Has anyone been asked for extra personal information (aside from name and address) when ordering items from China?

On November 18th I ordered some paraphernalia to make business cards at eBay and a day after I am told by the seller that SF Express needs my “id number” so that they can ship the package. It sounded very strange to me as they only really needed my name and address so I declined to provide my id number and told the seller so. The seller replied by saying that he would use a different company, but finally he wrote again saying that SF Express had accepted the package without the “id number"). A few days later I receive a call from Taipei, and from SF Express, and on this call I am told that my package is in customs and that SF Express needs my “passport number” so that they can retrieve my package from customs and send it to me. This also sounded strange to me as in all my time in Taiwan I have received about 100 packages from the outside and only twice a package got stuck at customs; one for the package having a battery and needing and import license by the manufacturer and for which I did not have to do anything as it was dealt between customs and the manufacturer; and another time for needing a medical certificate authorizing me to have a knee pad. My suspicions grew larger so I refused to provide any passport number and I called customs directly. There I was referred to the office handling the clearance of items and where I was told that they did not have any package with the tracking number provided by SF Express. It came then very obvious that SF Express (the largest shipping company in mainland China and with headquarters in Shenzhen, China) wanted badly my passport number to most likely being passed on to the CCP and its cronies. I contacted the local police and I provided to them copies of every proof that I had. They could easily verify by looking at the SF Express website that my package was in customs, they could easily verify by calling customs that my package was not in customs and it had never been and they could easily verify that SF Express in Taipei had called me several times. They said that they would investigate this issue and give me a call that it never happened. Two days later the package arrived at my home after according to the SF Express website it being cleared at customs.

I have no doubt that big companies in China grew strong due to their corrupted government´s help and in exchange for acting as their puppies in command. This includes all of them (Tencent, Alibaba, Xiao Mei, etc…). They have databases on everything that they may need good to have and their dream would be to have 5G technology implemented by their cronies (Huawei) so that they can spy and do worse to people from all over the globe.

Has anyone been asked for extra personal information (aside from name and address) when ordering items from Mainland China?

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I think shenfenzheng or passport is needed as standard, for example on taobao

id is also needed for PayPal, unless I am misstaken

If you think your experience was bad, imagine how it must be for Uighurs.

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To open an account with PayPal is (which I paid wit PayPal), but not for a shipping company. The fact that they lied later by claiming that they needed my passport number while holding the package is probably a crime in Taiwan, especially if it is to collect information for the CCP.

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The experience is a proof that Chinese companies cannot be trusted and that the US is 100% right when it claims that 5G technology cannot be implemented by Huawei or any other CPC friendly company.
The Uighurs issue was dealt on a different post. Follow the rules and use that post to bring your frustrations with this issue there.

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You posted this in International Politics, so it seems like fair game.

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They always ask for my ID#
I always tell them to pound sand

Then they send it anyways

Don’t let them bully you. :no_no:

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AFAIK couriers ask for ID regardless of the sending country. Something to do with customs clearance, supposedly.

According to them it was in customs for almost a week and while they calling me on the phone for 3 different days.
I would say that they went far on me for some reason.

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Package was never in customs, despite them claiming it was for almost a week.

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I’ve never surrendered it, and they’ve never held it back.

The ID request is from the couriers, so that they can fill out a power of attorney on the recipient’s behalf in order to clear the package through customs with their brokers.

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I imagine it’s more to do with enforcing the customs exemption limit: https://tw.forumosa.com/t/new-limits-for-international-shipping-to-taiwan

No, they’ve been doing it for years. I left Taiwan before the limit was established.

Amazon shipping partners sometimes ask for ID to clear customs. And some shipping companies send power of attorney form to fill out to clear customs.
Better is to just give your phone number or email and customs can contact you if the package gets stuck there.
I have dealt directly with customs before when it was not clear to them what some items were.

Cu: What is "pacifier"?
Me: Uhm... You put it in baby's mouth when they cry.
Cu: Ahh, that's okay!

Yeah, but they usually want you to fill out and sign the PoA and give them your ID# ahead of time, when it’s entirely possible that there won’t be any problems at Customs.
I pretty much avoid ever getting more than US$100 worth of stuff, which never gets tagged at Customs, and I always either just ignore their request or, if they press, refusing outright.
And I always get my stuff.

This was all discussed before in the thread on the bullshit new Customs exemptions (which never seemed to have materialised).

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So hopping on this late, but have now had experiences with both Shein (clothing based out of china) and Shopee that no longer will ship the products unless I use some sort of “verification” – either through Jiekou or EZ Way. Unfortunately, I don’t have an ARC at the moment and passport doesn’t seem to quite work for verification as well, so I’m at a loss. I’ve ordered from both of these places for years, so I wonder if this is a recent development? They both cited some Taiwanese customs law.

Can’t answer your question, but to add to it: online buying from China is delayed at the moment due to the virus measures too.