Smarter Cards: The Chinese Citizen Identification Program

From a social perspective, it is interesting to note the unique environment in which this has taken place. China provides an ideal stage for RFID’s use for identification – a stage not possible in the West. While we debate privacy concerns and the potential misuse of ID information – witness the intense debates that are taking place currently in the United Kingdom over the new national ID card program and in the United States over ePassports and RFID-tagged drivers licenses – Chinese authorities can act unitarily on the matter. While the lack of civil liberties and political rights for Chinese citizens are indeed concerning – and the Chinese government has shown a propensity to use personal information and identity as means of control – the second generation ID card scheme will likely teach Western authorities important lessons on how automatically identifiable and difficult to counterfeit ID technologies can be used to benefit citizens.

In fact, two very interesting examples of the “unintended consequences” of such an auto-ID card program have recently come to light from China – both to do with relationships. First, as in the Western world, online matchmaking services are big business in China. One of the largest is a site called baihe.com, which has approximately eight million users of its services, which match potential love interests on the basis of their personality profiles. Yet, mistrust of the other party is a huge factor in Chinese online dating. In fact, a survey conducted by China Computer World Research showed that over half of all online date service users believed they had been cheated and another third believed that online matchmaking was risky because of the belief that prospective partners would misrepresent themselves online. Most online dating services in China have required registrants to fax or send in a copy of their national ID cards, which have historically been easy to fabricate. Now, working with the Ministry of Public Security, the site will be able to match the identity of online daters with their registration after being issued one of the second generation ID cards. Baihe’s CEO Jason Tian believes that this will serve to raise his service’s security and enhance participants trust in both the site and their potential love interests. Tian recently stated, “In the long run, we’ll arrange dates only for those who are proven to be telling the truth.”

On a somewhat related matter, there is also apparently a huge problem in China with people known as “marriage fraudsters,” who romance and marry individuals with the singular intent of defrauding their spouses of their financial and/or real assets soon after getting married. According to a report from the Beijing Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau, there were 386 cases reported in 2007 of marriage fraud, where one party used a fake national ID card to obtain a marriage registration. Now, officials with the agency say that the new, second generation ID card system will enable them to verify the validity of ID cards from marriage applicants. If a fake ID card is detected, the staff at the civil affairs bureau has instructions to turn over the offender to police, and “violators will be punished strictly according to the law.”

In the end, the unintended consequences and benefits of RFID projects are often the most interesting. And the Chinese second generation ID card program should prove no different. The lessons that can be learned from the billion cards and billion people involved in the project will be important and beneficial for the West. And hopefully, in the process, as evidenced by these two unusual examples, the attempts by the Chinese government to increase control over their citizenry through auto-ID technologies could prove beneficial for the lives of the Chinese citizenry.

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David C. Wyld (dwyld@selu.edu) is the Robert Maurin Professor of Management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. He is a management consultant, researcher/writer, and executive educator.