China has been at the forefront of the central bank digital currency aka the CBDC game. While the world traverses into the digital world, governments from all across the globe were seen expressing immense interest in CBDCs. However, China stayed ahead of everyone through fast-paced developments. Now, with just months left for the Winter Olympics which is scheduled to take place in Beijing, the Chinese government was seen urging prominent fast-food chain, McDonald’s to accept the digital yuan.
The world seemingly liked the idea of cryptocurrencies. However, the industry’s decentralized nature and volatility appalled many. While taking out leaves from the crypto book, governments wanted to uphold supervision. Therefore, they decided to roll out CBDCs.
As several have just started to get on to the CBDC bandwagon, China was well ahead in the game. The country was rather quick to wrap up its testing phase and had already made the digital yuan available to the public. While prominent firms across the country were planning on incorporating the digital yuan into their system at their own pace, the Chinese government was reportedly coercing them to accept the CBDC.
China trying too hard to embrace its CBDC?
As per a recent report by the Financial Times, the Chinese government wanted McDonald’s to include the digital yuan into its payment system. The government required the fast-food giant to allow citizens to pay with the CBDC across all the outlets in the country.
Apart from McDonald’s, popular firms like Nike as well as Visa were pressured into accepting the digital yuan, the report suggested. Furthermore, this pressure was derived from the upcoming Winter Olympics, which is slated to take place in February.
The fervor around this currency was relatively high. However, the backlash it amassed overpowered everything. Several even suggested that the Chinese CBDC could rob the citizens of financial freedom as the digital yuan was mostly a tool of surveillance.
Alex Gladstein, chief strategy officer at the Human Rights Foundation commented about the same and said,
“The end of cash and the insta-analysis of financial transactions enable surveillance, state control, and, eventually, social engineering on a scale never thought possible.”