Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

The news that the Chinese government has established a social credit rating system sent shivers down everyone’s spines. The system records and rates every citizen’s daily activities, calculating a “credit rating” using a “social credit scorecard,” and imposes limitations on a person’s rights and privileges based on the score.

For instance, purchasing more alcohol lowers the score, while buying diapers increases it, and it affects whether a person’s children can enroll at a good school, whether a person can travel abroad and even their ability to buy plane or high-speed rail tickets.

Taiwanese and foreign media have over the past week been reporting about businessman Wei Ming-jen (魏明仁), and how he bought and moved into Biyun Temple in Changhua County’s Ershuei Township (二水), turning it into a “Chinese communism shrine” dedicated to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The matter first came to light during a review of local cultural heritage that this author oversaw as director of the Changhua County Cultural Affairs Bureau, and later caught others’ attention.