Chinese government authorities have recently issued a series of policies and draft amendments to push forward the establishment of the Social Credit System (SCS). Foreign enterprises are particularly concerned at how the SCS could affect the business operation of their Chinese subsidiaries.
The SCS will establish an information-sharing platform covering all the rating information on all companies registered in China. In principle, the equal enforcement of regulations will likely to create a more level playing field. However, this may be an overly optimistic interpretation, as the system does have the potential for discriminatory use towards international companies, as well as other major concerns such as the “joint sanctions” – blacklisted companies will receive not only sanctions from the government enforcement authority, but should restrictions and negative treatment from other government agencies.
As the Social Credit System will be largely in place by the end of 2020, SCS is no longer just a vision. With the window of opportunity rapidly closing for companies to prepare for these regulatory ratings, companies need to stay alert for the upcoming the SCS and expect that heavy non-compliance will immediately lead to a listing as a distrusted entity, followed by costly sanctions.
On 29th November, the European Chamber is delighted to welcome Ms. Cara Meng, Senior Associate of Taylor Wessing, to share her insights on the Social Credit System covering potential topics as follow:
- Overview on how SCS works
- Main purpose of the SCS
- Will business secret/privacy be of concern?
- Impact of lists and ratings
- How can other entities affect your rating?
- How to be removed from a blacklist?
Agenda
15:30 – 16:00 Registration and networking
16:00 – 16:10 Welcome remarks by Mr. Michael Tan, National Chair of Legal & Competition Working Group, Partner of Taylor Wessing
16:10 – 17:10 Presentation by Ms. Cara Meng, Senior Associate of Taylor Wessing
17:10 – 17:30 Q&A