Chinese citizens will be issued new, second-generation ID cards with personal information contained in an embedded microchip starting from the end of 2004, announced the Ministry of Public Security Thursday.

At a meeting on the pilot implementation of the new cards, Wu Dongli, director of the ministry's security administration bureau, said the new smart cards, unlike the current paper ones, can be checked on computers.

Besides a digital anti-faking microchip, the new cards will be covered with a special coating and printed with technology that makes counterfeiting even more difficult.

"The two measures will basically end the phenomenon of ID card counterfeiting," said Zhang Junli, director of the ministry's ID card department.

The present ID cards consist of a laminated paper card featuring personal information including a person's name, photo, birthday, nationality and ID number. "It is relatively easy to counterfeit as normally the cards can only be checked by eye, not computers," said Zhang.

Trial programs will start in the first half of next year in some of the country's biggest cities like Beijing, Shanghai and the southern city of Shenzhen. The replacement of the old paper cards throughout the country will be concluded at the end of 2008.

The cost of a new card will be 20 yuan (2.41 dollars) and 10 yuan (1.20 dollars) for a temporary card. People who lose their ID cards will be required to pay 40 yuan (4.82 dollars) for a new one.

Urban residents living on minimum social security allowances and needy rural people will be exempted from the charge when replacing the old card for the first time, said Wu.

Those who are living in poverty as a result of natural disasters, accidents or disease will only pay half of the charge, he said.

Programs to upgrade the current population information management system have been worked out in line with the process of issuing the new cards. Shanghai, Shenzhen and Huzhou in east China 's Zhejiang Province have completed renovation and software testing of the system.

Meanwhile, a data base with over 20,000 rarely used Chinese square characters is under construction to ensure smooth retrieval of information in the new cards.

Over 1.3 billion ID cards have been issued by China's public security bureaus across the country in the past 18 years. 900 million residents are currently holding the cards.

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