Scholars concurred at a recent symposium that the coordinated construction of ethics and morality, rule of law and credit culture is vital to building a favorable social credit environment.

The interdisciplinary symposium on “Comprehensive Improvement of the Social Credit Environment: Ethics, Rule of Law and Culture” was held in Shanghai on Oct. 27.

China is currently building a national social credit system. Attendees to the symposium pointed out that ethics, which has a wider scope than law, will play a significant role in the process.

In order to play its role, ethics must be integrated into economic and social life, said Hao Yun, a professor from the School of Humanity at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.

Noting the vigorous economic and financial innovation taking place across China, Hao said that the void in terms of credit construction in the innovation process needs to be filled by ethics.

Honesty is the moral basis of social credit. Yu Yuhua, a professor of Marxism at East China Normal University (ECNU), said that social credit, like credit in the economic sphere, requires the moral support of honesty as well, so the cultivation of honesty should go hand in hand with the advancement of social credit.

Only through protecting honesty by legal means can virtues be carried forward and evils discarded. Academics reached a consensus at the meeting that strengthening rule of law will guarantee the construction of social credit.

The fundamental approach to building a Chinese social credit system is to reinforce and improve socialist rule of law, said Xiong Qiong, a professor of law at the ECNU.

Xiong said it is urgent to draft credit-related legislation and ensure stringent law enforcement to prevent and resolve the lack of credit. Hence it is important to upgrade social credit services, enhance credit data quality management and build a system to penalize dishonesty.

In market economy conditions, credit behaviors are subject to the influence of autonomy and heteronomy, said Hong Mei, chairman of the Credit Research Association of Shanghai (CRAS) and a professor of credit management at Shanghai Lixin University of Accounting and Finance. While autonomy originates from mores and balancing economic interests, heteronomy is rooted in institutions and legal restrictions.

Credit construction requires a good social environment and atmosphere as well as the support of a credit culture, Hong said.

Shen Yao, a professor of economics at Shanghai University, said that during the development of a credit economy, and the establishment and improvement of related laws and regulations, an advanced credit culture will take shape through publicity, education, systemic practices as well as efforts to raise the credit awareness of market entities.

The symposium was co-organized by the CRAS, the Shanghai Ethics Society, and Rule of Law Research Association of Shanghai under the guidance of Shanghai Federation of Social Science Associations and Shanghai Municipal Education Commission.