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 cross another Rubicon. 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 enormous step 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 change the evolution of artificial intelligence in China.
The Economist
