[jadbox]

As the article mentions, centralized trust has proven that it reaches a certain maximum before being plagued by political, legal, and corruption. I don't know much about the China's state ID system, but based on other systems they've rolled out, I'm sure with enough money and the right contacts you can wipe, fabricate, or change your ID (which is also true for the US). Centralized systems have to also undertake the same problems as decentralized ones, like ensuring records are kept updated, which is no trivial task when providing identity for millions of people(1)

(1) https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/06/25/irs-stim...