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

Wu Dongli, director of the ministry's security administration bureau, said the new smart- cards, unlike the current paper ones, can be checked by computers.

Besides a digital microchip, which is difficult to fake, the new cards will be covered with a special coating and printed with features that make them difficult to counterfeit.

"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 are made of laminated paper and include personal information including a person's name, photo, birthday, nationality and ID number.

"They are relatively easy to counterfeit because the cards can only be checked by eye, not computers," said Zhang.

Trial runs of the new cards 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 by the end of 2008.

The cost of a new card will be 20 yuan (US$2.41).

Urban residents living on minimum social security allowances and needy rural people will be exempt 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 diseases will only have to pay half the charge, he said.

At the same time, programmes to upgrade the current population information management system have been worked out.

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 on the new cards.

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

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