Resident Identity Card

The Resident Identity Card is the official form of personal identification in the People's Republic of China.

History

Prior to 1984, citizens within the People's Republic of China were not required to obtain or carry identification in public.^[1] On April 6, 1984, the State Council of the People's Republic of China passed the Identity Card Provisional Bill, commencing the process of gradual introduction of personal identification, in the footsteps of many developed countries at the time. The first generation identification cards were single paged cards made of polyester film. Between 1984 and 1991, trials for the new identity card system took place in Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin. Dan Xiurong, a Chinese Opera performer and soprano from Beijing, was the first person to receive a first-generation identity card in China.^[2]

On September 6, 1985, the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress passed the Identity Card Bill of the People's Republic of China, which regulated that all citizens over the age of 16 apply for identification cards.^[3] At that point, the Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China created a unified authority responsible for the issuing and management of the ID cards. From 2003, it is reported that a total of 1.14 billion ID cards have been created in China,^[4] for a total of 960,000,000 holders. However, as a result of technological development and certain techniques made available to the civilian population, the existing cards became relatively easier to counterfeit, opening the increasing threat of false identification.

On June 1, 2003, the National People's Congress passed the new Resident Identity Card Law,^[5] which expanded the scope of documents issued, and allowed soldiers in the People's Liberation Army and members of the People's Armed Police to apply for special identity cards. Individuals under the age of 16 were also permitted to voluntarily apply for an identification card. The law also established the use of newer, second-generation cards, which are machine-readable and more difficult to forge.

Contents

The identity card contains basic information regarding the individual, such as the following:

Obverse side

• Full name – in Chinese characters only. Non-Chinese ethnic names and foreign names are transliterated into Chinese. First-generation ID cards contained handwritten names for rare Chinese characters, whilst the second-generation cards exclusively used computer-printed text in a larger font compared to that of the first generation, and do not support rarer characters.
• Gender – containing one character for either male (男) or female (女).
• Ethnicity – as officially listed by the People's Republic of China.
• Date of birth – listed in the Gregorian calendar format, in YYYY年MM月DD日 Big-endian (ISO 8601) order.
• Domicile – the individual's permanent residence as dictated by the Identity Card Bill of the People's Republic of China.
• Identification number
• Photo of the individual

Reverse side

• Issuing authority (first-generation cards utilised a stamp; second-generation cards display text only)
• The limits to validity of the document (for individuals under 16 years of age: five years; for individuals between 16 and 25 years of age: ten years; for individuals between 26 and 45 years of age: twenty years; for individuals over 46 years of age: long-term)

Information stored in the identity database for biometric ID cards documents information such as work history, educational background, religion, ethnicity, police record, medical insurance status, landlord's phone number and personal reproductive history.

In 1984, discussion over the contents of the identity card became controversial regarding whether to include details such as "marital status" and "occupation"; considering the actual situation of the People's Republic of China at the time, these details ultimately were not included in the ID card.

The first-generation ID cards contained a black-and-white photograph portrait of the individual; following the introduction of the second-generation cards, all identification portraits are printed in colour.

The dimensions of the second-generation cards are 85.725 mm×53.975 mm×0.900 mm, and the identity photo is sized at 358x441 pixels (width by height), printed at a resolution of 350dpi on RGB using 24-bit True Color, prepared using JPEG compression techniques in line with the requirements of ISO DIS 10918-1. The final image appears as a 26 mm × 32 mm portrait box in the top-right hand corner.^[6]

Identity cards in ethnic minority areas

Within the ethnic minority regions in China, identity cards possess corresponding text in the respective minority language for both first-generation and second-generation cards. For example, cards officially signed and issued in Guangxi all contain accompanying text in Zhuang, as well as Chinese characters. The following table shows the languages used on identity cards within minority regions (hover mouse over dotted underline text for romanizations):

Identity card number

From October 1, 1999, the PRC State Council approved the establishment of a citizen identification number system, and currently consists of an 18-digit code.

• Address code refers to the resident's location, where administrative divisions (including cities, banners, and districts) have their own specific codes. (For example, the code for Xicheng District in Beijing is 110102.)
• Date of Birth in the form YYYY-MM-DD.
• Order code is the code used to disambiguate people with the same date of birth and address code. Men are assigned to odd numbers, women assigned to even numbers.
• The Checksum is the final digit, which confirms the validity of the ID number from the first 17 digits, utilizing ISO 7064:1983, MOD 11-2. The checksum is obtained by:

1. Marking the Identity card number right-to-left ， for the parity-check codes；
2. Weight coefficient calculation ；

i	18	17	16	15	14	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1
Wi	7	9	10	5	8	4	2	1	6	3	7	9	10	5	8	4	2	1

1. Calculation of
2. 

Dim a, w, s ,id
 msgbox "This procedure for checking the identity card number and or-bit",vbokonly+vbinformation,"identity check procedures"
 id=inputbox("Enter the ID number 15 or 18 before the identity card numbers of 17 or","ID","11010519491231002")
 if vartype(id)<>0 then
'Test the legality of the importation of numbers 
  l=0
  do until l=1
   l=1
   p=""
   if len(id) <>17 then
     if len(id) <> 15 then
      l=0
      p="enter the median is not correct, please enter 15 or 17-digit."
     end if
   end if
   for i = 1 to len(id)
    a=mid(id,i,1)
    if asc(a)<asc("0") or asc(a)>asc("9") then
     l=0
     p=p  & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & "Please enter the number, do not include the characters“" & a & "”。"
     exit for
    end if
   next
   if l=0 then
    id=inputbox("illegal input" & vbCrLf  & vbCrLf & p,"input error",id)
   end if
  loop
'Will be number 15 or 17 places to number
  if len(id)=15 then
   id = left(id,6) & "19" & right(id, 9)
  end if
'Number 17 for the calculation of parity-check codes
  for i = 2 to 18
   a = mid(id,19-i,1)
   w=2^(i-1) mod 11
   s=a * w + s
  next 
  s =(12 - ( s mod 11) )mod 11
  if s=10 then s="X"
'After checking the number of output
  inputbox  "the identity card number of the parity-check codes for the“" & s & "”" & vbcrlf & vbcrlf & "by checking the ID card numbers are as follows:","Check completed", id & s
 end if

// must input 17 bit string of RID from left to right
function calcChecksum(rid){
    var workArr = rid.split('').reverse();
    function W(i){
        return Math.pow(2,i-1) % 11;
    }
    function S(){
        var sum = 0;
        for (var j=0;j<17;j++){
            sum += workArr[j]*W(j+2);
        }
        
        return sum;
    }
    
    return (12-(S() % 11)) % 11;
}

//test
alert(calcChecksum('63280119790817003')); //will alert 6

Usage of identification

Citizens within the People's Republic of China must carry identification in public at all times, compulsory from the age of 16. The identity card is the only acceptable legal document to obtain resident permit, employment, open bank accounts, obtain passport, driver licence, application for tertiary education and technical colleges, security checkpoints in domestic terminals of Chinese airports. Documentation is also required for marriages, household registrations and legal cases.^[7]

Recently, there have been more services that require the display of identification cards, such as at Internet cafes and certain stores.^[8]

Police are required to inspect identification documents where:

• Criminal suspects need to be identified;
• To inspect those related to personnel involved in an incident;
• In the occurrence of a serious security emergency, and there is a requirement to obtain the identity of the a person at the scene;
• If the law requires so during a case.

Anti-counterfeiting measures

First generation ID card

Polyester plastic film, which utilizes an anti-counterfeit laser logo.

Second generation ID card

Second-generation ID cards contain a non-contact IC chip card, a directional holographic "Great Wall" image, an anti-counterfeiting film made of green multi-layer polyester (PETG) composite material, optical variable optical storage containing the text "中国CHINA" situated on the card, and a microfilm string generating the letters "JMSFZ" (initials for the Pinyin of "Jumin Shenfenzheng"), and a "Great Wall" logo revealed by ultraviolet light.^[6]

See also

• National Identification Card (Republic of China)
• Hong Kong Identity Card
• Macau Identity Card
• National Registration Identity Card (Singapore)
• Identity document

References

External links

• (Chinese) PRC Identity Card law
• (Chinese) Identity law issues – XINHUA
• (Chinese) History of identification
• (Chinese) Concerns regarding second-generation cards
• (Chinese) Mobile phones, identity cards and individual positioning