He Shouwei: Safeguarding the Country's Border with Technological Ingenuity

By Ding Xin

"We will be committed to empowering policing with technology so as to live up to our pledge to the Party and the people of maintaining the peace and prosperity of our country," announced He Shouwei in his speech at the Cloud Commendation Ceremony in tribute to role models of the national immigration authorities on June 16. In another award ceremony to honor heroes from the national public security system,He was awarded the title of "Super Role Model of the National People's Police," and at the same time, the Identification Document Research Center of the Beijing General Station of Immigration Inspection where he works was rated a "Merit Grassroots Organ of the National Public Security System".

What's the responsibility of the Identification Document Research Center? How come He Shouwei was awarded the title of "Super Role Model of the National People's Police"? What are their stories?

"The Forgery Combating Squad"

Known as "the first screen to safeguard national security", the Beijing General Station of Immigration Inspection is affiliated with the National Immigration Administration and mainly responsible for immigration inspection at the Beijing ports.

If an immigration officer suspects a traveler during border inspection, he or she needs to first determine the authenticity of the holder's identification documents."The task of our Identification Document Research Center is just to help authenticate the ID documents,"explained He Shouwei.

Since its inception in 2012, the center has screened more than 250,000 identification documents and identified 2,500 forged ones, and therefore is widely hailed as "the forgery-combating squad defending China's border" .

Fake IDs literally jeopardize national security.Amid the appalling 9/11 attacks in 2001, the terrorists snuck on board using fake passports for disguise; in the London Underground bombings in 2005 and the Paris terrorist attack in 2015, there were also false IDs at play.It's fair to say that most international terrorist activities are somehow linked with forged IDs and a counterfeit passport sometimes can be more devastating than real weapons. Many gruesome realities have told us that the security of immigration documents has a direct bearing on the national security.

A high risk of misjudgment in ID verification has put He Shouwei and his colleagues under considerable stress. Moreover, they are inexperienced rookies in this area, comparing unfavorably with their counterparts in developed countries.

The Beijing General Station of Immigration Inspection, however, has a unique advantage. As one of the busiest ports in northeast Asia with as many as 26.6 million annual cross-border travelers, it has dealt with over 2,000 types of passports and visas issued by governments of more than 200 countries and regions.In this sense, the station is a natural data bank for ID research and thus paves the way for the center's further development.

The center started from the basics and eventually built up the largest database within the country's public security system, composed of as many as 17,000 real ID samples.

"Normally, when a country issues a new version of immigration documents, it will provide two samples for other governments involved. In China, one of the two copies is put on record in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the other is kept in our center," said He Shouwei proudly.

Apart from ID samples, the treasure trove also has in place the fake documents seized at the capital ports. That's why it can provide backup support in ID verification for immigration authorities at all levels across China.

"We often organize training sessions for frontline officers of the general station so that they can keep their professional expertise updated," He explained, adding,"The concept of life-long learning fits well in our center.It is common to see a policeman in his 50s sitting in class with reading glasses." He Shouwei has given lessons on so many occasions that his colleagues now kindly address him as Teacher He.

In Teacher He's own mind, however, he is no different from his colleagues. "There are over 20 officers in our center, each focused on a specific field,such as biometric identification based on portraits or fingerprints, electronic chips and autograph penmanship." He continued, "I myself specialize in printing related area, including printing ink, paper,inspection devices and other hardware. We will examine a passport design on account of its historical and cultural background and verify its authenticity based on multi-disciplinary knowledge including paper making,printing, chemistry, physics, biometric characteristics and trace detection skills before we can finally identify the ID holders as well as their travel purposes. Our mission is 'to guarantee no single fake document will bluffits way out'."

Making Passports "Talk"

When it comes to ID verification, He Shouwei has something to offer: "Passports, like our currency Renminbi, involve many forgery-proof technologies,and our job is to decode the encrypted messages and make passports 'talk'."

"When I just started to work in the center, our ID verification mainly depended upon cross-referencing samples," explained He, picking up a copy of a passport for demonstration. "To put it simply, what we did back then was to make a distinction between the copy in question and the real sample."

Overdependence on samples begets some downsides. Once a sample for reference wasn't available, we would be stuck for means of effective verification, let alone reliable conclusions.

Can't we find new ways to make passports "talk"?

He Shouwei began to study exterior features and interior rationales of various forgery-proof technologies and eventually came up with an innovative idea for ID verification: ID security should be evaluated in terms of how the document is made.

The head of the center fully embraced He's groundbreaking idea, "The method represents a step forward in ID verification, which parts with the old'comparison' model and gets on the right track of scientific means."

Acting on scientific ID verification over the past few years, the center has helped crack myriad newly emerging major cases confronted by immigration inspection stations across China.

On New Year's Day 2016, the Beijing Capital International Airport witnessed a higher-than-usual hustle and bustle in immigration control. He had hardly started his shift when one of his colleagues approached him to ask for help. "Teacher He, would you please help me determine the authenticity of this extension permit?"

"I felt suspicious about the traveler's itinerary,but everything about the permit seems OK, including the security paper, fluorescent pattern, miniaturized texts, deformed graphics as well as other forgery-proof technologies," the colleague whispered, adding, "but to be sure, I still need a second opinion."

"The forgery-proof technologies do seem applied,but this alone can't be taken as a surefire bet; after all,forgers are already technologically savvy," explained He Shouwei. He took the document and immediately buried himself in an in-depth examination and finally detected an abnormality in the fine "security fibers". He told his colleague, "The color and the distribution of the'security fibers' make it very clear that this is nothing but a delicately forged document."

The fake ID holder had no choice but to come clean: He had been studying in China in recent years,but his passport was due to expire soon, so he went to Dubai and spent a lot of money on a fake extension permit only to be caught red-handed the minute he entered China.

In fact, only solid technical expertise can make passports "talk". Just like a cunning fox can never outwit an experienced hunter, a forgery can never escape from an eagle-eyed immigration officer.

"Passport Research Is a Battle"

The topic of forgery-proof technology loosened his tongue: "ID research is a battle between forging technologies and forgery-resistant ones. I want to learn all the forging technologies so that no forged IDs will pass offand forgery itself will be rendered pointless."

He Shouwei has already invented a world leading technology: the forgery-proof multi-color ultraviolet fluorescent light.

The ultraviolet fluorescent light image is a traditional forgery-proof technology ubiquitously applied in passport design. The image, though invisible in ordinary rays, can present different colors under ultraviolet light and therefore can be used for forgery detection. As one of its downsides, however, ultraviolet fluorescent light presents only monochrome lines with no variation of color shades. Because of this, it's already on the verge of being cracked by forgers in recent years and consequently not as secure as it once was.

So He Shouwei started figuring out a new type of fluorescent light forgery-proof technology which could be "easier to detect but harder to forge" than its predecessor.

He immediately occupied himself with collecting data in libraries, visiting experts for technical suggestions and doing experiments in research institutes.

His team tried out various methodologies involving a large amount of data validation. Once a test failed,they had to start over again.

"Each failure threw a wet blanket on me, but I knew research entailed many for lone and frustrating moments."

He Shouwei and his colleagues never flinched away from the setbacks. In 2018, their design passed tests in the lab. After dozens of modulations in the workshop,they finally launched their multi-color ultraviolet fluorescent light forgery-proof technology.

The new technology seems to have only added an element of "multi-color" to the old one, but the forgeryproof effect improves exponentially. Once under the ultraviolet rays, papers with this technology will instantly present more graphic and colorful images.If painting techniques are used as an analogy, images presented with the traditional technology are like rough brushwork, while the ones with the new invention look like delicate strokes. This technology leads the whole world in terms of forgery-proof printing technique and is currently in the application process for a national invention patent.

"I hope one day it will be widely applied in ID making and helps us combat forgery more effectively,"He said with sparkling eyes.

He also strove to implement device upgrades alongside new technologies.

The devices used on site for ID verification have many problems: some can only be used while fixed on table; others offer a narrow vision and hence allow a limited view. After two years of trial and error, He and his team developed an industry-leading "portable multispectral electronic ID reader" with the nickname of"inspection mouse". The palm-sized device with a highdefinition magnifier display works under all common lights. That is to say, officers can easily make a thorough ID examination while holding it in hand and can even take a screen shot when necessary. As soon as the"inspection mouse" was put in use, it became popular with all officers, who heartily described it as "a handy device". The device won the National Utility Model Patent in January 2019 and the National Public Security Grassroots Technology Innovation Award later the same year. Against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic,where heavy protective outfits and goggles are required on site, officers on duty find the "mouse reader" ever more convenient and efficient, drastically cutting the time for customs clearance. The little "mouse" will surely continue to contribute to security maintenance at the ports.

This is He's story. He has many titles, but still insists that he is just an ordinary immigration officer.Years of fruitful ID research speaks not only to his qualities such as adventurousness, persistence,courage and self-discipline, but also to his ingenuity in safeguarding the country's border.