China to issue 'smart' ID cards

By staff and wire reports

BEIJING, China -- China has revealed plans to issue new 'smart' identity cards to enable automatic identification of the country's 1.26 billion strong population.

According to the official English-language China Daily the new high tech plastic cards will be embedded with a microchip to store personal information

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Security officials say it will replace existing plastic-coated paper ID cards that are relatively easy to counterfeit.

The State Council, or China's cabinet, has "basically approved" the new ID system, Qiu Xuexin, director of the No. 1 Research Institute under the Ministry of Public Security told the China Daily.

He said the new cards will likely be tested in a number of cities by the end of this year.

The special economic zone of Shenzhen in southern China is expected to be one of them.

The new ID cards may be issued first for college students next year so they can use them to apply for bank loans.

According to the daily the government expects it will take up to five years to issue the new cards to all 1.26 billion Chinese.

The new cards will use encryption technology, making it nearly impossible for unauthorized people to access information or produce fake cards, Qiu said.

However, he dismissed suggestions that the new ID should be combined with payment, credit and other such cards that are becoming an increasingly important part of daily life in China.

He said such a move would be impractical because an ID card was a legal document whereas others cards were not.