Resident Identity Card

Resident Identity Card
Second-generation identification card
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	居民身份证
Traditional Chinese	居民身份證
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Jūmín Shēnfènzhèng Bopomofo ㄐㄩ ㄇㄧㄣˊ ㄕㄣ ㄈㄣˋ ㄓㄥˋ Wu Romanization ciu平 min平 sen平 ven去 tsen去 Hakka Romanization gi24 min11 siin24 fun55 ziin55 Yue: Cantonese Jyutping geoi1 man4 san1 fan6*2 zing3 Southern Min Hokkien POJ ku-bîn sin-hūn-tsìng
Tibetan name
Tibetan	གཞུང་གི་ལག་ཁྱེར་དང་པ་སེའི།
Zhuang name
Zhuang	Cuhminz Sonhfwnceng
Uyghur name
Uyghur	كىملىك قانۇنى

The Resident Identity Card is the official form of personal identification in the People's Republic of China.

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.

On June 1, 2003, the National People's Congress passed the new , which expanded the scope of documents issued, and allowed soldiers in the People's Liberation Army and members of the People's Armed Police to apply for special identity cards. Individuals under the age of 16 were also permitted to voluntarily apply for an identification card. The law also established the use of newer, second-generation cards, which are machine-readable and more difficult to forge.