China: Use digital currency or get banned?

Although China is the first country in the world to create a digital currency or e-currency, some analysts believe this does not bode well for western companies doing business with the communist country.

The creation of e-currency, according to the Financial Times, will give China an advantage and empower it to punish enterprises that criticise its policies.

According to the Financial Times, China is pressuring American corporations such as McDonald’s, Visa, Nike, and others to install a digital yuan payments system before the Beijing Winter Olympics in February 2022, to allow people to pay with the currency.

Some American companies voiced their opposition to ‘labour camps’ and forced labour in China, accusations denied by the Chinese authorities.

The Western media believes the Chinese regime is devising all sorts of plans to curb the activities and the business of Western companies in mainland China.

Nevertheless, in a commentary on the perceived row between China and some Western companies over digital currency, Anbound, a Beijing-based think tank says the steps taken by the Chinese authorities is a message to Western entities.

Mentioning a former CIA analyst, Yaya Fanusie, who believes the digital renminbi is designed to give China leverage against foreign companies, the think tank says China does not intend to impose the use of the currency on foreign companies.

For Anbound, such comments are untrue and China is not pushing for a digital currency to hurt businesses.