China Pilot Program Ranking Citizens Based On Shopping Habits, Traffic Violations

03:31

November 29, 2016

A busy street scene shows a crowd of people rushing to work in central Beijing, April 19, 2007. Beijing's local government is among the three dozen beginning to collect data to rate creditworthiness. (Teh Eng Koon/AFP/Getty Images)

In Hangzhou, China, the local government is testing a social ranking system that scores citizens based on everything from whether they jaywalk to their credit worthiness.

The social credit system determines which services people can get, and what they can be denied. The Communist Party hopes to adopt the system nationwide by 2020.

Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson speaks with Jason Bellini (@jasonbellini) of the Wall Street Journal about how the system works.

This segment aired on November 29, 2016.