Credibility Standards: A new social credit mode of regulation?

Under the social credit system project, China’s government promotes credibility-based regulation (信用监管), a mode of discretionary decision-making informed by quantified assessments of regulatory subjects’ credibility. Credibility-based regulation is intended to combat China’s law enforcement problem by activating non-state actors to participate in regulatory work through conducting and sharing credibility assessments. However, little is known about its implementation. This article argues that a yet unexplored series of voluntary national standards provides the technical link between central-level rhetoric on credibility-based regulation and its implementation. Specifically, these standards lay down assessment methods and quantitative indicators for assessing credibility, and are drafted for the use of regulatory agencies, platform companies, industry associations and other state and non-state stakeholders. National standards provide a suitable link for implementing credibility-based regulation because, unlike top–down laws and policies, their creation involves a range of non-state affiliated actors, producing negotiated solutions that co-regulators may be more likely to adopt.