back to article China sets out world domination plan for its digital currency

China’s central bank has laid out a digital currency world domination plan. In an article posted to its own China Finance magazine, the Bank said that the US dollar dominates global commerce and the USA exerts great influence over the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT). The article says the …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    China? Trust?

    OkK, the USA, Europe and the UK etc ain't much better but trust China any further than I could throw the planet?

    1. DavCrav

      "OkK, the USA, Europe and the UK etc ain't much better"

      Actually they are much better, just not good, even given BJ and DT. Our legal systems are by and large independent, less so in the US given the fact that the president and senate have so much control over Spreme Court appointments, whereas nobody with half a brain thinks that Chinese court verdicts aren't decided by the CCP.

      1. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

        Whenever nothing is ever as it seems, is anything possible in schemes hidden behind the scenes

        Crikey, DavCrav, can I have a pair of those magic rose tinted glasses to see the world through, please.

        Others see a view more akin to the info and intel and evidence as presented by tales of trials shared in commentary from authors exercising their writing skills here, in a present series of court reports and here in a thoroughly unpleasant history lesson ..... although that in no way is meant to suggest that you are not correct in your own assertions but just that they be indelibly tainted and corrupted by both present and past events.

        The secret/trick though is to ensure that they do not unduly successfully blight the future with further outrageous shenanigans ...... and that may be a novel facility not ever so easily made readily available before.

        Imagine IT as an AI and Greater IntelAIgent Games Changer and you'll not be wrong?

        1. DavCrav

          Re: Whenever nothing is ever as it seems, is anything possible in schemes hidden behind the scenes

          Ren Zhiqiang called Winnie the Xi a clown for his covid response, and then promptly disappeared and turned up in a Chinese jail. 18 years for some nonsense charges. And he was a powerful businessman.

          Let me know when the same thing happens in the US. Trump might not like people calling him nasty names, but he hasn't had the Secret Service kidnap people for it.

          1. urekis

            Re: Whenever nothing is ever as it seems, is anything possible in schemes hidden behind the scenes

            Aha don't be letting the facts get in the way of a good slander of chinamen eh?

            Ren was found to have “taken advantage of his position to embezzle more than 110 million yuan in public funds, received more than 1.25 million yuan in bribes, abused his power and caused particularly heavy losses of more than 100 million yuan to a state-owned holding company,” the court said in a statement.

            Ren accepted the decision and decided not to appeal, the Global TImes newspaper reported.

  2. mrdalliard
    Alert

    Did they watch Mr Robot too?

    **coughs**

    Dark Army?

  3. analyzer

    And so begins the middle game

    Chinas BRI is very extensive, giving them a huge market to play with this. It may well become the only digital currency that is sovereign backed and there are large parts of the world, including the oil producers, who may well have no problem using it.

    As Chinas economy continues to grow faster than the US this is the biggest threat to the dominance of the US dollar since it took over from Sterling. This presents the US with a major issue of debt repayment, a big chunk of which will need to be paid back when the transition occurs. The UK got away with it because that transition was relatively smooth, well it cost the empire over the next 30 or so years but hey. If the US fights tooth and nail because 'exceptionalism' then it will be very painful collapse of its empire.

    1. DavCrav

      Re: And so begins the middle game

      "Chinas BRI is very extensive, giving them a huge market to play with this. It may well become the only digital currency that is sovereign backed and there are large parts of the world, including the oil producers, who may well have no problem using it."

      No. To understand why you need to know what a global reserve currency needs to have:

      1) A deep and liquid bond market, so that money can be stored in that denominated currency, backed by a central bank that one trusts not to debase the currency;

      2) No capital controls of any sort.

      China will need to have both of those to have a chance, and it refuses to do 2), and 1) will not be around for a while.

      1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        Re: And so begins the middle game

        How much US debt does China hold now? In terms of US GDP?

        1. DavCrav

          Re: And so begins the middle game

          "How much US debt does China hold now? In terms of US GDP?"

          Who cares? You cannot call in government paper, so the only thing they can do is sell it. There are plenty of buyers for small amounts of teasury notes, and you cannot shift large mounts of it for the precise reasons above, that you need to sell it and buy something else with it, as there's no such thing as pure money.

          1. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

            Re: And so begins the middle game.... and endeth the first vital valuable lesson

            Who cares? You cannot call in government paper, so the only thing they can do is sell it. There are plenty of buyers for small amounts of teasury notes, and you cannot shift large mounts of it for the precise reasons above, that you need to sell it and buy something else with it, as there's no such thing as pure money. .... DavCrav

            Who cares, DavCrav? The government creating the paper/treasury notes/private debt/public credit for third party purchase via first party sales auctions cares, or they certainly most definitely should, for whenever there are no future foreign or alien buyers, the SWIFTNetwork* and Federal Reserve Banking System in the case of the US has the dubious ignominious pleasure of having to pay the bills in full and eat its own waste, as in depleted toxic product ....... and it was never ever designed to facilitate that and therefore fundamental systemic catastrophic future problems are guaranteed to be endemic and unavoidable? It is the worst of all possible places and situations to be in, methinks, and that is not a wilful misunderestimation for such is what it is presently currently is, is it not?

            If this was tennis..... that would akin to Game, Set and Match to China by virtue of opposing competing on-court player meltdown/breakdown ..... but it aint tennis. If you're one of those eternal optimist types, you may venture Game and 1st Set to China, hoping to witness a Fine Spectacle of such Plays.

            * SWIFTNetwork .... Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication Network

            1. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

              Helicopter Money/Universal Basic Income via the Back Stop Front Door/Emergency Exit

              Coming soon too to the UKGBNI ? :-) Don't bet against it if you have something or nothing precious to lose. :-) ..... https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/loretta-mester-hints-fed-preparing-deposit-digital-dollars-directly-each-american

              Everything else is being tried and failing miserably and spectacularly, as the exclusive systems of elite executive administrations try in vain to put everything back to the way it was, to the unseemly greater benefit of the former parasitic status quo, before it all started to collapse and implode and explode. Something practically new and universally helpful is definitely called for.

              Surely they are not criminally stupid and mentally retarded, not realising something relatively new and somewhat different is necessary to be tried and tested.

    2. hoola Silver badge

      Re: And so begins the middle game

      And they are probably equally concerned about the likes of Facebook and other dodgy organisations trying to get in with a digital currency. If heaven forbid, a central bank came up with something then it might be trustworthy but at the moment the is nothing.

      This will be the catalyst for one of the big social media platforms to have another go and frankly the are probably just as bad as the Chinese, if not worse.

      Does the West really want Facebook, Google, Amazon or any of the other big tech players running a major digital currency? This needs to be treated just like regular money managed by a central bank.

  4. John Jennings

    Trying to oust the Dollar

    Is likely to lead to war.

    The Dollar is the US main instrument of control.

    Its not necessarially a shooting one. Lybia & Iraq tried that with the oil based 'golden dinar' - it didnt end well....https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/apr/21/libya-muammar-gaddafi

    1. Julz

      Similar Circumstances

      As you say might already have lead to shooting wars if you recall that Iraq started transacting for oil in 2003 in Euros prior to the various 'military actions'. There was also consistent speculation that they were trying to set up an oil exchange (a rival to the dollar loving OPEC) running in Euros which would have been v bad news for the USA.

      Some old analysis:

      https://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/173/30447.html

  5. Cuddles

    Interesting idea

    "The article therefore calls for the Digital Yuan to be usable across borders"

    A large part of the reason the renminbi can't compete with the dollar on the international stage is that it's pretty much illegal to take it out of the country. It's only in the last decade that it's been allowed outside China at all, and it's still largely restricted to banks and certain businesses interacting with a limited selection of other countries. Chinese currency is worthless to most normal people outside China because you can't actually take it or use it anywhere. Obviously there are a variety of political and economic issues that might prevent it replacing the dollar if it were allowed out in the wild, but by far the biggest factor at the moment is the Chinese government actively blocking it from even attempting to do so.

    If this new digital currency does succeed, it won't be because they've been first adopters breaking the way into a brave new world, it will simply be that there are enough people wanting to use Chinese currency instead of dollars that they'll all jump on it as soon as they're actually allowed to do so. Throw out the digital part and just open up the existing renminbi and you'd see exactly the same thing happen.

    1. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

      Re: Interesting idea/Absolutely Fabulous Fabless Experiment

      It's only in the last decade that it's been allowed outside China at all, and it's still largely restricted to banks and certain businesses interacting with a limited selection of other countries. .... Cuddles

      And one assumes for interaction with a limited number other politically sensitive and decidedly designed quite surreal, home government agencies too. ‽ State IntelAIgent Services Practising with Virtualised Space Sources .......trailing and trialing and testing and training Advanced IntelAIgent China Centric Cyber Forces ‽ .

      Such would create a Secure Failsafe Closed Loop to fund/run Future Progression with a Pan Nationalised Control of/for/with IntelAIgent State Services well experienced in such fields of such tragic and heavenly endeavour.

      Certainly worth a punt, if ever one wanted to share a share in a piece of some Future ACTions. Such puts One Ahead in an AI Leading Role, Deep Routed and Dark Web Rooted in the Thick of the ProgramMING.

      I wonder if that would create a few sparks if the likes of an Elon Musk punted a seed investment :-) ... which they might rightly consider be just as loose pocket change and a legitimate business expense to be clawed back via Grateful EMPowering Reimbursements from Government Bodies. That's Win Win, No Losses.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Interesting idea

      "A large part of the reason the renminbi can't compete with the dollar on the international stage is that it's pretty much illegal to take it out of the country."

      Not quite, you can take out up to 20,000RMB (equivalent to about £2,300) in cash legally from China. I know this this 'cos I regularly do it and have been doing so for several years.

      Any high street bank will happily accept it.

      You are correct about government regulations though, Bank transfers are quite difficult though but for savvy old China-hands it's possible.

  6. CrackedNoggin Bronze badge

    " ... gives China the chance to reach its goal of challenging the US near-monopoly, because China has a first-mover advantage ..."

    In theory. In reality China has aimed for being the worlds export manufacturer of every basic item - for which a cheaper reminbi is essential. So China keeps buying US Treasury bonds as a sink for their mountain of US dollars, to keep the supply of dollars down, and so raise the dollars value relative to the reminbi.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sorry, what is a "Digital Yuan"?

    ....or "a digital version of its currency"?

    Is this separate from the existing Yuan/Renminbi (which- as someone else pointed out- is very restricted in how it can be taken and used outside China) or something completely different?

    It doesn't appear to be a cryptocurrency, so how does it vary from the US Dollar et al that can already be used online? (*) Or is it just a payment platform rather than a currency per se?

    In short, what does it offer- as a currency- that's not already available?

    (*) Assuming that's what "digital" is meant to be a synonym for. And yeah, it pisses me off that "digital" is now treated as synonymous with "online". Like a "digital" version of a film as opposed to all those analogue DVDs, right? Or "analogue" currencies for that matter...

  8. Bibbit

    They might as well go the whole hog and call it E-Coin. Am I now living in Season bloody 4?

  9. IGotOut Silver badge

    To be fair...

    ...it's about time other countries / continents broke up currencies.

    As well as the Dollar, US payment systems such Visa, Mastercard, Paypal.

    About time these became less dominate.

  10. jetjet

    The problem with communist countries is that they don't care about private ownership and property and when you keep your money there - one morning they couldn't be yours anymore.

  11. YetAnotherJoeBlow

    "...which means its populace will happily adopt a Digital Yuan" - as if it matters.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Dodgy driving

    White Yuan Man anyone?

  13. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

    Digital currency? Pfaugh.

    I'm tired of all this digital money. I want continuous money. If I make an irrational purchase, I want to pay an irrational amount for it.

    And for buying something really good, I'd like a transcendent price. "This lovely automobile can be yours for only $20000π!"

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Aaaaand, it's gone (southpark)

    So if you have Chinese E currency, and the China Gov decides they don't like you for any reason, can they just make you broke with a key stroke?

    I think this is really being done to prevent "private" financial transactions all together.

    Also read today that Chinese people are discouraged from buying precious metals very recently. The new E-currency has scared people into buying so much they rocketed the price of gold. Crazy world we live in.

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