The government should take the lead in rebuilding a social credit system, said a signed article in Beijing Youth Daily. An excerpt follows:

The market economy is credit-based economy. Individual credit, enterprise credit and government credit all go to form social credit. As the nation has witnessed unprecedented economic growth in recent years, it has also seen many social problems related to social credit. A lack of credit has directly led to an increase in transaction costs and then impeded economic development. The government has paid great attention to it and the 16th National Congress of Communist Party of China in 2002 also set the task to "rectifying and standardizing the order of the market economy and establishing a social credit-rating system."

But rather than building their own credit-rating system, some administrative departments point their fingers at related enterprises and individual citizens. Such credit building has turned out to be an unilateral compulsory credit. For example, the much-disputed practice of "putting overdue phone bills records into citizens' credit files" was made by the central bank and the Ministry of Information Industry. The essence of this system is to require individual citizens to unilaterally meet the requirements set by monopoly enterprises. In such circumstances, citizens have become subject to the administrative departments' discretion. This is undoubtedly unfair.

The building of social credit rating system can not only target individual citizens, as the three parties of government, enterprises and individuals are inter-related. We should realize that the government should take the lead in building sound credit because its credit is in the core position. A lack of credit on the part of the government will have a negative impact on society.

It is quite often that administrative departments lose their credits. For example the intermediate people's court of Yinchuan, Ningxia, sent out ultimatums to 48 defendants who failed to perform their legal obligations lately. Some government departments were on the list. It is a pity that the central bank has not built a credit rating system to make a record of these administrative departments.

We should base the credit-rating system on laws rather than on administrative orders. The building of a credit system and a related legal system will promote the development of each other. The Regulation on Government Information Publicity can be an opportunity to build government credit. It provides necessary conditions and opportunities for citizens to supervise the government.

(China Daily April 30, 2007)