Freezing cross-province transfers and replacing $86 billion
in paper yuan is only consolidating a process of surveillance where
Beijing can monitor all transactions.
It’s still getting bad in China, where reported coronavirus cases are
doubling every 7-10 days. Until that exponential contagion curve
flattens out, we just don’t know how far the outbreak spreads or how
fast the government will ultimately be able to contain it.
The society that emerges is going to play by different rules. And it
starts with Beijing locking down even more of the second-biggest economy
in history.
Cash was already going away in China. Now it turns out that the virus shows up on old paper money and can live there for days.
Every time every one of those infected yuan notes moves from hand to
hand, it’s another infection vector. If you handle the wrong money,
you’re literally carrying the plague.
Naturally that makes people much less eager to accept cash. Luckily there are payment apps to keep everything clean and digital.
But coincidentally enough, the big apps from Alibaba and We Chat
already work hand in glove with the central bank. There’s no privacy
there. The transactions are open to surveillance.
And with true crypto driven deep underground, cash was the best way
left to operate in the country without leaving a transparent digital
trail.
Is it any wonder Beijing has started impounding yuan notes in the quarantine zone while stopping transfers between provinces?
Old currency just isn’t getting replaced. Instead it’s being
withdrawn from circulation so it can be sterilized. In theory, new money
will take its place.
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