What you’re thinking of is actually only applicable after a court judgment in China and it’s for judgment defaulters, i.e. people who have violated the law, received an order to pay a fine from the court (a judgment), and then proceeded to either evade the fine or hide their assets. It’s restricted to people who are within their means to pay the judgment and are still refusing or evading, and it’s limited to high consumption or consumption not essential to life/work. They can still travel, they just can’t buy plane tickets and nicer rail tickets or high speed rail. The government uses the restrictions to encourage people to pay their fines. The US and (I assume) western countries do similar things with judgments and bankruptcies all the time. In the US a court judgment is typically required to be paid off when you sell your home or before a lender will let you refinance your property, for example. Also a bankruptcy court can effectively restrict your right to purchase luxury items or travel or by scrutinizing your funds in court and requiring that you show up to certain court dates, just as examples. They can even refuse to let you sell your house and other assets and set stipulations for how debt must be repaid if they do let you sell it. The social credit score stuff is nonsense that’s long since been debunked or has Western equivalents that we don’t bat an eye at.
Our credit scores don’t stop you from traveling
What you’re thinking of is actually only applicable after a court judgment in China and it’s for judgment defaulters, i.e. people who have violated the law, received an order to pay a fine from the court (a judgment), and then proceeded to either evade the fine or hide their assets. It’s restricted to people who are within their means to pay the judgment and are still refusing or evading, and it’s limited to high consumption or consumption not essential to life/work. They can still travel, they just can’t buy plane tickets and nicer rail tickets or high speed rail. The government uses the restrictions to encourage people to pay their fines. The US and (I assume) western countries do similar things with judgments and bankruptcies all the time. In the US a court judgment is typically required to be paid off when you sell your home or before a lender will let you refinance your property, for example. Also a bankruptcy court can effectively restrict your right to purchase luxury items or travel or by scrutinizing your funds in court and requiring that you show up to certain court dates, just as examples. They can even refuse to let you sell your house and other assets and set stipulations for how debt must be repaid if they do let you sell it. The social credit score stuff is nonsense that’s long since been debunked or has Western equivalents that we don’t bat an eye at.