Chinese social credit system bans millions from taking trains, flying

Millions of Chinese citizens have now been banned from travelling by air or train as the government continues to expand its social credit system, the South China Morning Post reports.

China is rolling out a social credit system that assigns "personal trustworthiness points" to its citizens as a way to monitoring the public and businesses.

Trustworthy individuals are to be provided with more access to society, while individuals who are blacklisted will be severely restricted, Reuters reports.
An official blacklist released by China's National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System has also banned more than 3.59 million Chinese businesses in 2018 from accessing financial markets, issuing corporate bonds or taking part in land auctions.

About 17.46 million people were not allowed to purchase airline tickets, while 5.47 million weren't allowed to buy tickets for high-speed trains, according to the blacklist.

The South China Morning Post cites the blacklist as saying individuals and business were punished for behaviours such as failing to repay loans, false or misleading advertising, or defrauding customers.

China plans to fully implement its social credit system by 2020.