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The Qingdao branch of the Bank of China (BOC) has rolled out a new payment option for Qingdao Rail Transit through digital yuan hardware wallets for payments without network and electricity. This "deferred payment" system allows travelers to use the public transit service first and pay later with the hardware wallet featured enabled on users' smartphones. This functionality requires the use of an Android-based smartphone running a "Super SIM" card that stores digital yuan account information for use when there's no network or electricity, introduced by China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom in 2023. https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1794932657646082801&wfr=spider&for=pc

Citing an official document, China Star Market said that Suzhou municipal government employees would receive 50% of their May transportation subsidies in DCEP. The digital currency will be issued to them by four state-owned banks, including the Agricultural Bank of China, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the Bank of China, and the China Construction Bank.

Crypto-asset miners have halted all or part of their China operations after Beijing intensified a crackdown on bitcoin mining and trading. Huobi suspended both crypto-mining and some trading services to new clients from mainland China to focus on overseas businesses. BTC.TOP, a crypto mining pool, also announced the suspension of its China business citing regulatory risks, while crypto miner HashCow said it would halt buying new bitcoin mining rigs.

Meituan Dianping, the China's largest wholesale and delivery platform, is the latest firm to to join the People's Bank of China's central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot that launched in April. They join DiDi Chuxing, China's Uber counterpart, and streaming platform Bilibili. The total number of customers of the three services combined is over 1 billion people within China. The CBDCpilot is reportedly being conducted in four cities: Shenzhen, Suzhou, Chengdu and Xiong'an. Other pilot participants include four state-owned banks, including the Agricultural Bank of China, and a number of large companies, including Huawei, China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom.

The People's Bank of China (PBoC) China National Clearing Center (CNCC) and its Digital Currency Research Institute (DCRI) has partnered with SWIFT to launch a new financial payment service, Finance Gateway Information Service Limited. No further details on the functions or scope of the funding were offered on the registration document. SWIFT owns 55% of the incorporation contribution, CNCC owns 34%, DCRI 3%, CNCC's subsidiary Cross-border Interbank Payments and Settlement Limited (5%), and the Clearing Association of China (3%).

Chinese crypto-asset exchange Huobi announced that it has stopped account registration for new customers in mainland China and will close down the accounts for existing mainland Chinese users by December 31. Huobi had already been scaling back its operations and product offerings in China. In July, Huobi closed its Beijing Huobi Network Technology entity and tightened over-the-counter trading restrictions. The exchange, in June, stopped offering crypto derivatives trading to users in China and Taiwan. The exchange had also stopped hosting Bitcoin mining services and providing leverage trading.

The Bank of China has partnered with China Telecom and China Unicom to test SIM card near-field communication (NFC) payments for the e-CNY on specific Android smartphones in certain regions. The SIM card hardware wallet shares its balance with the main wallet, eliminating the need for separate top-ups. In order to make payments, users are only required to move their mobile phones close to point of sales terminals, even with a switched-off smartphone. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Il2p2rKE116xMh97Ml0wQg

The Beijing Local Financial Supervision and Administration Bureau is going to give away 40 million yuan in China's latest central bank digital currency (CBDC) test. 200,000 red envelopes, containing 200 digital yuan each, will be given away to local residents via a lottery run through apps of the Bank of China and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. To date, China has conducted 10 digital yuan lottery campaigns across 5 cities, according to The Block's. Those campaigns started in October 2020, and a total of 230 million digital yuan has been given away. http://jrj.beijing.gov.cn/jrgzdt/202106/t20210601_2403630.html

The price of Bitcoin fell 5% yesterday following "breaking" (read: weeks old) news that the People's Bank of China (PBOC) had declared all cryptocurrency transactions illegal. With that in mind, Cointelegraph took a nostalgic look at the last 12 years of FUD out of China. Altogether, since 2009, China has "banned" or otherwise caused FUD in the crypto space on more than 19 separate occasions.

The People's Bank of China started research on legal digital currency as early as 2014 and has been in a leading position. China's legal digital currency (DC/EP) has five advantages: solid credit endorsement, huge user base, strong user habits, leading theoretical framework, and RMB internationalization. In 2019, the People's Bank of China basically completed the top-level design, standard formulation, function research and development, and joint debugging and testing of legal digital currency. In 2020, starting from April when the new crown pneumonia epidemic was brought under control in China, DC/EP began a small-scale pilot work.

China needs to become the first nation to issue a digital currency in its push to internationalise the yuan and reduce its dependence on the global dollar payment system, a commentary published in the People's Bank of China's China Finance magazine. It said the rights to issue and control a digital currency would become a "new battlefield" of competition between sovereign countries. The article also argued that the improved data feedback from a digital currency would help enhance monetary policy transmission. [http://www.chinafph.com/]

Singapore-based Conflux is piloting an offshore renminbi (RMB) stablecoin in a free trade zone (FTZ) in Shanghai, in a move to boost cross-border payments. It will run on the Conflux Network, China's only regulatory compliant public blockchain, which has also received endorsements from the Shanghai and Hunan governments. As part of China's five-year plan, Shanghai will be the central focus of global free trade and shipping in China. In July the Government of China granted Shanghai permission to explore free trade with an offshore RMB stablecoin; the only free trade zone in China to pilot trade with RMB.

Tourists visiting the People's Republic of China can now pre-charge their digital yuan wallets using Visa and Mastercard payment options. Inbound tourists are reportedly able to make use of overseas mobile numbers to register and open e-CNY wallets and make use of the recharge wallet feature, which supports Visa and Mastercard payments. They must "top up" with at least 100 yuan (around $14) and if they have any funds left in their wallets when they depart China, they can request a refund, after which funds are automatically transferred back to their credit card accounts. This coincides with the start of the Asian Games. https://cryptonews.com/news/foreign-travelers-can-now-use-chinas-digital-yuan-app.htm

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and People's Bank of China (PBOC) have agreed to allow tourists from either country to use the pilot digital yuan central bank digital currency (CBDC). Visitors to China have likely been able to use the digital yuan for some time, so the innovation here is that Chinese visitors will be able to use it in Singapore. This follows increasing integration between the digital yuan and Hong Kong, enabling visitors in both directions to use the CBDC, but given China's control over Hong Kong, that's rather different. https://www.mas.gov.sg/news/media-releases/2023/singapore-and-china-enhance-digital-finance-and-capital-markets-cooperation

China has launched its first automated digital yuan wallet-opening machine for holders of overseas passports, Hong Kong and Macau ID cards, and other identity verification documents. The machine allows users to exchange foreign currency banknotes for digital yuan on an automatically opened hard wallet. Existing digital yuan wallet holders can also use the machine to make overseas cash-powered top-ups. Visitors to China had been able to buy digital yuan with overseas payment cards via the central bank's official CBDC mobile app. https://www.21jingji.com/article/20231225/herald/c19cc78b8ec4fd1155889907f7efcdd3.html

The Deputy Chairman of the State Duma, Alexander Babakov, suggested that Russia, China and India should trade using a common digital currency, which could be a digital ruble, rupee or yuan. "India, Russia, and China are the countries that now create a multipolar world that is backed by the majority of countries. Its creation should be based on establishing new financial ties based on a system that does not safeguard today's dollar and euro, but rather creates a new currency capable of serving our goals," he said. https://tass.com/economy/1596017

People's Bank of China deputy governor Fan Yifei outlines why he favours an indirect approach to introducing a CBDC in China.

The People's Bank of China held a teleconference on April 3 in Beijing, China. One of the main points confirmed during the call involved the institution's continued research and development of a central bank digital currency, or CBDC.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) announced that its joint venture with SWIFT will start offering cross-border transaction services. The Finance Gateway Information Services Company will set up a Chinese network for financial messaging services. The firm will also set up a localized data warehouse to monitor and analyse cross-border payment messaging. The Finance Gateway Information Services Company was set up in mid-January, as a joint venture between SWIFT and the China National Clearing Centre, a PBOC subsidiary. Minority shareholders include China's Cross-border Interbank Payment System (CIPS), the Payment & Clearing Association of China and the PBoC Digital Currency Research Institute.http://www.pbc.gov.cn/goutongjiaoliu/113456/113469/4212383/index.html

Welcome to China. You Probably Can't Buy Anything, Though. Foreign tourists in China looking to buy a bottle of water or a taxi ride with cash or credit card are finding themselves out of luck.