Kindergarten caretaker Liao Juchang was among the first people to register last week when Shenzhen began a pilot scheme to issue migrant workers with a smart residency card. Like others without a hukou, or residency permit, he looked forward to signing up because local authorities promised it would entitle him to benefits enjoyed by permanent residents, including free education for his children.
'Life will surely be more convenient with the new residency card if the authorities fulfil their pledge,' says the 37-year-old, who works in Shatoujiao, the mainland half of Sha Tau Kok village.
With the smart card, Liao can expect to save at least 3,000 yuan annually on school fees for his two children - a significant sum for a working-class family. He and his wife will also be able to apply for permits to visit Hong Kong and Macau directly from Shenzhen police instead of returning to his hometown of Meizhou in Guangdong to arrange travel papers.
As he left the residency card centre in Yantian district on September 12, the first day for registration, what Liao didn't realise was that the card would enable his activities to be tracked through an integrated information platform linked to about 20,000 surveillance cameras installed across Shenzhen. Phase one of the system is developed by China Public Security Technology, a software company owned by tycoon Lin Jianghui.
Introducing the first such scheme on the mainland, Shenzhen officials see the card as a tool to fight crime and control its huge migrant population. But the powerful tracking system is stirring concern over a Big Brother-style invasion of privacy and heated comments on the internet about discrimination against migrants.
Computer chips embedded in the cards store a wealth of personal information from name, religion and marital status to address, education background, job and medical insurance status, one-child policy conditions and contact number. According to the Shenzhen Police Bureau, all 2.6 million rental flats and houses in the city have been coded and migrants' addresses will be matched against them.