China Now Has the “World’s Largest Social Credit System”

China’s sprawling credit system is now the “world’s largest”, State media outlet Xinhua just reported.

The People’s Bank of China deputy governor Zhu Hexin told Xinhua that the system has information on “990 million individuals and 25.91 million enterprises and organizations, accumulatively”, all of whom have involved themselves in credit activities in some way.

The report doesn’t specify which activities those are, however, but emphasizes the usefulness of the information in business activities specifically, like “forestalling financial risks and ensuring financial stability”, said Zhu.

Related:

Into the Black Mirror: The Truth Behind China’s Social Credit System

China’s social credit system is a policy project meant to expand various credit-based services around the country, but its unclear how the various initiatives and information they gather are consolidated into a single format.

Jeremy Daum, the founder of China Law Translate and senior research scholar at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai Center, told us it’s unlikely the government would collect information from people using Sesame Credit, for instance.

If you’re confused and want to know more, check out our full piece on China’s social credit system linked above.