As a Chinese national, social credit score has it is talked about in the west is basically fake news by international media. There is a credit score system, and it similar in practice and intention to US's credit score. The intent is it is used to judge someone credit worth when it comes to borrowing money (credit cards, loans etc). Your credit history, payment history on loans (credit card, mortgage, and now online loans) goes into it. And in some provinces, whether hydro, water, civil penalties paid on time goes into. There were cases where some government branches tried to put controversial things into it, for example, if you donated blood that will add to your credit score. But people voiced disapproval and the government stopped doing it. So yes, in China, people definitely is able to talk about government policies and voice disapproval for them. And government do listen. There is no such thing as singing praise for the government, or ccp, or xi and you get social credit score added, and you will be disappeared if you say bad things at the government. I regularly criticize government's policies online and my account is still alive.