Why Chinese Characters Aren’t Used in Passwords and How to Strengthen Yours

Why Chinese characters aren’t used in passwords

Passwords are ubiquitous in everyday life, from app logins to mobile payments, but they never include Chinese characters. The reasons stem from the history of computing, technical challenges, user habits, security considerations, and standardization.

1. Historical tradition

Early computers and mainstream operating systems were developed abroad using English‑based programming languages, so passwords naturally consisted of English letters, numbers, and symbols.

2. Higher encryption complexity

While Chinese characters can be used, they typically require two or more bytes per character, making encryption and storage more complicated compared to single‑byte ASCII characters.

3. User habits

Most users are accustomed to passwords composed of letters, numbers, and symbols, often guided by password‑strength meters that encourage such combinations.

4. Input safety

When typing Chinese characters, input method editors display candidate words on the screen, which can be observed by others, whereas alphanumeric passwords are masked by asterisks or dots.

5. Unified standards

Global services adopt a uniform password policy to reduce maintenance costs; supporting Chinese characters would require additional language‑specific handling and could affect compatibility with foreign systems.

How to improve password security

Avoid sequential numbers or letters.

Do not use personal information such as names, birthdays, or ID numbers.

Never share passwords and avoid storing them on devices.

Use different passwords for different sites or applications.

Bind accounts to a phone number or email for multi‑factor protection and change passwords promptly if compromised.