Man placed on train blacklist after stealing seat

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A Chinese man who pretended to be disabled in order to take another passenger's seat on the train has been banned for 180 days, according to authorities.

Along with other 246 people, Sun He was placed on the social credits blacklist in August, which was issued on Monday by China's State Information Center of Public Credits. It means all trains across the country should forbid those on the list from buying tickets for 180 days starting Sept. 12 -- seven working days after the notice was issued.

Sun He is banned from taking trains in China for 180 days, according to a notice issued on Monday by the country's State Information Center of Public Credits. /Chinanews Photo

After the decision was made public, Sun apologized again on his social platform Weibo account, promising to obey the rules and laws.

He apologized on Aug. 22 for what he had done, after a widely-circulated video showed him refusing to move from the seat of another passenger on the day before.

The incident took place on a train running from Jinan City in east China's Shandong Province to Beijing.

Local police have fined Sun 200 yuan (about 29 US dollars) in accordance with the law, said the Jinan Railway Administration on its Weibo page.

Sun He says he is sorry for the inconvenience he had caused and supportive of the decision to ban him from trains. /Screenshot from Weibo

Netizens have supported the move after calling for the lowering of Sun's social credit score.

"[We should always] say no to stealing seats and follow the rules of public transportation," Weibo user @Oubadesangyinhenganjing commented.

"I suggested also placing him on the flight blacklist," said Weibo user @Xiaoyudashizi.

Passengers with "order-disrupting behaviors," including stealing seats, will be placed on the social credit blacklist, according to a notice issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) in March.

China has decided to restrict people with bad social credit scores when they take trains or flights starting May 1, according to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).