China’s much-maligned (but widely misunderstood) social credit system underwent its most recent update in March 2025 with the publication of a 23-point policy directive by the Communist Party leadership.
Over time, it has evolved into a wide-ranging infrastructure involving public databases, industry-specific blacklists, and administrative scoring tools. While often portrayed abroad as a unified, Orwellian surveillance program, Chinese officials and many experts describe it as a fragmented, largely bureaucratic effort to strengthen contract enforcement and public trust.
