Digital Yuan Gives China a New Tool to Strike Back at Critics
- Beijing could have clear picture of financial transactions
- ‘That currency can be turned off like a light switch’
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Even as China grows in economic and military power, perhaps nothing reveals Beijing’s weaknesses more than the U.S.’s control of the global financial system.
China has recently sought ways to counteract U.S. sanctions after the Trump administration targeted Chinese officials and companies over policies from the South China Sea to Xinjiang. Hong Kong’s leader can’t access a bank account and a top executive at Huawei Technologies Co. is detained in Canada. Even China’s state-run banks are complying with U.S. sanctions.
That’s one reason the Biden administration is starting to study whether China’s development of a digital currency will make it harder for the U.S. to enforce sanctions, Bloomberg reported earlier this month. The digital yuan, which could see a wider roll out at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, is also spurring the U.S. to consider creating a digital dollar.