Why China fears Bitcoin

China’s crackdown on Bitcoin is best understood as a microcosm of our ongoing clash of ideas in the 21st century. On one side, you have those who stand for human freedom, which is best represented in monetary terms by Bitcoin. On the other side, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is one of the most powerful actors on the world stage that is fighting for the cause of total top-down authoritarian rule. The CCP hopes to win its war on Bitcoin through the mass forced adoption of its state-controlled money, the digital yuan. China’s years-long campaign to delegitimize and/or ruin Bitcoin’s appeal has failed to bring its desired result, and with the CCP now fully embracing and enacting its “digital yuan,” Beijing has taken to elevating its war on Bitcoin to unprecedented heights.

The Chinese government has made several major moves in recent days to suppress both bitcoin purchases and bitcoin mining throughout the mainland. This anti-bitcoin posture is not some kind of psyop or “4D chess” play by the CCP. What is happening in China right now is backed by both data and hard evidence. After many years of expressing discontent with bitcoin, China appears to be making a major push to suppress (similar to how China suppresses the internet but cannot entirely ban it) the Bitcoin ecosystem within its borders.

By continually making it more and more difficult to mine and trade bitcoin in China, coupled with a more and more restrictive regulatory environment, Beijing is betting on a future in which its government-controlled Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) wins the day over Bitcoin’s decentralized monetary network, and they’re doing all they can to tilt the scales in the direction of their preferred money. It appears that the CCP, after long being hesitant to fully support bitcoin mining in China (here’s how bitcoin mining works) is betting against bitcoin as a whole and ending the previously understood notion of China as a somewhat accommodating place for bitcoin-related enterprises. China rightly recognizes Bitcoin’s free and open network as a threat to their system as a whole.

Over the past few months, the CCP has ramped up testing and adoption of its truly dystopian CBDC, commonly referred to as the “digital yuan.” The digital yuan is advertised to the public — and cheered on by globalist elites around the world — as a cutting edge technology that will enable faster and cheaper transactions with fewer intermediaries. CBDC advocates claim, without evidence, that the technology in these digital currencies will allow our all-knowing central planner rulers to fix economies. Of course, it’s complete nonsense and a pretext for government to achieve more control over its citizenry. Additionally, what Beijing and their CBDC advocate allies don’t mention is the fact that in an open market, a system that most separates the government from the economy is much more preferable for wealth creation and human flourishing.

In China, hybrid public-private companies like Alibaba and Tencent, which are forced to share any and all customer data with the government, have had incredible success getting widespread adoption of their native digital fintech platforms. Still, the CCP dislikes even this minute level of separation between these platforms and the central bank. By all indications, China will soon phase out these hybrid fintech platforms and replace them with the digital yuan.

 By embracing and mandating a state-controlled and distributed monetary system in the form of a digital yuan, the CCP will be able to further control every aspect of the lives of China’s 1.2 billion citizens. With the digital yuan, the CCP can monitor and manipulate the spending, earning, savings, and behavior of Chinese citizens. The CBDC furthers the goals of China’s infamous social credit score system — the national blacklist launched by the CCP about a decade ago — and its mandated adoption comes with the additional bonus of giving the government even more surveillance tools over citizens’ movements. 

Now, Bitcoin serves as the antithesis to both China’s digital yuan and social credit score system. When properly secured, your Bitcoin cannot be confiscated, stolen, or hacked. Moreover, the Bitcoin network functions as an entirely market-based decentralized network. With well over 100 million bitcoin wallets worldwide, the Bitcoin network has grown to a point in security stature that it is very likely that no individual or even a state can assume control over. China has shown that they can and will spread FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) in an attempt to damage Bitcoin’s value in relation to its currency, but that strategy has failed to make an impact. And if you zoom out on the long term chart, Bitcoin, year after year, continues to steamroll the fiat currencies of the world. 

Of course, China is not alone in expressing its hostility to Bitcoin. Nor is China alone in embracing authoritarian Central Bank Digital Currencies. There are many nefarious actors and entities that seek to delegitimize and destroy the power and promise of Bitcoin. However, China is the first mover in the CBDC vs Bitcoin wars, and the world is watching what happens next.

Over half of all Bitcoin mining used to occur in China, proving itself as a once lucrative business to Chinese citizens. It is certainly a tragedy that so many Chinese citizens will undoubtedly suffer from being forced to adopt an inferior currency. However, the continuing geographic decentralization of the Bitcoin mining process (now released from the auspices of a totalitarian regime) will in the long term help to further strengthen Bitcoin.

Let’s hope that China’s Bitcoin exodus may one day be understood as a failed undertaking that served as a major turning point for the cause for human freedom. 

Many future stories will remain exclusive to paid subscribers. By subscribing to The Dossier for just $5 a month or $50 a year, you will have immediate access to my best work. You can subscribe by clicking the button below: