A video recently circulating on X shows young men sleeping on the street, with accompanying posts claiming they were forced to live to the streets after being blacklisted by China's "Social Credit System."
The footage itself appears genuine, but the attached story is completely false.
Who are the men in the video?
The men shown in the video represent a phenomenon that has been documented in southern China for years. They are associated with the so-called "Sanhe dashen", or "Sanhe casual laborers" in English, a subculture that emerged around the Sanhe Labor Market in Longhua District, Shenzhen.
Rather than holding long-term jobs, many casual laborers followed a fixed routine: take one-day temporary work, then spend the next several days in internet cafés, playing games, eating inexpensive food, and avoiding work until their money runs out.
Researchers, journalists, and documentary filmmakers tracking the group have consistently described this lifestyle as a voluntary rejection of the long hours and harsh conditions common in some manufacturing jobs.
Though such a lifestyle was often unstable and economically precarious, there was no evidence that it resulted from state punishment or exclusion from public services.
The scene itself has largely faded since local authorities began cracking down on illegal labor recruitment and renovating surrounding urban villages. The rise of app-based gig work has also reduced the visibility of the casual labor economy that once made the area famous.
Therefore, the video is a depiction of a recognizable social phenomenon, which has no connection with the false claims in the viral posts.
Does the video reflect widespread homelessness?
The claim also relies on a false assumption: the people shown represent a growing population pushed into destitution.
Facts prove otherwise.
China eliminated absolute poverty by the end of 2020. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs reported in 2025 that more than seven million people identified as being at risk of falling back into poverty received targeted assistance, and income growth in previously poverty-stricken counties continued to outpace the average for rural areas nationwide.
An aerial drone photo taken on Aug. 23, 2024, shows a solar photovoltaic system on the rooftops of buildings in Yuanlong Village of Minning Town, Yongning County in Yinchuan, capital of northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. (Photo by Yuan Hongyan/Xinhua)
Meanwhile, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, almost 80% of people currently receiving assistance amid temporary living difficulties are not chronically homeless, but hit by temporary crises, including those involved in family disputes, people separated from their families, and those affected by accidents or disasters, who require short-term support before returning to normal life.
What China's social credit system actually does
The second part of the claim is even more problematic.
The posts accompanying the video describe the men as victims of China's social credit blacklisting, invoking a false impression of a nationwide digital scoring system that monitors every citizen and automatically punishes those who fall below an acceptable rating.
That description bears little resemblance to how the system operates in practice.
China does not have a single universal social credit score assigned to every citizen. Instead, what is commonly referred to as the social credit system consists of a collection of databases, regulatory mechanisms, and enforcement measures administered by different government agencies.
The most prominent component involves court-enforced sanctions against people who have been ordered by a court to repay debts or fulfill legal obligations but refuse to comply.
Under regulations updated by the National Development and Reform Commission and the People's Bank of China in 2025, disciplinary measures can include restrictions on activities such as market entry, public office employment, and high-spending behaviors, such as purchasing flight tickets and staying in star-rated hotels.
In practice, payment accounts can be frozen when courts enforce debt-collection orders, but that is a judicial enforcement mechanism rather than a feature of the social credit system itself.
Chinese law also requires courts to preserve funds necessary for basic living expenses. Legal practitioners frequently note that if an enforcement action leaves a debtor without access to essential living costs, there are legal procedures available to challenge the decision.
The purpose of enforcement is debt recovery, not the creation of destitution. Court guidance has also increasingly emphasized distinguishing between people who deliberately evade obligations and those facing genuine financial hardship.
Therefore, the result is a familiar form of online misinformation: authentic footage paired with a misleading explanation.
Co-presented by South and the College of Journalism and Communication, Jinan University
Author | Liu Xiaodi, Gu Jiahui (intern)
Cover Designer | Liu Xiaodi (with assistance from AI)
