I. The issuing authorities of passport for public affairs of the People's Republic of China (hereafter referred to as "the passport")

The issuing authorities of the passport include the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China, local offices of foreign affairs authorized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the embassies and the consular missions of the People's Republic of China in foreign countries and the offices of the commissioners of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions. The above-mentioned issuing authorities are also authorized to change, reissue the passport or make notes on it.

II. The design and features of the passport

1．The 48-page passport, 125mm by 88mm in size, is in the Chinese and English languages.

2．With a dark brown soft cover, the passport has a gilded design of the national emblem of the People's Republic of China and its gilded full name in the Chinese and English languages on the front cover.

3．The inside front cover of the passport carries a message of request. Page 1 contains points for attention. Page 2 contains information in case of emergency and the bearer's signature. Page 3 to 45 are visa pages. Page 46 to 48 are observations pages. The inside back cover is the bearer's data page.

4．The inner pages of the passport are made of exclusively-produced paper. Each page contains a watermark of the Great Wall design, a security line and the decoration designs of Chinese knots and dragons.

5．The passport number consists of the capital English letter P and eight Arabic numerals.

III. The specifications of the issuance of the passport

1．The bearer's photograph and personal information shall be printed on the data page, which shall be laminated without the seal of the issuing authority and officer's signature.

2．Explanations to the items on the data page on the inside back cover shall be as follows:

Surname and given names: Chinese characters and their phonetic equivalents shall be on the page, the former on the upper line and the latter on the lower.

Nationality: "中国/CHINESE" is preprinted during manufacture.

Sex: In Chinese and English abbreviation, "男/M"for male and "女/F"for female.

Place of birth: If the bearer's birthplace is in China, the name of the Chinese provincial-level administrative region where he/she was born shall be printed in Chinese characters and their phonetic equivalents (if the birthplace is Hong Kong or Macao, it shall be printed in English). If the bearer's birthplace is abroad, the name of the country where he/she was born shall be printed both in Chinese and English, which shall be separated by a "/".

Issuing authority: The words of "外交部/MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS" shall be printed.

Date of birth, date of issue and date of expiry shall be arranged in the order of day in Arabic numerals, months in English abbreviation and year in Arabic numerals.

3．Notes shall be made on page 46 and 47, or if necessary, on the visa page next to the observations page.

4．The passport is machine-readable. The data page is designed up to the standard recommended by the International Civil Aviation Organization. There are two machine-readable zones on the passport. The machine-readable codes of international standard are printed in the machine-readable zone on the lower part of the data page. The machine-readable codes of Chinese standard are printed in the machine-readable zone on the upper part of the observations page.

IV. The anti-forgery features of the passport

1．The inside front cover is in intaglio printing. Under the 980nm laser, red bright spots can be seen on the Chinese national emblem design, and under the infrared ray lamp, black ink on it fades obviously in color. The decorative lace of the Temple of Heaven design at the bottom has the ability to absorb the infrared ray and thus a soft-magnetic image can be seen under the soft-magnetic inspection instrument.

2．Background line technology is adopted on the inside covers and the inner pages. Rainbow fluorescent in yellow and blue-green can be seen when the background lines are under the ultraviolet lamp, and page number at the bottom of the page turns blue under the violet lamp.

3．Under the UV lamp, the blue letters "SP" in the middle of the inside back cover (the data page) can be seen, and the passport number turns orange.

4．The passport paper contains anti-tampering chemical agents and thus stains in different colors can be seen when correction liquid of different types is used.

5．At the edge of each inner page of the passport, there is a security line, on which the words "中国CHINA" are printed, and a light belt in blue and light yellow can be seen under the UV lamp.

6．Each inner page contains a watermark of the Great Wall design.

7．Under the UV lamp, irregular fibres in red, yellow and blue can be seen on the inner pages and yellow and blue spots on the inside covers.

8．Transparent polyester protective film is used:

(1) A Huabiao, the Chinese ornamental column, and four doves are the main motif in the middle of the film. And the Chinese and English words of "CHINA" can be alternatively seen from different angles.

(2) On the right side of the Huabiao design, there is a short vertical line, on which the micro-letters "CHN" are printed.

(3) The doves on the top appear to be flying when the film is being turned around.

(4) The Chinese knots below the photograph position turns alternatively in green and red when the film is viewed from different angles.