China Prepares to Introduce 'Smart' Identification Cards
China will embark on the world's biggest electronic-identification-card program in March, when the government will start replacing the paper national ID cards of nearly a billion citizens with "smart" versions, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Wednesday.
The new cards will be issued first in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenzhen and Changsha, the report said, citing officials at the Ministry of Public Security.
The ministry expects nationwide implementation by the end of 2008, when a total of one billion ID cards will have been issued, it said.
The core of the new ID cards is an embedded, thumbnail-sized microchip that stores an individual's personal information and can be read electronically and checked against databases kept by China's security authorities.
The new ID will "enhance the ability of the government to manage population changes and movements while allowing freer migration," Xinhua cited ministry officials as saying. Officials also hope the new cards will prevent the rampant forging of old ID cards.
But the new ID replacement program is likely to further excite the international debate about such "smart cards," which have met opposition from privacy advocates in the U.S., Britain and Australia, while being accepted by some European and Asian governments.
The microchip was developed by the Institute of Microelectronics under China's Tsinghua University and Qinghua Tongfang Microelectronics Co., a subsidiary controlled by the university, Xinhua reported.
中国将从3月份开始换发智能身份证
新华社周三报导，中国政府将从3月份开始把近10亿居民的纸制身份证更换为智能身份证，这将是全球最大的电子身份证项目。
报导援引公安部官员的话称，新的身份证将首先在北京、上海、天津、深圳和长沙签发。
公安部预计到2008年年底基本完成全国身份证换发工作，届时总共将签发10亿张身份证。
新型身份证的核心是一个指甲大小的嵌入式微晶片，晶片中储存有个人信息，可以通过电子方式读卡，并与中国安全部门建立的数据库进行核对。
新华社援引公安部官员的话报导，新的身份证将提高政府管理人口变动和迁移的能力，同时允许人口更自由的流动。公安部官员还希望新卡能杜绝大量伪造老式身份证的行为。 但是新的身份证替换项目可能进一步加大国际上对这种智能卡的争论。智能身份证遭到了美国、英国和澳大利亚倡导隐私人士的反对，但被一些欧洲和亚洲政府所接受。
新身份证中的微晶片由清华大学(Tsinghua University)的微电子学研究所(Institute of Microelectronics)和清华大学的控股子公司清华同方微电子有限公司(Qinghua Tongfang Microelectronics Co.)开发。
