This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.
China has revealed plans to bring in digital ID cards, a move the authorities say will protect user data, but free speech activists said the Chinese Communist Party’s monitoring of online activity would only intensify under the new measure.
The Cyberspace Administration published draft rules for a digital authentication system on its website, proposing to give each internet user in China a unique code that encapsulates a person’s key personal details, along with a way to use digital versions of physical ID to authenticate transactions online.
Analysts and political commentators said the rules, if implemented, would give the government “another tool” to track people’s online activity, while free speech activists called for a reversal of the real-name registration system for internet users.
Since Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping took power in 2012, he has turned China into a high-tech surveillance state in which online anonymity is all but impossible, and the tools used to circumvent the Great Firewall of censorship have been outlawed, analysts told Radio Free Asia in recent interviews.
Three decades after internet access first became available in China, the country has more than a billion people online, with a thriving e-commerce sector and several massively popular homegrown social media platforms.
But despite early hopes that widespread public internet access would make censorship and political control by the ruling Chinese Communist Party harder and harder to enforce, the authorities have spent the past 30 years developing ever more effective ways to monitor and censor everything Chinese citizens do online.
According to the Cyberspace Administration, the advantage to the user would be that they wouldn’t have to provide their personal data to every service provider seeking authentication — instead, the digital ID would be enough to log them on to services, the rules said.
In cases where service providers need to see real ID, digital certificates based on physical ID documents would be provided, according to the July 26 consultation document.
The scheme will initially be voluntary, although some organizations will “encourage” users to sign up for it, the document said.
Anyone holding a Chinese ID card or passport, or a Hong Kong, Taiwan or Macau travel permit, or other nationals holding permanent residence permits would be eligible for the digital ID scheme, it said.
But activists said the move would give the authorities yet another way to hold data on individuals and monitor their online activity.
Free speech activist Xishen Tannu, who is an administrator of the free-speech campaign account Xuexi Qiangguo, said official claims that digital ID cards would protect user data were spurious, because police and government officials would have access to any information provided to service providers.
She said the scheme was an extension of the existing “real name” registration system for online platforms, that has all but removed people’s ability to comment or take online action anonymously. Even if they pick a username to use online, their real name is still available to the authorities because it was mandated during the sign-up process.
French independent commentator Wang Longmeng said the move towards digital ID is another step in a slew of measures suppressing online freedom of expression since Xi Jinping took power in 2012.
“It’s likely that this digital ID will become an additional ID card for Chinese people, and that the government will gain further powers to control and punish Chinese citizens,” Wang told RFA Cantonese in a recent interview.
“The key to controlling the internet is controlling the people who use it,” he said.
Wang also pointed to the 2017 launch of the real-name registration system as a turning point for the Chinese internet, saying that the digital ID was an extension of the same idea.
“It’s like a two-in-one set of electronic handcuffs,” he said.
Xishen Tannu agreed, saying the system will only hide user data from service providers, not from the government.
“The digital ID and online certificates are just real-name mobile phone numbers or ID cards in disguise,” she said. “All they do is stop the platform getting the user’s name, but not people within the government.”
“Unlike the U.S. police, who need warrants or subpoenas to access user information during investigations, the Chinese police can get directly from any platform that is behind the Great Firewall [of Chinese censorship],” she said.
She called on the government to cancel the real-name registration system instead.
“Digital IDs treat the symptoms but not the root cause,” she said. “The Chinese Communist Party is afraid that people will tell the truth on social media, so they … put electronic shackles on them.”
“But no amount of cosmetic work can get around the issues caused by the real-name system.”
Richard Taylor, professor emeritus of telecommunications and law at Pennsylvania State University, told RFA Mandarin that national identification numbers are common and have multiple uses, but that the key lies in the level of access to the personal data they point to.
“A ‘network number’ … is an extension and consolidation of real identification requirements while protecting personal information,” Taylor said in a written reply to Radio Free Asia. “The issue becomes the uses to which it will be put, with what goals.”
“Everything digital in China … must be consistent with the security laws cited as its foundation,” Taylor said. “I expect it will be used for maintaining social harmony consistent with national laws and Chinese Communist Party policies.”
“I don’t see it giving authorities more power, just a new tool.”
