Overview from 2022. One city really did set up a full social credit system, but that was a pilot project and didn't work out.[1] There are some private "social credit" systems, like the one from Ant, but that's more like a rewards program - buy stuff, get points.

China has had a lot of official social control for centuries, but it was local and managed by local cops.[2] As the population became more mobile, that wasn't enough. But a single national system never emerged.

There was a work record history, the Dang'an, created by the Party but to some extent pre-dating communism. This, again, was handled locally, by Party officials. This system didn't cope well with employee mobility. But it didn't get built into a comprehensive national system, either.

China is authoritarian, but most of the mechanisms of coercion are local. Local political bullies are a constant low-level problem.

Kind of like rural Alabama.

[1] https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/11/22/1063605/china-an...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hukou

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dang%27an