China's digital currency moves

With pilot runs for a digital yuan underway, its monetary system could well become an exemplar for other countries

In my column “Translating economic scale into financial heft” (Business Standard, December 20, 2019), I had reported that China was moving towards the launch of a sovereign digital currency based on blockchain technology, although details were still unclear. The launch is now imminent. Known as the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), the digital yuan is already in circulation on a pilot basis in the Xiongan New Area in Hebei province, located between Beijing and Tianjin in Shenzhen(Guangdong) and in Chengdu (Sichuan). 

The English language newspaper Global Times has reported that the Central Bank in collaboration with private companies