China a step closer to rolling out nationwide social credit system

Beijing

DU Shan, a trendy marketing director from China who is in her 30s, proudly shows off her credit score on her mobile phone to anyone who is interested to see it - it reads 737, out of a maximum of 900.

The score is produced by e-retail giant turned e-bank, Alibaba, by an application called Sesame or Zhima.

Every Alibaba user had, from 2015 until early this year, a credit score imposed on him or her by default.

The metrics behind the score are rather hazy, to say the least. The score takes into account financial activity, university diplomas, Internet behaviour, brand of car and scores of the users' friends.

A high score open doors to car ren…