In a new report released yesterday by the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), evidence of a 2018 PowerPoint presentation in China indicates what many may already have suspected – central bank digital currency is being designed to allow for surveillance of all financial transactions throughout its society. “By eliminating some of the previous constraints on government data collection of private citizens’ transactions, DCEP represents a significant risk to the long-held standards of financial privacy upheld in free societies,” states the report titled ‘China’s Digital Currency: Adding Financial Data to Digital Authoritarianism’.
Authored by Yaya J. Fanusie and Emily Jin, the report discusses how the Chinese Government is seeking more information about its consumers with the advent of digital payments by private companies. According to the paper, the new CBDC under development furthers the geopolitical ambitions of China – heralded as progress similar to other emerging technology fields such as AI or robotics.
