One billion Chinese citizens to get smartcards by 2004

The Chinese government has approved a plan to introduce ID cards for over a billion of the country's citizens – upgrading existing plastic identity cards to a new chip-based smartcard system.

The scheme has received the green light from the Chinese authorities, and the roll-out will start its initial testing phase in early 2004.

The government is citing security concerns as the prime motivation for the roll-out – previous plastic ID cards were thought too easy to fake - and expects the card to carry a limited amount of information about its user including name, date of birth and the citizen's ID number.

The companies that are landing a slice of the smartcard pie are chiefly domestic operators, with just two foreign companies involved on the technology side, according to a report by Dow Jones Newswires. However, some suppliers are yet to be announced.

While the Chinese ID project will be the biggest ever undertaken, it won't be a licence to print money for those involved, with the government angling for a low-memory, very low-cost card.

While the government claims that the reasons behind the update are purely administrative, privacy campaigners are somewhat sceptical, particularly given that card-carriers won't be allowed to see or alter the details that appear on their ID.

Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, told silicon.com: "The cards will act as a reminder to Chinese citizens they are being constantly monitored. It will make it more inevitable that they will have to report their movements – or have their movements reported for them."

Davies believes that the effect of the scheme will extend beyond China's borders: "The sheer scale of the project could lead to the harmonisation of ID card systems across south east Asia. The Chinese system could become the default: it would be a juggernaut effect."