A lengthy article in the London Times explains how the CCP exploited the COVID pandemic to massively expand monitoring of its own citizens and introduce new methods by which they could be punished for committing COVID-related infractions that didn’t rise to the level of criminal acts.
Some of the newly introduced transgressions which lead to social credit score points deductions and travel bans include failing to wear a mask in public (10 point deduction) and failure to self-isolate (50 point deduction).
“Those who made the blacklist were punished by a variety of measures, including prohibition from buying flights, high-speed rail travel and luxury hotel bookings,” reports the Times.
“Citizens with the lowest scores can be barred from government employment, and businesses can be excluded from subsidies or participation in government procurement programmes,” the report adds.
People in some areas of the country “caught hiding virus symptoms, concealing the details of their recent travel, avoiding medical treatment or having contact with suspected patients had their misdemeanours added to their personal social credit file.”
Mirroring social media censorship and actual government legislation in the west that seeks to punish people for spreading “conspiracy theories” or “misinformation,” China likewise deducts social credit score points for “spreading rumours,” a punishment that was inflicted upon medical workers and journalists who blew the whistle on China trying to hide the outbreak in the early days of the pandemic.
“The bar for falling foul of the social credit system was much lower than for breaking the law,” according to the report. “During one month last year, 96 infringements of Covid-related rules, such as the concealment of travel history, were recorded by the Shanghai government. Only nine were deemed serious enough to warrant criminal proceedings, but all were made public online and attached to the individuals’ credit records.”
British MP Bob Seely summed up the desired effect of the program, which is to “(encourage) people not to question the system because otherwise you will face a myriad of problems and complications in your daily life.”...<<<Read The Full Article Here>>>...