This is a weird article. It mentions in passing that implementation of a nationwide system is only planned for 2020 without concrete details yet, but otherwise pretends as if the blacklists, the experimental credit scores and the internment camps in Xinjiang are all part of a single "social credit system".

But the government doesn't need to know someone's credit history to determine whether they are Uyghur, and forcing people to pay their outstanding fines before they can buy plane tickets doesn't need a complex score either. Those factors would probably influence the social credit score once it gets implemented, but so far they're really separate systems.

Edited to add: a lot of people here are hung up on the idea that if your friends have a low score, you'll be pulled down with them and end up unable to buy a plane ticket. But to include someone on the travel blacklist, a judge needs to order it. That judge is still required to do the Party's bidding, so don't expect a fair trial; but it's not like there's an automatic system doling out travel bans for minor violations.