Taiwan vacillates…
CNA, the Taiwanese official newsagency reports New ID card launch preparations to be based on fingerprint requirement
A confusing story. They’ve had ID cards for years, but, are painfully moving in the opposite direction from the British government,
[...] the Excutive Yuan passed a revised draft bill to remove the fingerprint requirement from the existing household registration law. [...] It has been learned that if the bill is not approved, the Interior Ministry will have to purchase around 900 fingerprint scanners at a total cost of NT$500 million (US$15.87 million). Noting that ID cards should be renewed every 10 years according to the existing regulations, [Interior Minister] Su said that the launch of a new version of the national ID card has been delayed for 19 years because of the controversy over the fingerprints issue.
For much of that period the country was a military dictatorship over a Confucian society menaced by a large and powerful neighbour–and still fingerprinting the population has remained controversial!
