China does not want users on the Internet. He wants perfectly identified citizens

China will establish a new virtual identity system so that its citizens can record on all types of online services and platforms. The new system – which is now voluntary – is called “identity certification of the National Network” and will make Chinese Internet users lose one of the few cracks that had left: anonymity.

Internet card. The regulations of this new centralized Internet identity system It was published In May 2025 and will enter into force on July 15, 2025. Identity checks will be mandatory in all types of online platforms, and that will imply that it will be very difficult for users to maintain their anonymity for example on social networks. This virtual card works as a mobile application in mobile NFCs that can configure both adult and minor users, as explained The guide start -up.

The Chinese excuse. In the document published jointly by several Chinese agencies – as the Ministry of Public Security or the administration of the cyberspace of China – it is indicated that its objective is to “protect the security of citizens’s information and support the healthy and orderly development of the digital economy.”

A “Antibalas Vest”. In the CCTV account – the Chinese official public television service— In Weibo They explained how These measures “They are based on legal identity information” and will provide a way to verify users in all types of services and “reduce the collection and retention of personal identity information.” It is like “A bulletproof vest so that third parties cannot gather your full personal information,” they say.

Digital Totalitarianism. In CNN cite The words of Xiao Qiang, a researcher specializing in Internet censorship, which indicates that “it is a unified identity system and directed by the State, capable of monitoring and blocking users in real time. You can directly erase the voices that you do not like, so it is more than a surveillance tool: it is an infrastructure of digital totalitarianism.”

Another repression measure. There is the Internet that we all know and use, and there is the Chinese Internet. And in that last Censorship and control dominate everything. The Chinese totalitarian regime is more patent than ever in the access and use of the Internet, and We have seen In recent years with the massive prohibition of Feminist or LGTB activismthe elimination of Youth jargon In social networks, the fight against CULTITIES CULTor the Total comments control that users publish on social networks to eliminate those that are not appropriate.

State pseudonyms. According to the State Media Agency Xinhua, More than six million people They have already registered voluntarily to achieve their particular Internet identifier. The “cyberspace identifier”, as the agency calls it, can have two variants: a series of letters and numbers or an online credential. Both correspond to the real identity of the user “but exclude information in flat text.” That is: they are a kind of pseudonym, but one controlled by the State.

“Volunteer” with quotes. One of those responsible for the Ministry of Public Security also indicated in Xinhua how this virtual card was voluntary. However, this voluntariness is debatable because the Chinese government is promoting the integration of said system into various industries and sectors. Haochen Sun, a law professor at Hong Kong University, said in CNN that although the law effectively presents the system as a volunteer, it could end up becoming a system that users would have to end up using to access all types of platforms that integrate it.

Silence criticism. This system He began to take his first steps Last year, when a police manager named Jia Xiaoliang proposed it at a meeting of the National Popular Party Congress in March 2024. The criticisms of the experts were numerous, and for example Lao Dongyan, a well -known professor of law at the University of Tsinghua, said in Weibo that the system allowed to “install a espionage device for the online activity of people.”

Evogate. That post ended up being erased and the account suspended without being able to publish for three months for “violating important rules.” A year later, when the definitive rules of the project were finally published, there were practically no criticism on social networks. As Xiao explained, it is a typical method in China, which leaves some time before announcing definitive measures to allow some “relief” and those voices end up losing strength.

Image | Joseph Chan

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