The Chinese government has announced that it will begin fingerprint foreign visitors this Friday.
Diplomats and individuals visiting from countries with which China has special travel agreements will be exempt from the new requirement, which will otherwise apply to everyone between the ages of 14 and 70. The border screening effort will begin in Shenzhen and then gradually roll out across the country.
The announcement came by way of China’s Ministry of Public Security, which called the move “an important border control measure,” adding that “many countries have started to implement the regulation.” As South China Morning Post reports, the ministry indicated that the biometric data would be stored for use by officials, but did not detail whether it would be shared across government agencies.
The move follows last summer’s debut in China of facial recognition technology as an additional security measure in airports, with that technology having been developed by Shanghai Doudian Technologies in collaboration with a research arm of the Ministry of Public Security.
Sources: CTV News, South China Morning Post
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February 9, 2017 – by Alex Perala
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