A total of 4.9 million people have been forbidden to take airplanes for their poor credit record, in a move experts say aimed at improving China’s social credit system and the corresponding punishment system.
Lian Weiliang, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission, said on Tuesday that 4.9 million people have been prohibited from taking airplanes and 1.65 million cannot take trains due to their credit defaults.
Lian said that China has improved its social credit system recently by assigning unified social credit code to every citizen and corporation. A nation-wide information sharing platform was set up to connect 37 government departments and it has collected more than 640 million pieces of information on credit.
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China has rejected 2,833 loan applications and declined 210,000 credit cards applications from discredited applicants, according to Lian.
Moreover, Zhima Credit, a credit service owned by China’s largest online commerce company Alibaba, has restricted 511,000 discredited consumers’ overdrawing behavior.
"The government should make the credit system transparent to the public. It should make the standard for punishment clear and allow people to appeal if they are dissatisfied with the penalty," Wang Zhenyu, a researcher with the China University of Political Science and Law said on Wednesday.
However, Wang warned that the government should pay more attention to people’s privacy when building the credit system, especially as technologies become more advanced.
The establishment of a credit system does not mean people should be watched by the government; instead, "people should behave themselves to build an honest society," he added.