Anxiety about "lost basket" of dishonesty

Investigation of Generalized Chaos in Credit Discipline

  Our reporters Wang Juejiu and Pan Ye

  Following last year's "blood donation plus credit points" caused heated discussion, during this year's epidemic prevention and control, the topic of credit management brushed a wave of presence.

  The reporter combed the "Credit China" website and found that many places have introduced regulations that list the history of concealed epidemics, contact history, etc. as dishonest behaviors, and collect the dishonest information to the national credit information platform. Nanjing, Xiamen and other places will also refuse to implement closed-end management of the community, deliberately not to wear masks in public places, etc., and be deemed to be untrustworthy.

  In recent years, the tentacles of social credit management have extended to all aspects of residents' lives. While refining social governance, it also caused people to worry about the generalization of credit punishment.

  The reporter learned that as social credit innovation presses the "fast forward button", chaos such as excessive discipline and credit abuse appears to varying degrees. In some places, credit construction is driven solely by documents, and “documents are used to implement documents”; in other places, petitions and investment promotion are included in the credit evaluation, which has caused a large negative impact.

  Where is the credit boundary? How is credit abused? Why can't we distinguish credit and credit? What is the shortcoming of the current credit system construction? The reporter conducted an in-depth investigation on this.

Credit information has gradually become a "big basket"

  Credit, the concept that first appeared in the economic field, is now closely related to daily life.

  According to the statistics of reporters, since 2019, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shaanxi, Shenzhen, Beijing and other places have issued new credit regulations. Some localities have also introduced their own "local credit scores", such as the "Western Chu Score" in Suqian, the "Huixin Score" in Hangzhou, the "Jasmine Score" in Fuzhou, and the "Egret Score" in Xiamen.

  These various credit scores also incorporate various social performances into the statistics, and are directly linked to school admission, employment, and social assistance. It can be said that all aspects of the social life of ordinary people have been shrouded in the net of credit.

  The ever-expanding credit boundary has caused people to worry and question. In November last year, the National Health and Health Commission, the Central Bank, and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission successively included unpaid blood donations and ETC arrears as credits for "addition and subtraction."

  "Unpaid blood donation is included in the credit information system", "Unpaid blood donation becomes a personal credit plus item", "ETC arrears will be reported to the credit information" and other topics, and has been on the Weibo hot search in turn, with hundreds of millions of views.

  Online voting initiated by multiple media shows that over 70% of netizens believe that the concept of credit may be generalized or even abused. Reporters in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Anhui and other places found that most people did not agree with the generalization of disciplinary punishment. Some citizens bluntly said that social credit management should not become a "big basket" that can be installed in everything.

  Credit problems are highly correlated with people's lives and attention is also high. The reason why social credit management in some places has been criticized has been dubbed the all-encompassing "big basket", mainly from two aspects of doubt:

  First of all, can all social issues be included in social credit management in the name of "civilization", "morality" and "integrity"?

  For example, running a red light, bus dominance, not "going home often", and arrears of property fees are all regulated by special laws and regulations, and a credit lock is added. Although it is convenient for managers, it is tantamount to double punishment.

  Secondly, punishment for dishonesty is too arbitrary, how to avoid the extravagance of "local policy"? In some places, punishment for dishonesty includes restrictions on applying for public office, children’s school enrollment, and credit application. The scale is debatable.

  At present, the doubts about the credit system in society have aroused great concern from the competent authorities. Since there is no unified credit legislation and concept interpretation at the national level, the public's confusion and doubts about credit may continue.

  Professor Wang Wei of the Central Party School (National School of Administration) believes that in order to solve the current "pan-creditization" problem, the problems of "what to install" and "how to install" must be solved.

  The "generalization" of the recognition of dishonesty, that is, what illegal acts should be regarded as dishonesty? What is the legal basis? The current legislation is not clear enough and the boundaries are not clear enough.

  "For some minor violations, stricter disciplinary measures are taken, which does not meet the rule of law principles such as equal fines and no joint penalty." Wang Wei said.

Criticized for lack of regulation

  A reporter's investigation found that with the continuous acceleration of the credit system construction, the shortcomings of lack of regulation of credit management were gradually exposed.

  On the one hand, behaviors that are clearly unsuitable for credit management are also adjusted by the credit mechanism, which has aroused public debate. Yao Zhenglu, chairman of the Legal Committee of the Nanjing Municipal People's Congress, introduced that the disciplinary and disciplinary mechanism, as one of the "core components" of social credit, can achieve the "immediate effect" implementation effect, which allows local governments to see a powerful "catch."

  In some places, the enthusiasm for promoting disciplinary and disciplinary innovation is very high. In fact, in many places, “policy innovation” is not prudent enough, and the interpretation of social credit construction is arbitrary.

  In some places, in the credit scoring system, there are even provisions for "additional points for investment promotion" and "deduction of points for trouble-making visits and frequent visits". Once the behavior of petitioners is assessed as a serious breach of trust, it will be restricted everywhere, such as restricting appraisal, first appraisal, postponement of job titles, and restricting participation in government bidding.

  On the other hand, for innovation and innovation, credit management has become an "extra large toolbox." The reporter noticed that in some places and industries, the construction of credit construction has been vigorously promoted, and various systems such as government integrity, business integrity, social integrity, and judicial credibility have sprung up. In particular, some local governments are scrambling to become "pilots" and "demonstrations," and have the urge to make innovations in the credit system by "ingenuity."

  In response to the issue of "generalization of disciplinary punishment", Lin Junyue, deputy director of the Expert Committee of the Beijing Credit Association, pointed out that the current social credit system construction has advanced to a new stage. Some of the measures taken now seem to be suspected of crossing the border.

Layers of documents are difficult to implement

  The cross-sectoral and cross-industry intersection should have been the most important place for credit management, but it is precisely in these areas that credit policies are often not promoted and stay on paper.

  Within the credit unit, there are also sayings that "the most important thing to manage" is "the internal circulation of documents and the implementation cannot be achieved in three levels".

  Due to the government's operation is divided by ministries, commissions and lines, the cross-cutting areas of the departments have become high-profile areas of "construction on paper". Taking scientific research integrity management as an example, from 1980 to the present, the central government and various ministries and commissions have issued more than 100 scientific research integrity policies.

  In September 2019, the Ministry of Science and Technology spearheaded the issuance of the "Investigation and Processing Rules for Research Integrity Cases (Trial)", which clearly stated that the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Academy of Social Sciences coordinated the investigation and processing of research integrity cases in the natural sciences and philosophy and social sciences respectively.

  Local science and technology departments quickly issued corresponding "provincial documents" and set up a special "research integrity construction office" as "implementation" of the central documents.

  Reporters learned from many universities and scientific research institutions in Nanjing that the main body of plagiarism and academic misconduct are mostly individuals, and the handling of these scientifically broken trustees by grassroots units is often limited to the inside of the unit, and they do not even know that they need to report information to higher authorities.

  "Such a situation is not a case. Credit construction is in full swing, but it is more common to convey documents and issue documents even if they are implemented. Some departments involve the "red head documents" of the theme of credit, and even only circulate internally, and some policies use "confidential documents". 'For the reason, the people can't see at all, the communication level is basically only three levels, and the policy effectiveness is at most three years." Yao Zhenglu said.

  Unlike economic credit, social credit coverage is extensive and complex. While providing managers with a new "hand", there are also huge challenges. Once social credit is abused in a generalized manner, it not only has the disadvantage of lazy politics, but also weakens the seriousness of the credit system.

  Why the public is not clear

  Why are some explorations intended to reward integrity and restrain untrustworthy, but it is difficult to get public approval? The reporter's investigation found that to solve the problem of credit recognition, three obstacles need to be removed:

  ——The two credit systems are confused with each other. It is understood that there are two sets of credit systems in China: one is the central bank's financial credit information basic database, that is, the popular "credit", which is related to people's credit card overdue and other economic activities; the other is the social credit system led by the National Development and Reform Commission. Related to all aspects of social life, such as the inclusion of hegemony and blood donation into credit.

  In fact, many people have doubts about "credit" and misunderstand social credit as bank credit. Yao Zhenglu introduced that the limits and differences between social credit and credit reporting are not enough to popularize the public. In practice, the two systems do have the problem of unclear doping.

  For example, when explaining the inclusion of unpaid blood donation into credit records, some staff members claimed that blood donors can also enjoy preferential treatment in financial activities. They were suspected of misuse of credit reporting, confusing "credit", "integrity" and "morality". China’s credit system put the disciplinary and incentive measures in the wrong basket.

  At present, different regions and departments have different definitions of the meaning of credit. The public has no way of knowing the difference, and it is even more difficult to say acceptance and enforcement.

  ——The concept is confusing and unclear. The reporter searched with the words "credit" and "credit" and found that from 1949 to the present, there have been as many as 4,400 relevant laws and regulations promulgated by the central and local governments. Most credit-related clauses exist in various management regulations such as contracts, fire protection, and properties in a sporadic manner.

  Some documents are too general, and even have different regulations for the same behavior. For example, various places explored to record information about rented houses without registration in the credit reporting system, and included unpaid blood donation into the social credit reporting system. They wanted to express the relationship between untrustworthy behavior and social credit, but actually expressed it as “incorporated into the credit reporting system”.

  In addition, there are differences in expression between regions. For example, for those who refuse to comply with the garbage classification regulations, Changzhou and Guiyang are included in the social credit platform, while Shenzhen is included in the credit information system.

  ——The credit boundary is blurred. Wang Lu, the former deputy director of the Central Bank Credit Information Center, once said that the “unsound social credit system” has become a “big basket” to absorb problems and shirk responsibility. Often when it comes to problems, it is "lack of credit" and "problems with social integrity." The hope of correcting all dishonesty, market violations, and even cracking down on crimes and crimes is placed on the establishment of a "social credit system", and we look forward to "achieving a single victory".

Only understanding can achieve consensus

  To achieve effective results in the construction and reform of my country's credit system, it is necessary to strengthen propaganda and guidance so that the concept is clear and the distinction is clear. Only when the public understands and understands can they support and follow, and form a social consensus as soon as possible.

  Yao Zhenglu believes that to strengthen the popularization of credit, it is necessary to concentrate on three levels of preparation: first, theoretical preparation, changing social credit practice far faster than the status quo of theory, and forming a unified conceptual recognition system; second, subject preparation, breaking Barriers to related research in administrative law and economics, encouraging the multidisciplinary integration of colleges and universities, and setting social credit boundaries and basic principles as important goals; also preparing for publicity to publicize the importance of the Chinese social credit system to the public , Timely absorb and feedback the public opinions.

  Wang Wei believes that the current construction of the social credit system is embodied in the economic credit system in the financial field and the public credit system in the social field. Through the strict definition of legislation, it is necessary for the public to understand what they are doing and managing.

  The basic database of financial credit information led by the central bank follows the concept of "credit" in the traditional economic society of developed countries. Its connotation and concept are relatively mature and clear, and it has been widely accepted.

  At the same time, my country's social credit system can use expressions such as "public credit" with a clear distinction to play a leading role in the concept to avoid confusion with the credit system in the financial sector. The illegal acts that need to be recorded in the credit record can be expressed as being recorded in the public credit file and publicized.

  Experts in credit market institutions believe that various local and industry credit laws and documents are the ultimate basis for specific credit practices. Issues such as misrepresentation and concept fights must be resolved as soon as possible, and the unclear concept of credit should be clearly unified.

  Experts suggest that the national competent department should be responsible for unifying and standardizing the language of documents related to credit terms, and explaining the credit documents that have been issued by the original issuing department to the public as soon as possible.

Urgently need to introduce the upper law

  On May 1 this year, the "Henan Provincial Social Credit Regulations" began to take effect. This is the second provincial comprehensive social credit regulation after Shanghai.

  Compared with the existing regulations in other provinces, this regulation establishes for the first time in the country a punishment mechanism for blacklisting for abuse of authority.

  The interviewed experts also believe that the current social credit generally has "chaotic, scattered, mixed" ills, an important reason is the lack of top-level regulations.

  Although many places have “tested” credit legislation, at the national level, new regulations have not been introduced except for the “Credit Management Regulations” issued in 2013 and the “Provisional Regulations on Corporate Information Publication” issued in 2014.

  Specifically, social credit legislation at the national level should play a guiding role in two ways:

  On the one hand, in the form of a "negative list" it is clear what should not be managed, and the credit boundary is strictly framed.

  Wang Wei and Yao Zhenglu said that on the basis of strengthening the study of social credit theory, the consensus of society and academia on the boundary of social credit governance should be clear in legal form.

  On the other hand, clarify the implementation principles of credit rewards and punishment measures, so that credit governance is not out of the ordinary.

  Wang Limin, a spokesman for the Standing Committee of the Nanjing Municipal People's Congress, said that joint credit incentives and punishments, as “enforcement clauses” in credit legislation, are directly related to the public interest, and their rationality and operability have a demonstrative effect on local credit regulations.

  Wang Limin suggested to clarify the "relevance principle", "proportional principle" and "responsibility principle" for credit rewards and punishments: that is, the scope of rewards and punishments must be clearly linked to direct behavior, the degree of rewards and punishments is consistent with the severity of the behavior, and the persons responsible for credit rewards and punishments are strictly defined and not transferred.

  In addition, it is recommended to stipulate the time limit for inquiry of untrustworthy information, introduce the right to actively repair untrustworthy, and encourage untrustworthy people to improve.