A 35-year-old man from Huangting township under the jurisdiction of Dazhou, Sichuan Province, who has held a steady job in Beijing since graduation, is being suspected as a criminal by his very own fiancée, who he has not been able to wed because he is without a valid Chinese ID card - thanks to a mix-up over his name that has been unresolved for the past three years.

The country's first-generation ID card expired this year and residents nationwide have for years been told to transfer their old cards to a second-generation ID, but the man, known as Nie Lin these days, has failed 22 times to convince his hometown authorities to issue him a new one.

Without a valid ID card, Nie can't register for marriage, buy a house, check into a hotel, register for a bank account, or even travel home by train as China now requires real-time ID registration to buy tickets.

Nie was approved for his first-generation ID card in college, when he was mistakenly registered under the name of Nie Jianyong, before the error was corrected and he was re-registered as Nie Lin, based on the name originally registered to him in his permanent residence booklet.

But in 2010, his illiterate mother, who was helping Nie upgrade his ID card, accidentally re-registered her son as Nie Qianyong, born on February 10, instead of his actual date of birth, March 18 - for which authorities said no record existed.

Recent reports on Nie have since prompted Dazhou police to launch an investigation.

Chengdu Commercial Daily