National Citizen ID Information System

Resident Identity Card 居民身份证
A Sample of reverse (above) and obverse (below) of a Resident Identity Card (Second-generation identification card)
Issued by	China
Type of document	Identity card
Purpose	Identification
Eligibility requirements	Hukou registration required
Cost	Registration fee: RMB20, Replacement for lost or damaged cards: RMB40

The Resident Identity Card (Chinese: 居民身份证; pinyin: Jūmín Shēnfènzhèng) is an official identity document for personal identification in the People's Republic of China. According to the second chapter, tenth clause of the Resident Identity Card Law, residents are required to apply for resident identity cards from the local Public Security Bureau, sub-bureaus or local executive police stations.

Prior to 1984, citizens within the People's Republic of China were not required to obtain or carry identification in public. On April 6, 1984, the State Council of the People's Republic of China passed the Identity Card Provisional Bill (中华人民共和国居民身份证试行条例), commencing the process of gradual introduction of personal identification, in the footsteps of many developed countries at the time. The first generation identification cards were single paged cards made of polyester film. Between 1984 and 1991, trials for the new identity card system took place in Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin. Shan Xiurong (单秀荣), a Chinese Opera performer and soprano from Beijing, was the first person to receive a first-generation identity card in China.

On September 6, 1985, the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress passed the , which regulated that all citizens over the age of 16 apply for identification cards. At that point, the Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China created a unified authority responsible for the issuing and management of the ID cards. From 2003, it is reported that a total of 1.14 billion ID cards have been created in China, for a total of 960,000,000 holders. However, as a result of technological development and certain techniques made available to the civilian population, the existing cards became relatively easier to counterfeit, opening the increasing threat of false identification.