China likes to do nothing like others when it comes to regulating new technology. After banning the use of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies on its soil, following a few years earlier the banning of Winnie the Pooh for being too similar to Xi Jinping, the Chinese government announced the launch of a Beijing-led NFT platform on January 1st, 2023.
When you read this, you must have had the following reaction: WTF?!?
And yet, a ceremony has been organized in the Chinese capital for its inauguration on Sunday, January 1st, 2023. The platform will be managed by three public and private entities, including China Technology Exchange and Art Exhibitions China, both backed by the government, and Huban Digital, a private company, according to a report by Chinese state media China Daily.
The Blockchain developed to carry out the exchange of non-fungible tokens is named the “China Cultural Protection Chain,” according to the report.
This launch clarifies China’s double standards on technology still shrouded in legal vagueness, while the country has developed very strict regulations towards crypto assets. NFTs, known as “digital collectibles,” are not banned in China, but they cannot be purchased with cryptocurrency or used as speculative investments, unlike many other markets around the world.
In China, all cryptocurrency transactions are banned while the government is simultaneously developing its digital yuan. As a result, the People’s Bank of China has expanded the trial of its central bank digital currency to four new provinces, including Guangdong, its most populous region.
The marketplace, whose name translates to “China Digital Asset Trading Platform,” will be used to trade digital copyrights and property rights as well as collectibles, among other things.
This is a breakthrough for digital creators, because, unlike musicians, authors, and filmmakers, they do not have the right to transfer their works to the secondary market in China. In November 2022, a Chinese court ruled that digital assets have similar property rights to items sold on e-commerce sites, which is considered a major step in their protection.
What to make of all this?
As always, the Chinese government is trying to appropriate all the Western technological innovations to transform them into its own to better monitor and control its population. Something classic that shows that the banning of Bitcoin by Xi Jinping and the CCP has above all to do with the fact that Bitcoin is perceived as dangerous by Beijing because it cannot be manipulated and controlled.
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