When money meant coins a thousand years ago, China invented paper currency. The Chinese government is now issuing digital currency.
Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin have suggested a possible digital future for money, although they operate outside of the existing global financial system and are not a legal currency like government-issued cash.
The Chinese central bank, which will issue the new electronic money, is in charge of the country’s version of a digital currency. It is likely to provide China’s government with a slew of new tools for monitoring the country’s economy and people. By design, the digital Yuan will eliminate one of bit coin’s most appealing features: user anonymity.
Beijing is also preparing the digital Yuan for worldwide usage and designing it to be unattached from the global financial system, which has ruled since World War II and is dominated by the US dollar. China is embracing digitalization in a variety of ways, including money, to achieve greater centralized control while gaining a head start on future technologies that it sees as up to grabs.
