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Chinese city apologises for 'naming and shaming' residents wearing pyjamas in the streets

Officials published a screenshot of the offenders, their names, ID cards and other information
Officials published a screenshot of the offenders, their names, ID cards and other information

Chinese officials have apologised for publicly shaming pyjama-wearing residents caught on CCTV in Suzhou in a crackdown on "uncivilised behaviour".

The pictures and identities of seven people were published online on Monday by the city’s management bureau, who said Suzhou was competing for a "most civilised city" award.

Officials published a screenshot of the offenders, their names, ID cards and other information. But critics argued online that authorities had infringed privacy, while others questioned the restriction on wearing pyjamas in public.

Officials from Suzhou in Anhui province "sincerely apologised" for the pictures and said: "We wanted to put an end to uncivilised behaviour, but of course we should protect residents' privacy."

In the future, officials said they would blur the pictures if used for their behaviour campaign, which aims to deter activities like public pyjama-wearing and lying on benches "in an uncivilised manner."

The Suzhou crackdown was aimed at 'uncivilised behaviour'
The Suzhou crackdown was aimed at 'uncivilised behaviour'

Local media reported last year that Suzhou’s 10 million residents were being asked to support the campaign by submitting pictures of offenders to the authorities in exchange for a 10 yuan (£1.10) reward.

The naming and shaming has echoes of China's social credit scheme. The initiative, which is being trialed around the country, uses technology to incentivise better behaviour in the country of 1.4 billion people and to assist the government with more effective regulatory enforcement.

Those with better social credit scores can have more favourable access to bank loans and interest rates, while a bad score can prevent citizens from booking flights or result in public shaming campaigns.

The programme goes hand in hand with an increase in video surveillance in China, which in some cases uses facial recognition technology to autimatically identify citizens on camera.

China already has about 200 million security cameras, a figure expected to triple by the end of 2020.