China Passport Number

Detects People's Republic of China passport numbers. The current ordinary (e-)passport uses an 'E' prefix followed by one letter (excluding I and O) and 7 digits, or 'E' plus 8 digits. Older series use a 'G' prefix plus 8 digits, and earlier passports used 'P', 'D' (diplomatic) or 'S' (service) prefixes plus 8 digits. The short, loosely structured format means corroborative keyword proximity is strongly recommended.

Type

regex

Engine

boost_regex

Confidence

medium

Confidence justification

Medium confidence: although the prefix letters are constrained, the body is only 7-8 digits, so the pattern can collide with reference codes and serial numbers that happen to start with one of these letters. Corroborative passport keywords within 300 characters are essential for reliable detection.

Jurisdictions

cn

Regulations

PIPL, GDPR

Frameworks

ISO 27001, ISO 27701

Data categories

pii, government-id

Scope

narrow

Platform compatibility

Purview: Compatible, GCP DLP: Unsupported, Macie: Unsupported, Zscaler: Compatible, Palo Alto: Unsupported, Netskope: Unsupported

Pattern

(?<![A-Za-z0-9])[EGDSP][A-DF-HJ-NP-Za-df-hj-np-z]?[0-9]{7,8}(?![A-Za-z0-9])

Corroborative evidence keywords

passport, passport number, passport no, chinese passport, 护照, 护照号, travel document, PRC passport

Proximity: 300 characters

Should match

• EA1234567 — Current ordinary e-passport, E + letter + 7 digits
• Passport No: G12345678 — Older G-series passport, G + 8 digits, labelled
• E98765432 — E-series passport with E + 8 digits

Should not match

• A12345678 — Leading 'A' is not a valid PRC passport prefix letter
• EI1234567 — Second letter I is excluded from the e-passport alphabet
• please attach a copy of your chinese passport before the visa appointment — Prose mention of a passport without an actual number

Known false positives

• Reference codes, invoice numbers or serial numbers that begin with E, G, D, S or P followed by 7-8 digits. Mitigation: Require corroborative passport keywords within 300 characters and validate document context.

References

• Chinese passport (Wikipedia) - passport number formats