By Norah ODonnell
An official notice released by Changshu City reveals that the public servants would be paid next month’s salaries using the digital yuan. The April 22 notice provided a list of staff to be paid through digital fiat.
The regulators announced that employees in the public sector, government agencies, and public service providers in Changshu would receive their May salaries in digital yuan. According to the South China Morning Post, employees such as doctors, journalists, and teachers will be paid in digital Renminbi (RMB).
The regulatory agencies in the region collaborated to shift the payment of employees to digital space. It was reported that regulators in Changshu, including the Municipal Bureau of Financial, made joint efforts with the Local Financial Supervision Bureau to push for crypto adoption.
Chinese Crypto Adoption
In a separate announcement, a public servant at a Changshu local hospital was pleased to announce that the May salary would be the first to be settled through digital yuan.
According to the report, the regulators have invested in ensuring that the employees will access their salary through self-owned terminals. The report stated that the Chinese regulators had deployed emerging technologies on the payment system for generating QR codes.
The coding linked to the digital yuan will be available to the users through the public system.
In the wake of the April 22 report, the Chinese civil servants paid through digital currency will utilize the unique e-CNY to settle their bills. In a different report on adopting digital fiat, Changshu Town allowed the residents to settle their expenses, including gas, water, transport, and medical, a few years ago.
The Changshu authority replicates Taicany strategic action in settling employees at a public institution wages in digital yuan last July.
Despite the anti-crypto move in China, the government injected more than 180 million yuan, which translates to $26.5 million, to support the adoption of the central bank cryptocurrency (CBDC).
During the Chinese Lunar New Year celebration, the government gifted the locals substantial crypto assets.
In a recent statement, Jiangsu province launched the pilot project for the CBDC in Q1. During the testing, the regulators targeted to support the efficiency and convenience of the digital currency.
Review of Chinese Pilot Tests for CBDC
Previously, the Suzhou region was one of the largest zones for testing digital currency in 2020. The successful testing of the digital RMB involved distributing $3 million in CDCD airdrops to 10000 Suzhou residents. Other Chinese towns where the testing of the digital RMB included Shenzen, Chengdu, and Xiongan.
The report captured on a local Chinese news site stated that the regulators aimed at reorganizing the digital RMB and its management system before 2025. Besides the proposed digital RMB issuance, the Chinese regulators have campaigned for crypto adoption in more than 17 significant regional provinces.
The race to become an Asia crypto hub has ignited fierce competition in digital asset adoption in the region. It was reported that the ongoing Chinese push for CBDC has created mixed thoughts in the country’s neighbor Hong Kong.
During the launching of the digital RMB hard wallets that was completed after four days, the Hong Kong national failed to support the Chinese regulators. Surprisingly, at the preliminary stage of this launch, 625 Hong Kong issued their signatories out of thousands of participants.
A report from the completed launch demonstrated low adoption of cryptos in China. The attempt to increase the adoption challenged the Chinese government to subsidize the CBDC and discount the prizes by 20%.