Patients and Beijing residents are currently benefitting from the new electronic health cards issued by Beijing through the WeChat app; the program is facilitated by Tencent and Sinosoft Technology which is aimed to improve the healthcare services by 2030 through digital cards. Currently, the short plans are to systemize patient information and to explore the new applications of the electronic cards in the Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei with plans to collect and combine patient’s information. The electronic health card is currently availing through official WeChat account of Peking University Hospital.

The first batch of ID chips called SIMeID, which are for smartphone users, were issued by the government in Jiangxi province earlier this year. The chip is attached to the phone’s SIM card which can store important identifying information for safer verifications on the internet.

Internet companies like Tencent and Alibaba have also experimented with digitized versions of China’s ubiquitous ID cards. Alibaba is currently testing its Alipay based digital IDs in Zhejiang province and Fujian province. With the virtual IDs the users can book train tickets and check into hotels but is currently limited to local authorities. In 2017, Tencent started issuing ID cards through WeChat in the southern city of Guangzhou.