Mr Chen, 45, applied for a certificate confirming his lack of criminal convictions, but was told by Chinese officials that he had been convicted and executed in 2006 for kidnapping.

It later emerged that he shared the name and identity card number of a late criminal due to an administrative error.

Since 2009, Chinese authorities have been forced to deal with more than a million duplicate identity card numbers.

Guangzhou police admitted their mistake and later issued him with a valid disclosure certificate.

As of June, the Ministry of Public Security says there are now only 10 duplicate identity card numbers left.