China will fingerprint all its 1.3 billion people, said authorities.
Chinese police have moved a step closer to launching a system to register citizens' fingerprints in 2013, reported People's Daily.
The Ministry of Public Security Thursday started to invite fingerprint reader manufacturers to bid for a list of recommended equipment to be used, said a report in the Beijing Youth Daily.
On Oct 29, 2011, China adopted an amendment to its Resident Identity Card Law to require citizens' fingerprints to be recorded.
The new policy will be enforced from Jan 1, 2013, when the country's first version of ID cards, which were launched in 1985, will expire.
The second-version card was issued in 2004 and by 2010, 1.04 billion people, had received the second version.