China is reportedly building the world's most powerful facial recognition system which aims to identify any one of its 1.4 billion citizens within three seconds.

 

The main goal is for the system to match someone's face to their ID photo 90 per cent of the time.

The project, launched by the Ministry of Public Security in 2015, is in development and collaborating with a security company based in Shanghai.

According to the South China Morning Post, the 1.4 billion-person facial recognition system is being developed by Isvision, which told the newspaper it had won the contract last year.

The company declined to provide details.

Isvision security cameras with facial recognition capabilities were first used in Tiananmen Square as early as 2003, according to the company's website. The political 'hot-spot' is situated close to government buildings and remains under heavy security.

The company's systems are connected to the police database of suspects, capable of recognising and tracking potential targets in a large crowd.

Experts have said the new nation-wide system is being developed for the same reasons.

The huge system will be connected to surveillance CCTV networks.