Why China’s digital currency threatens the country’s tech giants
A local resident uses his smartphone to scan the QR code through the mobile app of Tencent's WeChat Payment function to pay her purchases at a market in Yichang city, in central China's Hubei province, on April 29, 2019. Photo by Zhang Guorong/Oriental Image via Reuters.
As China accelerates its efforts to widely distribute its digital currency before the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, Chinese officials are reassuring the public that the initiative is simply about strengthening the monetary system. The furthest thing from their minds, the government insists, is undercutting the role of China’s “tech giants” in the mobile economy.