China’s giant new gamble with digital IDs
They could change its internet for good and turbocharge AI efforts
IT WAS IN 1984, of course, that police stations in China started issuing national ID cards to those over the age of 16. Citizens still need them to travel, pay taxes or gain access to public services. Now the Communist Party wants to take the next step. On July 15th the government will launch “digital IDs” for use on the internet, shifting responsibility for online verification from private firms to the government. This is a potentially huge change in the state’s control over data. It augments China’s radically different approach to managing and surveilling the digital lives of its citizens. And it may alter who captures the profits generated from the online economy and even affect the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) in China.
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This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “Big data will see you now”
From the July 5th 2025 edition
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