Focus Tibet

After DNA samples, now also iris scanning: China expands biometric total recording

After collecting DNA samples, which have now been taken from about 69% of the Tibetan population, Chinese police appear to be expanding biometrics to include iris scans. As early as February 2020, the online magazine Bitter Winter drew attention to iris scans being collected from the population of northern Tibet in the Chinese province of Qinghai. After further research, the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) concludes that between March 2019 and July 2022, scans of a total of around 1.2 to 1.4 million residents of Qinghai, including children, were collected and stored in police databases. That accounts for about 21% to 25% of Qinghai's 5.9 million population. Exactly half of the population is made up of Tibetans and Hui Muslims, and the other half is Han Chinese.

The figures are based on an analysis of publicly available government documents. Those affected had no way of reading the scans, according to a police notice sent to Haidong Village in Ledu District: “All villagers must come to the police station before June [2020] to have iris scans performed. Otherwise we will hold you accountable». And further, refusing the scans will make it “difficult for them to buy tickets for travel or to withdraw cash in the future.”

Background: iris scans

Iris scans are performed using an infrared camera that captures 200 features of the iris (the eye's rainbow house). These are digitized and stored in a database for retrieval. Border guards, immigration authorities and even the military have long used iris scans to identify people. These are also sometimes used for authentication in payment transactions. The identification of individuals becomes more accurate the more individuals scan themselves and have their data stored for retrieval.

China has used iris scanning since around 2015, initially to locate missing children. Since 2017, mass iris scans have been conducted in East Turkestan (Ch: Xinjiang), along with DNA samples, fingerprints and face scans, and stored in a database in the capital, Urumqi. According to local police authorities, the data is used to identify "targets". These include those that promote “separatism, terrorism, extremism or other threats to social stability”.

Bitter Winter, February 25, 2020 // International Campaign for Tibet, December 17, 2022 // dr. Uwe Meya

Photos: Bitter Winter

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