China's Digital ID: A Giant Leap in State Control
2025-07-03
China will launch national digital IDs on July 15th, shifting online verification from private companies to the government. This represents a massive shift in state control over citizen data, drastically altering how the digital lives of its citizens are managed and surveilled. The move has implications for the distribution of profits in the online economy and could even reshape the future of AI in China. This builds upon the existing national ID card system introduced in 1984.