China Uses ‘Social Credit System’ to Control Domestic, Foreign Companies

Breitbart: A Bloomberg News report on Sunday described how Communist China uses its “social credit system” to control not just citizens but corporations – and not just domestic companies, but foreign companies seeking to do business in China as well.

Nervous foreign businessmen are forking over thousands of dollars an hour for training in how to avoid being flagged as miscreants by the most pervasive surveillance system in history.

The social credit system is a vast database that monitors Chinese citizens for “good behavior” and aggressively punishes those who fall short. Anything from poor spending habits to ideological impurity can produce a low social credit score, with consequences that might include the unfortunate citizen suddenly discovering he is no longer allowed to board airplanes or trains.

The social credit system has a business component as well, monitoring corporate behavior in much the same way it keeps tabs on individual citizens. Companies with poor social credit scores can face heavier regulatory scrutiny, higher taxes, reduced access to business loans, or an outright ban on doing business in China. read more