Oct 24, 2011
Translated by Pang Lei

Earlier today, the standing committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC), discussed amendments to China's ID Card legislation.

According to the draft amendments, citizens will be required to register their fingerprints when applying for a new ID card or when replacing or uprgrading an existing one.

Yang Huanning (杨焕宁), the deputy head of China's Public Security Bureau (PSB), told a meeting on Oct 24, that adding fingerprints to the ID card will help to protect national security and social stability and improve efficiency, help to reduce the amount of identity theft and counterfeiting. Yang also said that adding fingerprint data to the card, along with details about the individuals financial, telecommunications, transport, education, medical and work place information, will also help clean up "problem" bank accounts held at domestic financial institutions.

Yang Huanning also told the meeting that only the distinguishing features of an individual's fingerprints would be recorded and stored in digital format on their ID card and the original fingerprint would not be able to be reproduced from the data stored on the card. Yang also said that the PSB were able to ensure the security of people's private data.

The the memory-chip embedded in second-generation ID cards already have space to store fingerprint information, so there is no need to upgrade the chips in ID cards.

The draft amendments also include provisions that make it a criminal offence to leak any pesonal data.

According to a report by the Xinhua News Agency, Yang Huanning also told NPC representatives that the first generation of China's ID cards, which were introduced in 1985, will no longer be accpeted as of Jan 1, 2013.

Links and Sources
China News Agency: 中国拟在身份证中登记指纹信息 能有效保护安全
Xinhua News Agency: 居民身份证法草案：一代身份证自2013年1月1日起停用