Supreme People’s Court has launched an online platform for publishing information on credit defaulters, including those banned from purchasing tickets for planes and high-speed trains.
At the moment, there are already around 10.7 million credit defaulters published, both companies and private persons can be listed. In addition to the exact number of defaulters, their full name and partial ID numbers are also displayed in a rolling way. The system is accessible for everyone. One can easily search for those who for example did not pay the compensation ordered by a court – by name, ID number, or province.
According to the Supreme Court, the data on the platform is daily updated in exchange with databases of the courts and other databases for credit defaulters. The consequences for credit defaulters –“lao lai” in Chinese – are severe. Not only are they restricted from taking planes, trains, or carrying out real estate transactions. Their families are affected too – e.g., their children cannot be enrolled in private schools. Their bank accounts can be frozen; their pictures and names can be published by local police stations. Finally, general real-time statistics of cases handled by courts and number of new cases are also available on the platform.
Setting aside the implications of privacy issues for both citizens and companies in China, and the possible abuse of personal data, this platform can and should be used by Western companies for their due diligence activities. Before closing a contract with a new supplier or client, companies can use this reliable source of information for checking whether the new partner is trustworthy.
Source: Announcement of the Supreme People’s Court of the PRC
Picture: iStock
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