China needs the advantage of the first issuer of digital currency and the first nation to come up with its digital asset, PBOC’s China Finance magazine article states.
According to an article published in China Finance, a magazine run by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), cited by Reuters, the financial world will be taken ablaze by the issuance and circulation of digital currencies. The publication also reads that the right to issue and operate digital assets would be the “new battlefield” of competition between sovereign counties.
China Finance states that the country has to be the first nation to issue a digital currency. Its efforts to internationalize the Yuan and to cast aside its dependence on the global dollar payment system should go on, reads the quoted commentary.
The county should also establish a new payment system network to “break the dollar monopoly” as a significant part of the Yuan internationalization.
According to the article, the country has to boost its speed to be on the first track of the race.
“China has many advantages and opportunities in issuing fiat digital currencies, so it should accelerate the pace to seize the first track.”
A number of state-owned Chinese banks have begun to conduct internal testing of a digital wallet on a large scale. This should bring the country a step closer to the official launching of national digital currency.
The article also reads that improved data feedback from a digital currency would be of a great benefit to enhancing the monetary policy transmission, which can support the economic recovery in the post-COVID period.
As announced, until the end of April this year, the PBOC digital currency research unit has marked 130 patent applications concerning cryptocurrency, including issuance, circulation, and application.
In April, the PBOC digital currency institute announced internal trials of a digital currency electronic payment system in four cities. Back then, there was also a leaked screenshot which was displayed an image of the test version of a mobile app developed by the Agricultural Bank of China – one of the largest state-owned Chinese banks.