Chinese province launches an app to highlight debtors around you

We’ve known for a while now that China has a roadmap to implement a ‘social credit system’ for its citizens in 2020: the plan is to score people based on their interactions and infractions with public and private institutions, such as breaking traffic rules, and spreading misinformation online. This week, China Daily reported that North China’s Hebei province is putting that idea into practice in a small, but potentially damaging way: it’s highlighting debtors around you on a map displayed in a mini-app on the immensely popular WeChat platform...