Fears for privacy in anti-corruption drive

Beijing appears to be stepping up its commitment to fighting corruption by proposing a unified "social credit code" system based on all residents' ID numbers, and by putting a new real estate registry on its agenda.

Ma Kai, the secretary general of the State Council, said during the first session of the annual legislative meeting on Sunday that the main objective for such a unified system would be used to prevent people from circumventing laws that restricted real estate ownership, for example by illegally registering multiple ID numbers.

The social credit code system would be based on national ID card numbers and on codes assigned to organisations and institutions.

"The government needs to take the lead in upholding the authority of the constitution, to act lawfully, and to use legal measures to deepen reform, promote development and maintain stability," Ma said.

However, sceptics say the system could be used as a "Big Brother" monitoring tool, as it would collect a large amount of a personal data on individuals.

Professor Zhang Ming , who teaches political science at Renmin University, conceded that the unified social credit code system was a fundamental requirement for a transparent government, but he hoped it would not be abused.

"I'm more worried about whether the government will use the system to watch our citizens," Zhang said.