China doesn’t exactly fit the bill of a conventionally run country. The country is now planning to levy continuous and perpetual judgement upon each of its 1.3 Billion citizens, based upon their social behavior. The communist government is planning to implement this lifelong ratings system starting with the capital city of Beijing, by the end of 2020 or early 2021.
According to a report from Bloomberg, Beijing will start pooling data from several government departments to start disbursing rewards, and handing out punishments, to its 22 million citizens based on their actions and reputations.Think of it as something similar to the current credit score system, except that citizens will be earning and losing social credit with each and every action of theirs.
And this is not some hanky-pinky plan where folks with a bad score will get a slap on the wrist. According to a notice posted on the government’s website, folks deemed untrustworthy will be “unable to move even a single step”. China has been experimenting with, and sitting on this particular plan since quite a while, and it seems that it is finally ready ti implement it across the country.
Of course, the move could have ramifications far beyond what the Chinese government may have planned for. With the point system affecting the lives of every citizen in a very real and ever present way, would the citizens be reduced to robots? And with the point system making life increasingly difficult for people who stray out of line, would it be even possible for them to come back into the mainstream?
The system is already being tested in several cities. As per the National Development And Reform Commission, by the end of May, people with bad credit in China had been blocked from booking more than 11 million flights and 4 million high-speed train trips.
