Legal basis: People's Republic of China (PRC) National Identity Card Law.
Article 3 The contents of the resident identity card registration include: name, gender, nationality, date of birth, permanent residence, citizenship number, personal photo, fingerprint information, validity period of the certificate and issuing authority. Citizenship number is a unique and life-long identity code for every citizen, which is compiled by public security organs according to the national standard of citizenship number. Citizens applying for obtaining, renewing or replacing resident identity cards shall register their fingerprint information.
Article 6 The pattern of resident identity cards shall be formulated by the public security department of the State Council. Resident identity cards are uniformly produced and issued by public security organs. The resident ID card has two functions: visual reading and machine reading. The contents of visual inspection and machine reading are limited to the items specified in the first paragraph of Article 3 of this Law. The public security organ and its people's police shall keep confidential the personal information of citizens known in the production, distribution, inspection and seizure of resident identity cards.