This is just another stage in biometric population control, which is a universal, and global phenomenon. “Democracy here, dictatorship there” is a dichotomy that is not only wrong, but dangerous, as being exploitable by xenophobes and warmongers of all kinds. Granted, China may be “cutting edge” here, but it is merely a laboratory for oppressive trends that exist globally, and will find other outlets, regardless of what happens in China.
Case in point, in Germany, you cannot get a passport without giving your digitized fingerprints, like a crime suspect. I tried to make them unreadable, but they have an automatic check for that, and they are checked again by a human operator. I told him I didn’t want to give my fingerprints, and that I just wanted a passport and not be processed like a crime suspect. He said if I refused, regulations would not allow him to issue me a passport.
I.e., the German state, which is generally regarded as “democratic” in the above dichotomy, extorts biometric data from its citizens, by penalty of not being able to travel. When this was put into law/regulations, guess what legal requirements were cited? The entry formalities into the United States of America, the most democratic country in the world, whose guns and bombs and cops and databases bring total freedom and liberty - totally unlike evil, dictatorial China whose guns and cops and databases bring oppression and dictatorship. 
