China to enforce RFID ID cards : We will track you down

Filed in archive Technology on August 15, 2007

The chinese government has a different look on things. After having been a control freak over anything people might think of doing, they have finally picked up on something a certain german gentleman had come up with back in the forties : the art of selection.

A new ID card has been introduced holding an embedded chip that will include the holder's name, address, work history, educational background, religion, Ethnicity, police record, medical insurance status and landlord's phone number. The cards will also carry reproductive history information, to further aid authorities in enforcing China's "one child" policy.(Engadget)

Anyone notcarrying this ID will be expelled from the great country.

In order to enforce their new laws and the use of this ID, new cameras are installed around big cities with face recognition software. Most interesting fact in all of this is this : The technology behind it is developed by US companies IBM, HP and Dell.

Some say the US economy has dried out and China is the new production superpower, but I can't help but wonder how long China will be able to hold that position. It is probably no different from Europe, where all IT companies offshore their production to asian countries. In ten years time, that will no longer be profitable, so offshoring will become a thing of the past and we will be right where we started : here.