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China's 'Black Mirror': 'Suzhou Civility Code' sparks outrage among residents

China's 'Black Mirror': 'Suzhou Civility Code' sparks outrage among residents

China's Great Hall

China's Suzhou city near Shanghai in Jiangsu province is in the eye of a storm after authorities unveiled a "civil behaviour scoring system".

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The system seeks to evaluate the city residents according to their educational capability, employment including other civic measures like following traffic rules.

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The “Suzhou Civility Code” also includes minute details like sorting out trash as part of the plan.

The code rates a citizen's civic behaviour through a smartphone app, however, the residents haven't taken too kindly to the new measure comparing it to British TV series "Black Mirror".

The new code is still under trial. The authorities plan to inculcate a “personal portrait” for residents to promote "good habits" with good "road manners, civilized dining"and even "online and law-abiding behaviour and food saving".

Residents, however, hit out against the new code calling it an abuse of power and asked why some citizens should be givenpriority over others.

It sparked outrage as some said it was against "human rights" as it sought to discriminate against people based on "unquantifiable standards", China's Global Times reported.

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