The tools that follow the brief introduction are a comprehensive, interactive, and understandable guide to the main mechanism of China’s Social Credit System. It provides a sortable guide to all joint enforcement punishments in the system.
The primary mechanism of the ‘Social Credit System’ is one of administrative regulation: government agencies sign targeted ‘joint enforcement’ MOUs agreeing to take limited ‘joint enforcement’ action against organizations and individuals ‘blacklisted’ (or ‘redlisted’) by certain other agencies.
For example, if someone is blacklisted by the Food and Drug Administration for a major health violation at their snack food factory, the agency for securities regulation might use this as a basis to reject their application to operate a securities company.
Being blacklisted by an agency, and thus within the scope of joint enforcement, is not based on an algorithm or meta-analysis of data, but is a consequence of specific violations of laws and legal obligations.
Despite its name, Social Credit is more similar to a criminal record system than to a credit report of any kind: It adds secondary penalties and enforcement mechanisms against those who have violated laws or failed to perform legal obligations, rather than directly imposing new obligations.
The data gathered here is government-created information; primarily administrative permits, administrative punishments, and court rulings.
Each joint enforcement MOU focuses on a limited group of serious offenders within a regulatory sector. The first mini-table below allows you to view the basis for inclusion in each MOU, listed by the professional sector.
NOTE:
- Some MOUs define their targets only by referencing blacklist designations created elsewhere by a certain regulatory body in accordance with separately published rules, while others provide detailed criteria in the MOU itself.
- The targets are primarily businesses, not individuals, but, certain stakeholders and employees of the business may be included for punishments and rewards as well.
Mini-table: Targets of Joint Enforcement
MOU | Targets |
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Pick an MOU Subject | To learn who it targets |
Given an administrative or criminal penalty for the following acts in airports or aboard planes: (1 Year Ban)
As penalty for violations in other areas (removed if obligation met, or at end of one-year)
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Given an administrative or criminal penalty for the following acts in train stations or aboard trains: (Banned from any trains )
As penalty for violations in other areas:( restrictions from riding high-speed trains, and first class seats on any train; removed if obligation met, or at end of one-year)
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A-level credit tax payers | Announced A-level credit taxpayers |
Accounting | Accounting personnel with serious violations of laws as identified by Ministry Of Finance or other relevant department (e.g. Accounting Law","Company Law", or "Securities Law", ) |
Agricultural sector | Enterprises with serious untrustworthy conduct in agricultural production and operations,
Serious untrustworthy conduct is defined in a blacklist document as:
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Bidding and tendering | Bidders, tender agents, bid appraisal experts, and others engaged in bidding and tendering when identified as judgment defaulters by the people's courts |
Charity Punishments |
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Charity Rewards |
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Court Judgment Defaulters | Judgment defaulters announced by the Supreme People's Court (including natural persons and entities):
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Cultural Market | Market entities engaged in commercial performances, entertainment venues, art works, Internet Access services, internet culture etc. that are
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Customs |
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Domestic Services | Untrustworthy Domestic service businesses identified by competent departments for violating relevant laws.
The cited industry documents prohibit the following conduct:
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Domestic trade |
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Electricity |
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Electronic Authenification Services Rewards | Verification service establishments identified and published by MIIT as obeying laws and regulations (electronic signature law), following e-verification operation rules, having positive service record, higher credit appraisal level, and no negative record. |
Electronic Authenification Services Punishments | Verification service establishments designated by MIIT as:
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Entry Exit Rewards | AA-level inspection quarantine credit, designated by Quality Inspection Administration: |
Entry Exit Punishments | Designated by the Quality Inspection Administration as having serious illegal untrustworthy conduct |
Environmental Protection |
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Finance | Those on list of seriously untrustworthy involving finances:
Entry on that list is defined in an industry document as
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Food Safety | Food producers and traders identified by FDA as having serious untrustworthy conduct.
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Foreign econcomic cooperation | Entities listed by competent departments as having serious untrustworthy conduct, such as violating domestic or relevant foreign law, losing face,
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Government Procurement |
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High-grade Customs Certification | Those issues a high-grade customs enterprise certificate |
Insurance | 1. All types of insurance establishment, insurance practitioners, and other establishments and persons involved in insurance market activities, |
IP (Patent) |
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Major Tax | Listed as parties in major tax case information published by tax authorities.
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Marriage Fraud | Untrustworthy parties to marriage registration as identified by civil affairs departments:
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Medical disruptions | Natural persons who have been given administrative or criminal penalties for disrupting medical activity; such as:
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Migrant Worker Salary Arrears | Companies listed by Human Resources and Social Security Departments as having salary arrears,their legal representatives, primary responsible party, and directly responsible persons. |
Natural Gas |
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Overloaded Transport |
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Product Quality |
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Public resources | Enterprises that have been punished for the violations listed below: their legal reps, natural person shareholders, evaluation experts, and other responsible persons.(Includes: Tenderees, purchasers, bidders, suppliers, bidding agents, purchasing agents, and appraisal experts)
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Publicly traded companies | Entities such as public companies and related establishments or individuals that have been given administrative punishments or market entry prohibitions by the China Securities Regulatory Commission and its remote bodies, including:
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Realty |
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Salt Industy |
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Scientific research | Those on Science Blacklist (serious untrustworthiness list) including:
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Social Insurance | Companies or public institutions and their personnel designated by MHRSS, SAT, or Medical Insurance bureau as having violated relevant laws or regulations primarily including:
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Statistics - Revised | Legal entities or individuals identified by statistics departments who
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Tourism Field |
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Transport and logistics | 1. Companies and sole proprietorships involved in ransport, warehousing, distribution, agency, packaging, circulation processing, delivery, and information services etc.2. That have broken laws and put on blacklist by gov. departments.
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Transport Construction | Identified by MOT, no negative records; entities only |
Youth Volunteers |
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Rewards and Punishments
The MOUs allow punishments only for violations of law. These secondary punishments, beyond the normal administrative or criminal punishments that led to blacklisting, generally include tighter administrative oversight, restrictions on professional certifications, reduced access to government lending or grants, and restricted participation in bidding on government project work or purchasing. They are usually imposed for a limited period of time, but some extreme violations can have lifetime consequences.
The tables below have broken down all existing national-level MOUs, to show specific punishment or reward measures for inclusion on each MOU. Using the tables, you are able to filter the joint enforcement measures by multiple fields, to fully understand the impact of the MOUs and each department’s role in the system.
Example:
Each row of a table addresses a specific penalty (or reward) found in a joint enforcement MOU:
- The initial SOURCE MOU column indicates which MOU contains the specific punishment listed in that row, and thus what sector the misconduct occurred in.
- Here, ‘Tourism Sector’ indicates the “Memorandum of Cooperation on Joint Punishment of Entities with Responsibility for Serious Untrustworthiness in the Tourism Field"
- You can learn who is impacted by an MOU and specific penalty by looking to the Mini-table: Targets of Joint-Enforcement above.
- You can also limit searches to specific MOUs using the filters above the table.
- Here, ‘Tourism Sector’ indicates the “Memorandum of Cooperation on Joint Punishment of Entities with Responsibility for Serious Untrustworthiness in the Tourism Field"
- The SUBCATEGORY column refers to an internal division in the MOU, provided as a reference.
- The PENALTY PROVISION column contains the actual text of the enforcement measure taken from the indicated MOU.
- The IMPLEMENTING BODY column lists all government bodies involved with enforcing the penalty. Because each body has a limited scope of authority, this column also helps clarify the scope of the punishment.
- While not displayed, a final PUNISHMENT CATEGORY column can also be used as a filter, organizing the punishments by general punishment type.
You Can Use the Filters at the Top of the Table to Single Out Specific Situations
So, for example,if you wanted to understand what punishments the Securities Regulatory Commission has agreed to take against violators of food safety provisions, you would select “Securities and Regulatory Commission” as the IMPLEMENTING Body and “Food and Drug Safety” as the SOURCE MOU.
WARNING: SEARCHING IN ENGLISH WILL ONLY WORK IF YOU HAVE THE LANGUAGE SET TO ENGLISH
Interactive Table 1: Social Credit Punishments
Click the button to pull up the tool in Full Screen.
Click Here to Explore Punishments in Full Screen
Interactive Table 2: Social Credit Rewards
Redlists are concerned with rewards rather than punishments. Entities and individuals on these lists have no negative record and have been nominated by a social organization or government body as a model of compliance. The benefits of being red-listed tend to be special consideration in the selection for awards, lower levels of scrutiny in applications for permits and credentials, and other facilitation services.
Some Social Credit MOUs allow for joint rewards of redlisted individuals. You can explore these by clicking here:
Click Here to Explore Rewards in Fullscreen