Expect the digital yuan back on China’s 2025 agenda – Winston Ma

 

Winston Ma

The introduction of the digital yuan didn’t make much headlines in 2024, but financial expert Winston Ma, an adjunct law professor at New York University and former managing director at China’s sovereign wealth fund, expects the debate will be back in 2025, he tells the Cointelegraph.

The Cointelegraph:

China’s central bank digital currency was once one of the industry’s hottest topics, but 2024 saw a relatively quieter year for the digital yuan.

Still, Winston Ma, an adjunct law professor at New York University and former managing director at China’s sovereign wealth fund, predicts a strong push for the digital yuan’s overseas expansion in 2025…

Despite … setbacks, China remains committed to its digital finance ambitions. At the third plenum, which is China’s most authoritative meeting with President Xi Jin Ping in attendance, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China announced plans for a renewed focus on the internationalization of its currency, including advancing the digital yuan…

Then in November, Shanghai, China’s financial hub and most populous city, unveiled plans to boost digital finance, including improving digital yuan acceptance.

Ma said that the digital yuan expansion could be met with resistance from the US.

“[This] may be a year where China’s CBDC overseas expansion efforts, especially with the BRICS countries, would meet with challenges from [Donald Trump], as he indicated in his recent tweet about defending the US dollar supremacy,” Ma says…

China has tested retail cross-border digital yuan payments with Singapore. It’s also part of the mBridge project, a wholesale cross-border experiment with the central banks of Thailand, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia.

More in the Cointelegraph.

Winston Ma is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Would you like him at your meeting or conference? Contact us or fill out our speakers’ request form.

Are you looking for more financial experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

China will push ahead with digital currency – Winston Ma

 

Winston Wenyan Ma

China is on track to launch its digital e-yuan currency ahead of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, despite major shocks like the possible demise of financial giant Evergrande, says financial expert Winston Ma at The Street.

The Street:

On the regulatory front, Winston Ma, a former managing director and head of North America at China Investment Corp., said China seemed to be sticking to its original schedule to officially launch its digital currency (e-CNY) at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.”

“Since [the] People’s Bank of China issued its digital currency white paper in July, China has accelerated the testing of e-CNY,” said Ma., author of “The Digital War – How China’s Tech Power Shapes the Future of AI, Blockchain and Cyberspace.”

Chinese media reported last week that a PBoC team visited Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics sites to further test e-CNY ATM and mobile payments, in what’s described by PBoC Vice Gov. Fan Yifei as the “final push,” Ma said.

He added that the West finds hard to grasp the idea that China is many years ahead of the US and Europe in developing sovereign digital currencies.

Ma said that China’s launch of e-CNY as government currency, together with El Salvador’s adoption of bitcoin as legal tender, “will become important reference cases for all nations stepping into digital assets,” Ma said.

More at the Street.

Winston Ma is a financial expert at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your (online) meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

Are you looking for more financial experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.