The Great Retreat: Beijing’s Digital Currency Ambitions Are Faltering

The world’s largest totalitarian regime, which prides itself on ’social engineering,‘ has hit a ’Great Wall' of human resistance and economic reality.

Signage of the Chinese digital currency is seen near a coffee store in the New Actuation Fintech Center in Beijing on Feb. 17, 2022. Jade Gao/AFP via Getty Images

Commentary

For years, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has positioned the digital yuan (e-CNY) as the ultimate weapon of financial totalitarianism. It was intended to be the crowning achievement of the surveillance state. With a programmable, traceable digital currency, Beijing thought it would finally break the backs of private payment giants such as Alipay and WeChat Pay.