China: Opinions of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council on Improving the Social Credit System

Issued on March 21, 2025

The social credit system is a basic system of the market economy. In order to improve the social credit system, with the approval of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, the following opinions are hereby put forward.

I. General requirements

We will continue to be guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, thoroughly implement the spirit of the 20th CPC National Congress and the Second and Third Plenary Sessions of the 20th CPC Central Committee, uphold and strengthen the Party’s leadership, adhere to the general working guideline of seeking progress while maintaining stability, fully, accurately and comprehensively implement the new development concept, adhere to government guidance, market-driven, and social co-construction, adhere to the promotion of a culture of integrity, adhere to the mutual integration of public credit information and market credit information, adhere to reasonable and legal credit rewards and punishments, build a social credit system that covers all types of entities, has unified systems and rules, and is jointly built, shared and used, promote the deep integration of the social credit system with all aspects and links of economic and social development, and provide strong support for accelerating the construction of a unified national market, maintaining a fair, orderly and competitive market order, and promoting high-quality development.

II. Building a social credit system covering all types of entities

(1) Deepen the construction of government credit.

Improve the government’s credit performance mechanism, carry out government credit evaluation, improve the government’s dishonest behavior identification standards and dishonest punishment measures. If the government and its departments (including subordinate units) have dishonest behavior in the fields of public resource transactions, investment promotion, talent introduction, government-social capital cooperation, industrial support, investment financing, and enterprise-related charges, they will be included in the credit record according to regulations, and their application for various fiscal funds and projects, pilot demonstrations, and awards will be restricted. Effectively play the role of the abnormal list of public institutions and improve the level of honesty and self-discipline of public institutions. Strengthen the integrity management and education of public officials.

(2) Strengthen the credit establishment of business entities.

Strengthen the credit management of business entities, support business entities to improve compliance management systems, control credit risks, and guide business entities to operate in good faith and keep their promises. Establish a comprehensive evaluation system for corporate credit status based on comprehensive public credit evaluation. Strengthen the disclosure of credit status of state-owned enterprises on the premise of ensuring confidentiality and security of sensitive information. Encourage business entities to proactively provide credit information to credit service agencies and continuously improve credit records.

(3) Accelerate the credit building of social organizations.

Strengthen the management, sharing, and disclosure of credit information of social organizations, strengthen the credit supervision of social organizations, guide social organizations to be honest and self-disciplined, and improve the level of internal governance. Industry competent departments and business supervisory units should promote industry associations and chambers of commerce to strengthen the construction of integrity, guide industry associations and chambers of commerce to carry out credit evaluation and other activities in accordance with laws and regulations, and give full play to their role in guiding the behavior of members, constraining rules, and safeguarding rights and interests.

(4) Promote the establishment of natural person credits in an orderly manner.

Establish and improve natural person credit records in accordance with laws and regulations. Accelerate the establishment of credit management systems for key professional groups such as practitioners in the fields of law, finance, accounting, auditing, medical care, education, housekeeping, engineering construction, ecological environment, platform economy, and those who have obtained national professional qualifications. Localities and departments with conditions may carry out natural person credit evaluations, which can be used as a reference for providing incentive policies for trustworthy entities. It is strictly prohibited to include non-credit information and personal private information in credit evaluations.

(5) Comprehensively strengthen the credit construction of the judicial law enforcement system.

Strengthen the judicial credibility of courts and procuratorates and improve judicial credibility. Increase judicial openness in accordance with the law and protect the people’s right to know. Strengthen the credit construction of judicial law enforcement personnel and establish a credit record and credit commitment system for law enforcement personnel. Increase the cost of false litigation, illegality and dishonesty. Strictly implement the identification procedures for dishonest persons subject to enforcement and optimize relevant dishonest punishment measures.

III. Strengthening the data foundation of the social credit system

(6) Establish a comprehensive, complete and accurate credit record. Strictly define the scope of public credit information. Industry authorities should determine the public credit information in this field and form industry credit records based on laws, administrative regulations, local regulations or policy documents of the Party Central Committee and the State Council. For information that is dishonest, the severity of the dishonesty should be classified and clarified. Public credit information should be uniformly managed in a catalogue, and the National Development and Reform Commission should compile and establish complete credit records for relevant entities.

(7) Strengthen the collection and sharing of credit information.

Strengthen the “general hub” function of the national credit information sharing platform for the collection and sharing of credit information, adhere to sharing as the principle and non-sharing as the exception, uniformly collect credit information in various fields, provide credit information services to relevant departments according to needs and regulations, and regularly conduct collection and sharing quality and efficiency evaluation. Promote the deep connection and data sharing between the national credit information sharing platform and the industry credit information system. Research and strengthen the application of blockchain and other technologies in credit information management and other aspects, and improve the sharing level of commercial contract information, industrial chain information, transaction information, etc. on the premise of protecting the legitimate rights and interests of credit subjects and information security.

(8) Establish a unified public disclosure system for public credit information.

Establish unified public disclosure standards and rules for public credit information.

The “Credit China” website centrally discloses various types of public credit information, and industry regulatory departments shall, in principle, no longer disclose public credit information outside of their own business areas. The “Credit China” website provides public credit information query services to the public in accordance with the principle of public welfare. For public credit information that has been disclosed on the “Credit China” website, credit service agencies shall ensure that the credit information used is the same as the disclosed content and the same period.

(9) Promote the open circulation of public credit information in an orderly manner.

Formulate management measures for authorized operation of public credit information, support qualified operating institutions to carry out public credit information resource development, product operation and technical services in accordance with authorization, and strictly prohibit the unauthorized and excessive use of public credit information. Establish standards and rules for access to the circulation of public credit information. Encourage business entities to provide public welfare services based on public credit information in accordance with laws and regulations. Explore the establishment of a reasonable sharing mechanism for the value and benefits of public credit information, and safeguard the rights and interests of public credit information assets in accordance with laws and regulations. Encourage the sharing of public credit information, mutual recognition of credit evaluation, and coordination of credit rewards and punishments among regions.

(10) Strengthen the security protection of credit information.

Establish a credit information security management traceability and infringement liability investigation mechanism, and clarify the security responsibilities of each link in the information transmission chain. Strictly implement security protection responsibilities and standardize credit information processing procedures. Improve the security management level of credit information infrastructure. Establish and improve a credit information security emergency response mechanism.

IV. Improve the mechanism for rewarding trustworthiness and punishing dishonesty

(11) Strengthen incentives for trustworthy behavior.

Build a comprehensive credit incentive policy environment to provide convenience or preferential treatment for trustworthy entities in public services. Encourage platform companies to make good use of big data resources to accurately provide market-oriented and social incentives for trustworthy entities. Support financial institutions to deeply explore the value of credit information and continuously improve the level of financing convenience for trustworthy entities.

(12) Carry out punishment for dishonesty in accordance with laws and regulations.

Standardize the establishment of punishment measures for dishonesty, and reasonably determine the scope and intensity of punishment in accordance with laws and regulations.

The establishment of punishment measures for dishonesty and the establishment of lists of serious dishonest entities must be based on laws, administrative regulations, local regulations or policy documents of the Party Central Committee and the State Council. Among them, measures that reduce the rights or increase the obligations of credit entities must be based on laws, administrative regulations and local regulations. The competent departments of the industry shall clarify the conditions and procedures for inclusion and withdrawal from the list of serious dishonest entities in the form of departmental regulations. Those included in the list of serious dishonest entities shall be restricted or prohibited in accordance with laws and regulations in applying for government funds, enjoying tax incentives, participating in public resource trading activities, issuing stocks and bonds, evaluating advanced and excellent, recruiting, selecting, transferring and appointing civil servants, and open recruitment of public institutions. Add lists of serious dishonest entities in the fields of real estate market, Internet, human resources market, and medium- and long-term energy contracts. Implement unified management of lists for dishonest punishment measures and lists of serious dishonest entities.

(13) Improve a unified credit repair system.

Establish and improve a unified, standardized, collaborative, shared, scientific and efficient credit repair system to encourage dishonest entities to proactively correct dishonest behavior.

The National Development and Reform Commission will take the lead in unifying the channels for credit information disclosure and repair, optimizing credit repair rules, and strengthening repair coordination among judicial organs, industry regulatory departments, and credit service agencies. For credit entities that have completed repair, their dishonest information should be promptly stopped from being publicized, they should be removed from the relevant dishonest lists, and relevant dishonest punishment measures should be lifted in accordance with laws and regulations.

V. Improve the credit-based supervision and governance mechanism

(14) Implementing tiered and classified supervision based on credit evaluation.

The National Development and Reform Commission will take the lead in improving the credit evaluation system. The competent departments of various regions and industries will improve the credit evaluation mechanism of their respective regions and industries based on the comprehensive public credit evaluation, optimize the supervision methods based on the evaluation results, and implement differentiated supervision on different types of credit entities.

(15) Establish and improve the credit commitment system.

Promote the credit commitment system in the fields of administrative approval, certification matters, credit repair, etc. When handling matters subject to the credit commitment system, if the applicant’s application materials are partially incomplete but the applicant’s credit status is good and the applicant has made a written commitment to provide the materials within the prescribed time limit, the application should be accepted first. Establish a credit commitment implementation tracking mechanism. Guide credit entities to actively make credit commitments to the society.

(16) Promote the in-depth application of credit reports.

Promote the full use of credit reports in public management fields such as market access, administrative approval, government procurement, investment promotion, and qualification review. Vigorously promote the use of special credit reports to replace certificates of whether there are any illegal or irregular records. Encourage the use of credit reports in market transactions such as bidding, financing and credit, and commercial transactions.

(17) Strengthen credit supervision of contracts signed under the guidance of the government.

Strengthen contract performance tracking and verification, and timely collect the performance of contracts signed under the guidance of the government to the national credit information sharing platform. The National Development and Reform Commission will include the verified contract performance into the credit records of relevant entities to effectively improve the level of contract performance.

(18) Promote credit-enabled grassroots governance.

Strengthen the construction of the rural credit system, strengthen the collection and sharing of agricultural credit information, clarify collection responsibilities, optimize and streamline collection indicators and evaluation rules, and improve the credit evaluation level of farmers and new agricultural operators. Promote credit-enabled community governance and support the construction of credit parks and neighborhoods.

(19) Improve the laws, regulations and systems of the social credit system.

Improve the unified social credit code system, further clarify the code-assigning departments of various entities, and improve the code-assigning data sharing and verification mechanism. Formulate a national unified credit information management standard. Promote the promulgation of the Social Credit Construction Law and promote the inclusion of credit rules in relevant special laws and regulations. Strengthen the comprehensive evaluation before the promulgation of credit policies to prevent the generalization and abuse of credit management measures.

VI. Improving the marketization and socialization of the social credit system

(20) Vigorously cultivate the credit service market.

Innovate business models such as credit evaluation, credit rating, credit scoring, credit reporting, credit verification, credit management, credit consulting, and environmental, social and governance evaluation to effectively support the development of the credit economy. Standardize the behavior of credit service institutions in participating in the construction of the social credit system. Support the financial credit information basic database to collect credit information in the financial field in accordance with the law, and provide more convenient and high-quality basic credit reporting services. Optimize the layout of the personal credit reporting market and increase the supply of personal credit reporting products and services. Improve and refine the corporate credit reporting market, and explore the development of corporate credit reporting institutions that focus on niche areas. Comprehensively strengthen credit reporting supervision and promote the standardized and healthy development of the credit reporting industry.

(21) Deepen the promotion of credit financing and credit transactions.

Relying on the national integrated financing credit service platform network, expand the scope of credit information collection and sharing according to actual application needs, improve the credit information-based corporate financing credit enhancement system, effectively increase the proportion of credit loans for small and medium-sized enterprises, and support qualified credit reporting agencies to participate in the operation of financing credit service platforms. Encourage credit service agencies to collect commercial contract performance information in accordance with laws and regulations, and support the orderly promotion of credit sales models such as credit sales, installment payments, and financial leasing. Strengthen the disclosure of commercial bill information and improve the credit constraint mechanism of the bill market. In accordance with laws and regulations, business entities that maliciously evade debts will be included in the list of relevant serious dishonest entities.

(22) Strengthen credit establishment in the platform economy.

Strengthen the sharing of public credit information and platform enterprise business information, guide platform enterprises to establish a credit management system within the platform and a joint constraint system for dishonesty between platforms, implement differentiated management and services based on the credit status of merchants within the platform, provide more preferential facilities for law-abiding and honest business entities, and restrict illegal and dishonest business entities within the platform rules. Strengthen credit supervision of online anchors, self-media, and multi-channel distribution service agencies (MCN agencies) for online information content.

(23) Public Credit Information System Should Serve high-level opening up.

On the premise of ensuring security, promote the cross-border circulation of credit information data in accordance with laws and regulations, carry out cross-border credit cooperation in an orderly manner, and promote cross-border mutual recognition of credit products such as credit evaluation and credit reports. Support domestic credit service institutions to carry out independent and fair third-party credit service cooperation with countries participating in the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative and BRICS countries. Strengthen international credit exchange and actively cultivate credit institutions with international competitiveness and influence. Promote the international development of domestic credit rating agencies.

VII. Strengthening organization and implementation

All regions and relevant departments should implement this Opinion in light of their actual conditions under the centralized and unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee, and form a work pattern of top-down linkage, each doing its own job, and joint management. The National Development and Reform Commission and the People’s Bank of China should strengthen overall coordination, and all relevant departments should earnestly fulfill their credit construction responsibilities in their respective fields to form a joint force. Coordinate the creation of national social credit system construction demonstration zones, and establish and improve the post-evaluation mechanism of demonstration zones. Continue to carry out urban credit monitoring. Carry forward the culture of integrity, popularize integrity education, increase the exposure of serious dishonest behaviors in accordance with laws and regulations, and support news media in carrying out integrity publicity and public opinion supervision.

Give full play to the leading role of integrity models, continue to carry out the “Integrity Star” publicity and “Integrity Promotion Business Promotion Month” activities, and promote the formation of a good social trend of keeping promises. Timely summarize and promote typical experiences and practices. Report major matters to the CPC Central Committee and the State Council in a timely manner in accordance with procedures.