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A Student Was Rejected By A College Because Of China's 'Social Credit System' (buzzfeed.com)

Posted by msmash on from the closer-look dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report: A prestigious college in Beijing that reportedly tried to bar a student because his father was on a government blacklist is causing huge controversy in China. According to state media reports, a high school student with the surname Rao in the eastern city of Wenzhou, in Zhejiang province, was accepted on the back of his score in China's fiendishly difficult and incredibly competitive national college entrance exam. But before his family could enjoy Rao's accomplishments, the college notified them he may not be able to attend because of his father's poor credit standing -- the father owed 200,000 RMB (about $30,000) to a local bank, and had been put on a blacklist dubbed the "lost trust list" for individuals with bad social standing, state media reported.

Blacklists are a key feature of China's controversial "social credit system" -- a set of government programs that sets up both incentives and disincentives to encourage people to behave in socially desirable ways. Social credit in today's China involves government programs that collect and analyze data from different parts of people's lives, including their education history, compliance with traffic rules, criminal history and debt. It has raised serious concerns over individual privacy rights.

14 of 255 comments (clear)

  1. What Individual Privacy Rights? by brian.stinar · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We're talking about China, right?

    1. Re:What Individual Privacy Rights? by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 4, Interesting

      >>A (Chinese) college in Beijing...bar a student because his father was on a government blacklist

      As designed. Checks out. I half suspect this story was planted by the Chinese government to loudly advertise the fact that its blacklist will hurt doublethink offenders' kids too.

      Wake me up when we get the story from America that someone's kid was denied entrance to a university because his/her dad spouted off with some pro-Trump or pro-socialist screed on social media.

    2. Re: What Individual Privacy Rights? by sycodon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Who defines bad behavior again?

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    3. Re:What Individual Privacy Rights? by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 4, Informative

      Just writing TRUMP on the sidewalk is a microaggression and wearing a Trump shirt can get you booted from class. So we're not too far off of when you need to rise and shine!

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    4. Re:What Individual Privacy Rights? by mwvdlee · · Score: 5, Funny

      The fun thing about microaggresions is that you can do about a million of them before they start counting as aggression.

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  2. Like Mccarhty? by lucasnate1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Just read "I married a communist", a novel about the Mccrathy era. There was a part there where someone was unable to get a scholarship because a friend of his was in a blacklist. Yes, I know that technically one can have the money to study without the scholarship, but I bet that someone rich enough to do that would also have enough money to somehow fix his social credit.

    --
    Avantgarde Hebrew science fiction
    1. Re:Like Mccarhty? by NFN_NLN · · Score: 4, Funny

      Just read "I married a communist", a novel about the Mccrathy era. There was a part there where someone was unable to get a scholarship because a friend of his was in a blacklist. Yes, I know that technically one can have the money to study without the scholarship, but I bet that someone rich enough to do that would also have enough money to somehow fix his social credit.

      Yes, but this is unrealistic in general. It's not like there is a centralized list where everyone's friends and relationships are documented. And even if there was the government agency required to staff it would be ridiculous. You would literally have to trick a moronic populous into entering their own information into a database of sorts. -MZ

    2. Re:Like Mccarhty? by volodymyrbiryuk · · Score: 4, Insightful

      In that kind of environment it would be enought to have people snitch on people they don't like, telling about that one 'suspicious' friend the other person has. It worked in the Soviet Union and in the GDR. Why wouldn't it work in the US.

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  3. Sins of the Father by TWX · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I thought we weren't supposed to punish children for sins of the father, or the mother, or other family members. We were supposed to punish people for their own sins only.

    --
    Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    1. Re:Sins of the Father by TFlan91 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      In America, sure, for instance, you do not inherit your parents debt when they pass away.

      But this is China. Literally a world apart. "Family shame" is a very pervasive concept in Asia

  4. Meh... by sycodon · · Score: 5, Informative

    We already have something like this

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    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
  5. It's a communist dictatorship by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As communist dictatorships go, this little thing in this story is pretty mild.

    Beats taking him out to a ditch and shooting him because he is an "intellectual" who might mislead the proletariat.

    Again, it's a communist dictatorship. The government could have literally ordered that he not be allowed to be born. And they do that very thing, with their population control policy.

  6. Apply our own 'social credit score' on China by Sebby · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Since China insists on inflicting a "social score" on their citizens, I think the rest of the world should do the same on China

    Wanna export your products here? Sorry, our "social score" for China prohibits us from doing so

    Want our companies to use your workforce? Oh, sorry, China's "social score" doesn't allow for our companies to do business with it

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    AC comments get piped to /dev/null
    1. Re:Apply our own 'social credit score' on China by TFlan91 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      As bad as America looks right now, it is still by far a better place to live than China.

      Just because America is showing a bit of nastiness that's been hiding under the rug for the last half century, doesn't mean the rest of the world is any better.

      Where I live now, in eastern Europe, it is incredibly racist, unbelievably so, but the difference is that most people share those opinions so you don't have public outrage over a racist incident, people just nod their head in silent agreement and move on.