This content was originally published by Radio Free Asia, and it is now licensed for reprint.
Free speech activists claimed that the Chinese Communist Party’s surveillance of online action would only increase as a result of China’s announcement to introduce online ID cards, a shift the government claim may protect user data.
The Cyberspace Administration proposed to provide each internet user in China with a special code that encapsulates their main personal information as well as a method for using modern physical ID to verify online transactions. The draft rules for a online authentication system were published on the Cyberspace Administration’s website.
Researchers and political critics said the guidelines, if implemented, would give the government “another resource” to observe people’s online action, while free talk activists called for a reversal of the real-name registration system for internet users.
According to analysts, Xi Jinping, the leader of the Chinese Communist Party, has made China a high-tech surveillance state where online anonymity is all but guaranteed and the tools used to circumvent the Great Firewall of censorship are prohibited in recent interviews.
More than a billion people are online in China, with a flourishing e-commerce industry and several wildly popular homegrown social media platforms, three decades after the country’s first internet access was first made available.
However, the authorities have spent the past 30 years developing ever more efficient ways to monitor and censor everything Chinese citizens do online, despite initial hopes that widespread public internet access would make censorship and political control by the ruling Chinese Communist Party harder and harder to enforce.
The user would benefit from having access to the services provided by the Cyberspace Administration because they would n’t have to provide their personal information to every service provider who wanted to be authenticated, the rules said. Instead, the digital ID would suffice.
According to the consultation document from July 26 for services providers, digital certificates based on physical ID documents would be provided.
The scheme will initially be voluntary, although some organizations will “encourage” users to sign up for it, the document said.
The digital ID scheme would apply to anyone who has a Chinese ID card or passport, a travel document from Hong Kong, Taiwan, or another country with permanent residence permits, according to the statement.
However, activists claimed that the move would give the authorities another way to keep track of their online activity.
Official claims that digital ID cards would protect user data were false, according to free speech activist Xishen Tannu, who runs the free-speech campaign account Xuexi Qiangguo, because police and government officials could access 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. Because it was required during the sign-up process, the authorities can still see their real name even if they choose a username to use online.
The move to digital ID, according to French independent commentator Wang Longmeng, is just one more step in a string of laws limiting online freedom of expression since Xi Jinping’s rule in 2012.
In a recent interview with RFA Cantonese, Wang stated that it is likely that this digital ID will become a second ID card for Chinese citizens and that the government will have greater authority to regulate and discipline them.
He said that controlling the users of the internet is essential.
Wang argued that the real-name registration system’s introduction in 2017 was a turning point for the Chinese internet, and that the digital ID was an extension of the same concept.
” 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.
She claimed that the digital ID and online certificates are “real-name mobile phone numbers or disguised ID cards.” ” 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 requested instead that the real-name registration system be canceled by the government.
” Digital IDs treat the symptoms but not the root cause”, she said. The Chinese Communist Party “puts electronic shackles on” those who fear telling the truth on social media.
” No amount of cosmetic work can, however, fix the problems that the real-name system has created.”
National identification numbers are common and have a variety of applications, according to Richard Taylor, professor emeritus of telecommunications and law at Pennsylvania State University, but the key is in how much personal data can be accessed, Taylor explained to RFA Mandarin.
In a written response to Radio Free Asia, Taylor wrote that” a “network number” is an extension and consolidation of real identification requirements while protecting personal information. The problem is then used in what purposes and how?
According to Taylor, “everything digital in China must be grounded in the security regulations that have been cited as its foundation.” According to the Chinese Communist Party,” I anticipate that it will be used to maintain social harmony.”
” I do n’t see it giving authorities more power, just a new tool”.
