

(6) storing, using, processing, or transferring personal Social Credit Information in violation of laws or agreements;

(7) storing, using, processing, or transferring personal Social Credit Information in violation of laws or agreements;

(8) other acts prohibited by laws or regulations.

Chapter IV: Incentives for Trustworthiness and Punishments for Untrustworthiness

Article 27: Establish a system of rewards for trustworthiness and punishments for untrustworthiness for this province, strengthening advocacy and praise for trustworthy conduct and lawfully conducting punishment and restraint of untrustworthy conduct.

State organs, as well as organizations authorized by laws or regulations to have public affairs management duties, are to implement a list management system in carrying out rewards for trustworthiness and punishments for untrustworthiness.

Article 28: People's governments at the county level or above may draft lists of reward measures for trustworthiness and update them at appropriate times as needed.

The departments in charge of social credit for people's governments at the county level or above are to draft and update the lists of reward measures for trustworthiness in conjunction with relevant departments. When drafting or updating the list of reward measures for trustworthiness, they shall indicate the target of the rewards, the method of implementation, the implementing entity, and other such content; and shall disclose them for public comments, report for approval from the people's government at that level, and release them publicly.

Lists of reward measures for trustworthiness that are drafted or updated by the people's governments of cities at the prefecture level or higher and counties shall report for filing with the department in charge of social credit of the people's government at the level above.

Article 29: The list of reward measures for trustworthiness may be determined within the following scope:

(1) Accepting incomplete applications or giving preferential handling or other facilitation measures in work such as administrative permitting;

(2) Giving credit points and credit level promotions in exchanges of public resources;

(3) Reducing guarantee deposits when participating in government bidding or private-public partnership construction projects;

(4) Optimizing inspection methods and frequency in administrative inspections;

(5) Where other requirements are equal, make them priority choices or giving them key supports in the implementation of government benefit policies;

(6) Conducting publicity or promotions on credit portal websites or related media;

(7) Other measures provided by the nation and this province.

Article 30: When enforcing the basic national list of punishment measures for the untrustworthy, the province and cities at the prefecture level or higher may draft a list of supplemental punishment measures for the untrustworthy based on local regulations for social governance, market regulation, and public services, and update it at appropriate times based on updates to the national list of punishment measures for the untrustworthy and as work requires.

The departments in charge of social credit for people's governments of the province and cities at the prefecture level or higher are to draft and update the supplemental lists of reward measures for trustworthiness in conjunction with relevant departments. When drafting or updating the list of supplemental punishment measures for untrustworthiness, they shall indicate the target of the punishments, the method of implementation, the implementing entity, and other such content; and shall disclose them for public comments, report for approval from the people's government at that level, and release them publicly.

Cities at the prefecture-level or above that draft or update supplemental lists of punishments for untrustworthiness shall report for filing to the provincial level people's government's department in charge of social credit.

It is prohibited to implement punishment measures outside the list of punishments for the untrustworthy in violation of laws or regulations.

Article 31: The supplemental list of punishments for the untrustworthy shall be restricted to the following scope:

(1) Having a meeting;

(2) Don't use facilitation measures such as credit pledges during administrative permitting and other such work;

(3) List them as key subjects for regulation in routine oversight and management;

(4) Subtract credit points or reduce credit levels in exchanges of public resources;

(5) Raise the ratio of guarantee deposit when participating in government bidding or private-public partnership construction projects;

(6) Restrict enjoyment of beneficial government policy supports, and restrict applications for government-funded projects;

(7) Restrict participation in awards and honors, and cancel qualifications to participate in competitions, revoke relevant honors;

(8) Other measures provided for in laws, regulations, or state provisions.

Article 32: Findings of untrustworthy conduct by State organs as well as organizations authorized by laws or regulations to have public affairs management duties shall be based on the following documents:

(1) Effective judicial judgment documents and arbitration documents;

(2) Effective administrative decision documents such as for administrative punishment and administrative rulings;

(3) Other documents that laws, regulations, or the state provide may be the basis for a finding of untrustworthy conduct.

Article 33: Fields establishing lists of seriously untrustworthy shall have a basis in laws, regulations, or state provisions, and must not add to or expand them on their own.

The scope of the list of seriously untrustworthy entities shall be restricted to the entities responsible for the following serious unlawful and untrustworthy conduct:

(1) Seriously endangering the public's physical health or security in their lives, in areas such as food and drug safety, ecology and environment, project quality, production safety, fire safety and mandatory product certification;

(2) Seriously disrupting the order of fair market competition or the social order such as by malicious debt evasion, malicious delay in payment of debts or for services, malicious delay in paying wages, illegal fund-raising, contract fraud, pyramid sales, operating a business without a license, production or sale of fake or shoddy goods, intentional infringement of intellectual property rights, leasing or lending bidding qualifications, collusive bidding, false advertising, infringing the lawful rights and interests of consumers or securities investors, seriously undermining the order of cyberspace transmissions, and assembling to disrupt social order;

(3) After judicial or administrative organs make a judgment or ruling, refusing to perform on it despite being able to, evading the enforcement of legally prescribed obligations and seriously impact the credibility of the judicial or administrative organ;

(4) Refusing or evading military service or refusing to perform national defense obligations endangering national defense interests.

Article 34: Designation standards for lists of seriously untrustworthy entities are to enforce laws, administrative regulations, or national provisions. Designation standards for lists of seriously untrustworthy entities that are implemented only within this Province shall be provided for in the province's local regulations.

In drafting designation standards for lists of seriously untrustworthy entities, the requirements and procedures for removal from the list shall be clarified, as well as remedial measures, and they are to be released to the public for solicitation of public comments. The designation standards for lists of seriously untrustworthy entities produced by the province are to be disclosed to the public.

Article 35: Before making a designation for the list of seriously untrustworthy entities, state organs and organizations authorized by laws and regulations to have public affairs management duties shall notify the credit subject of the reason and basis for the decision and of the rights they enjoy in accordance with law; where the credit subject objects, a review shall be made, and when necessary, a hearing ay be organized. A response on the outcome of the handling shall be made within the designated time period.

When credit subjects are included in the list of seriously untrustworthy entities, a decision document shall be issued and served, indicating its reasons and basis, and warning of disciplinary measures for untrustworthiness, as well as conditions and procedures for removal, remedies, and so forth.

It is prohibited to make designations for the list of seriously untrustworthy entities that are not in accordance with the designation standards and procedures.

Article 36: The adoption of penalty measures against untrustworthy entities shall comply with the principles of legality, relevance, and proportionality, be connected to the untrustworthy entity's untrustworthy conduct; correspond to the character, circumstances, and degree of social impact of the untrustworthy conduct; and the punishment measures of an appropriate severity are to be employed from the list of punishment measures for untrustworthiness to ensure that the punishment fits the offense.

It is prohibited to add punishment measures beyond those provided by laws, regulations, or state provisions, or to increase the severity of punishments.

Where minor or incidental untrustworthy conduct is promptly corrected or remedial measures are employed, and no harmful outcomes were caused to society, punishments for untrustworthiness are to be waived, but warnings may be given in an appropriate manner.

Article 37: Where legal persons and unincorporated organizations are entered onto the list of seriously untrustworthy entities, punishments shall be employed against their legal representatives, actual controllers, principle responsible person, and other directly responsible personnel in accordance with law; and the relevant information on untrustworthiness is to be recorded in their personal Public Credit Information.

Article 38: industry associations and chambers of commerce are encouraged to strengthen the establishment of industry credit, carrying out rewards for trustworthiness and punishments for untrustworthiness on the basis of the organization charter, but they must not harm the lawful rights and interests of members.

Units must not compel financial institutions, credit service establishments, industry associations and chambers of commerce, news media, and so forth to punish untrustworthy entities.

Chapter V: Protection of Credit Subjects' Rights and Interests

Article 39: Credit subjects have the right to know about the aggregation, collection, disclosure, sharing, inquiries into, and use of their Social Credit Information, as well as the information sources and changes indicated in their credit report.

Article 40: Credit subjects enjoy the right to make inquiries into their own Social Credit Information. Credit subjects have the right to make unlimited free inquiries into their own Public Credit Information through the Public Credit Information platform, and to obtain their own credit report free of charge at least twice a year through service establishments that collected their Market Credit Information.

Inquiries into Social Credit Information that is not public shall be upon the consent of the credit subject, and through agreed-upon channels. Where laws and administrative regulations provide otherwise, those provisions control.

Article 41: Where credit subjects call for not disclosing information on their commendations, rewards, volunteer service, charitable donations, or samaratinship, this shall be respected and it is not to be disclosed.

Article 42: In providing services to credit subjects, information unrelated to the services must not be collected, the provision of services must not be bundled with the collection of Social Credit Information, and credit subjects must not be compelled or indirectly compelled to accept.

It is prohibited for any unit and individual to collect and use personal social credit information without authorization, by compelling authorization, or having a single permanent authorization.

Article 43: The period for disclosure of information on untrustworthiness in Public Credit Information must not exceed 5 years. It must not be disclosed again after the period for disclosure is completed. The period of disclosure is calculated from the day on which the determination of untrustworthy conduct was made; but where the state of untrustworthiness is ongoing, the period of disclosure is to be calculated from the date on which the untrustworthy conduct concludes. Where laws, regulations, or the state provide otherwise, follow those provisions.

Article 44: Where errors are discovered in Public Credit Information, or it has become invalid or changed, the units providing Public Credit Information shall make corrections within 3 working days and provide the corrected information to the Public Credit Information platform. Where errors are discovered in Market Credit Information, or it has become invalid or changed, the units collecting the information shall make changes or handle it as agreed.

Article 45: Where credit subjects find that there are errors or omissions in the aggregation, collection, disclosure, sharing, inquiries, or use of their own Social Credit Information, they have the right to make an objection.

Article 46: Where credit subjects raise objections to state organs or organizations authorized by laws or regulations to have public affairs management duties and other Public Credit Information providing units, they are to be handled in accordance with state and provincial provisions.

Where credit subjects raise objections to institutions taking on public credit services, those institutions shall make an indication of the objection within one working day of the receiving the application and address it in accordance with the following provisions：

(1) Where it is within the scope to be corrected by the institutions undertaking public credit services, they shall make corrections or cancel the indication of the objection within 3 working days, and notify the person objecting of the outcome.

(2) Where it is within the scope to be corrected by the unit providing the Public Credit Information, the institution undertaking public credit services shall transfer it to be handled by the Public Credit Information providing unit within 2 working days, and the Public Credit Information providing unit shall make a decision as to whether to make corrections within 3 working days of receiving the transfered application, and notify the institution undertaking public credit services; and within 2 working days of receiving the Public Credit Information providing unit's decision, the institution undertaking public credit services shall make a correction or remove the indication of an objection and notify the objecting persons of the outcome.

Where the Public Credit Information has already been shared with other systems or websites, then after corrections have been made in accordance with the preceding paragraph, the relevant units shall handle changes within 3 working days of receiving the corrected information.

Where the handling of objections requires inspections, testing, quarantine, evaluations, or expert review, the time required to conduct them is not to be included in the time limits for processing objection applications.

Where credit subjects are dissatisfied with the result of handling an objection, they may submit a review to the administrative organs at the level above.

Article 47: The departments in charge of social credit and related departments for industry shall establish credit restoration mechanisms, draft specific methods for credit restoration, and clarify the means and procedures for restoration.

Where untrustworthy entities correct their untrustworthy conduct and eliminate the negative impact, they may apply for credit restoration to the public credit service establishment or the unit that made the finding of untrustworthy conduct.

Untrustworthy entities carrying out credit restoration may do so through methods such as making credit pledges, completing credit rectification, going through credit reviews, accepting special training, submitting credit reports and participating in public interest charity.

Where conditions are met for credit restoration, the unit accepting the application shall shall remove them from the list of seriously untrustworthy entities in accordance with provisions, stop disclosure and sharing of the relevant information on untrustworthiness or place a marker, block, or delete the relevant information on untrustworthiness and inform the credit subject of the restoration. After restoration is complete, the implementation of punishment measures shall be promptly stopped.

Where laws, regulations, or state provide that restoration is not to be given, follow those provisions.

Article 48: Market Credit Information service establishments, credit service industry organizations, and other enterprises, public institutions, and social organizations, shall establish channels for objecting to Market Credit Information, clarify rules for handling objections, and disclose these to the public.

Market Credit Information service establishments, credit service industry organizations, and other enterprises, public institutions, and social organizations are encouraged to establish and complete credit restoration systems related to Market Credit Information.

Article 49: Where Credit Subject feel that administrative acts in the aggregation, disclosure, sharing, inquiries into, and use of Public Credit Information and other related activities violated their lawful rights and interests, they may apply for an administrative reconsideration or initiate administrative litigation in accordance with law.

Chapter VI: Regulation and Development of the Credit Services Industry

Article 50: People's governments at the county level or above shall support the development of market credit service establishments, drafting policies and measures for promoting the development of the credit services industry and encouraging social capital to enter the credit services market.

Article 51: Support market credit service establishments in providing society with credit products and services through credit reporting, credit rating, credit guarantees, contract performance guarantees, credit management consulting and training.

Credit subjects are encouraged to make inquiries and use Social Credit Information during activities such means such as market transactions, enterprise business, industry management, hiring employees, financing, and public interest activities. Market credit service establishments are encouraged to use big data, cloud computing, blockchain, artificial intelligence, and other modern technology to launch credit products in which they have intellectual property rights, and expand the application of the credit services field.

Article 52: The departments in charge of social credit for provincial and prefecture-level city people's governments shall orderly expand the openness of Public Credit Information, and optimize the development of the credit services industry.

Where the departments in charge of social credit for provincial or prefecture-level city people's governments receive applications for inquiries into large volumes of Public Credit Information, they shall review the applicants' requirements and discuss the scope, use of information, and other such matters with the applicant, and provide services after signing a confidentiality agreement.

Article 53: Credit service industry organizations shall strengthen industry self-discipline and management, draft industry standards, technical specifications, and management regulations; compile industry statistical reports, developing publicity and training, submit policy recommendations, and publish iindustry information.

Article 54: Encourage the development of research and academic exchanges into credit theory, introducing high-level credit service professions from outside the country and province.

Schools of higher learning and secondary vocational schools are encouraged to establish majors in credit management to train credit services professionals.

Chapter VII: Legal Responsibility

Article 55: Where State organs and organizations authorized by laws or regulations to have public affairs management duties or their staffs violate the provisions of these Regulations by any of the following conduct, the people's governments of the same level or the organ at the level above is to order corrections; where the circumstances are serious, the directly responsible managers and other directly responsible personnel are to be given sanctions in accordance with law:

(1) Failure to establish information security and confidentiality systems as provided or failure to perform information security management duties, endangering the security of Social Credit Information;

(2) Failure to perform duties to aggregate, disclose, share, or inquire into Public Credit Information as provided, or recording, disclosing, or sharing Public Credit Information that is not in the Public Credit Information Directory in violation of laws and regulations;

(3) Failure to carry out rewards for trustworthiness and punishment measures for untrustworthiness, or carrying out punishments that are not on the list of punishments measures for untrustworthiness, or increasing their severity, in violation of laws and regulations;

(4) Making designations for the list of seriously untrustworthy entities that are not in accordance with the designation standards and procedures.

(5) failure to perform duties to handle objections or restore credit as provided;

(6) Other abuses of authority, twisting the law for personal gain, or dereliction of duty.

Article 56: Where credit service establishments, credit service industry organizations, or other enterprises and public institutions, social organizations, and their staffs violate these Regulations through any of the following conduct, the departments in charge of social credit or the department designated by laws or regulations, for people's governments at the county level or above are to order corrections and fine units between 50,000 and 500,000 RMB; the directly responsible managers and other directly responsible personnel are to be fined between 10,000 and 100,000; and where there are unlawful gains they are to be confiscated.

(1) Violating article 22 of these Regulations by collecting personal information that it is prohibited to collect or collecting personal information with consent;

(2) Violating article 26 of these Regulations by endangering the security of Social Credit Information;

(3) Violating article 42 of these Regulations in providing services or collecting and using personal Social Credit Information.

Article 57: Where the lawful rights and interests of credit subjects are harmed during the aggregation, collection, disclosure, sharing, inquiries, and use of Social Credit Information, civil liability shall be borne in accordance with law; where a crime is constituted, criminal responsibility is pursued in accordance with law.

Chapter VIII: Supplemental Provisions

Article 58: These regulations take effect on June 1, 2021. The "Guangdong Province Regulations on Disclosure of Enterprise Credit Information " passed at the 33rd meeting of the Standing Committee of the Tenth People's Congress of Guangdong Province on July 27, 2007, are concurrently repealed.