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Hebei, a Northern Chinese Province, Unveils an App That Triggers a Notification When You're Near Someone in Debt (standard.co.uk)
China is gearing up to launch a social credit system in 2020, giving all citizens an identity number that will be linked to a permanent record. Like a financial score, everything from paying back loans to behaviour on public transport will be included. One aspect of this social credit system is a new app in the northern province of Hebei. From a report: According to the state-run newspaper China Daily, the Hebei-based app will alert people if there are in 500 metres of someone in debt. It's like being on Oxford Street and being able to work out everyone around you who was in debt. According to the financial charity, the Money Charity, the average UK household debt (including mortgages) was $76,000, in June last year. That's a lot of notifications.
China has seemingly made a policy of enforcing social shaming and isolation by using surveillance to make the effects transmissible by proximity, i.e. you go to a place undesirables live or hang out, or talk to or even sell things to undesirables, you become an undesirable yourself. Some reports suggest that this policy has been used to great effect in Xinjiang, leading to a situation where the population is so afraid of being blacklisted they will shun anyone they even think might be out of the government's favor. I suspect there is a similar aim with this, and that its true purpose is not to you know you are around debtors, but to remind you that the government knows you are around debtors. Hang out with them too much and your own credit may start to go down.