On 18 September the National Immigration Administration (NIA) issued a public tender worth RMB 5.6 million (≈USD 770,000) for an off-line data-backup system to be installed in Beijing and Shanghai. The procurement, published on the central government’s procurement portal, calls for redundant servers, cryptographic modules and secure data-transfer mechanisms, with delivery required within 60 days of contract signature. The project is part of a broader post-pandemic IT hardening drive following the State Council’s new Exit-Entry Administration Regulation, which entered into force on 15 September. By isolating critical immigration databases from external networks, officials aim to mitigate cyber-risk and ensure border-inspection continuity during system outages—a concern highlighted by several high-profile airport system failures last year. For corporate mobility teams, the tender signals that China continues to upgrade back-end infrastructure to support faster document issuance and real-time traveller screening. While the tender does not directly affect application procedures, a more resilient backbone could reduce downtime at ports of entry and improve processing times for residence permits and e-Border Management Area Permits introduced earlier this year. Vendors have until 13 October to submit bids, with on-line opening scheduled for 14 October. The tight timeline suggests the NIA wants the system operational before the 2027 Lunar New Year travel peak, when daily border crossings are expected to exceed 2.5 million. Enterprises that integrate with government systems—such as authorised visa-agency platforms or airline API feeds—should anticipate future technical specifications requiring encrypted links to the new backup architecture once live.
