Netizens outraged over violations of people's privacy and civil rights

SHANGHAI - The first regulation concerning citizens' credit in China has resulted in government officials posting the financial information of more than 3,000 people online and in newspapers, prompting outrage from netizens and civil law experts.

The new "personal credit rating system" was introduced by the Suining county government on Jan 1.

Last week, thousands of citizens' credit records were listed both on the government website and in the local newspaper, with their real name, gender, address and scores of credit fined or gained within the past two months.

Two-thirds of the postings covered citizens' misbehaviors, including intentionally defaulting on electric bills and loans, breaking traffic laws, giving birth to more babies than the family-planning policy permits, taking bribes and running illegal stalls. Each delinquency will be fined with a score ranging from 10 to 50 points.

One of the postings, for example, was for Gu Zishuang, a citizen from Suining couty, Jiangsu province, who had 420 "credit points" deducted for not repaying his loans 14 times from January to February. He received a D-level honesty label, the lowest one, from the local government.

The remaining posts included was a list of awards and good deeds, like being a volunteer, helping to take care for orphans or receiving an award. A national award can earn the winner a 100 score.

The full score will be 1,000 points, and every citizen will be given a credit label from A to D, according to their scores. Those who achieve the A level will have a greater priority in terms of career promotion, school entrance and social security application.

Meanwhile, a D-level citizen, like Gu, also defined as a "dishonest" citizen by the office, will be stripped of the opportunity for assistance from the community and also cannot apply for a business license.

"We want to create a system that reminds people that being honest and credible will benefit your life in the long run, and vice versa, cheating and dishonesty will do you harm," Wang Tianqi, secretary for Suining county, said before the regulation came into effect.

Most netizens thought it naive and unfair to rate a citizen through the regulation, pointing out that those who received extra scores were mainly officers from the government.

"Publishing citizens' information, especially such private information, has infringed upon their privacy. It is against the law," said Fu Dingsheng, a specialist on civil law and also a professor from East China University of Political Science and Law.

Despite the local government's efforts to trail everyone's credibility through the launch of such a rating system, most of the citizens in Suining county, even those whose names and records have been published, are unaware of the new system, according to a story in the Southern Metropolis Daily.

Some 800,000 yuan ($117,200) was spent by the Suining government to develop this rating system, while "It is unprecedented in China", officials said.