Communist China's New Plan: Digital Currency

by Judith Bergman • July 27, 2021 at 5:00 am

The real purpose of the new digital currency... seems to be... to challenge the long-standing global reign of the US dollar.
The new digital currency is part of the CCP's ambition, as laid out in its new Five-Year Plan for the years 2021-2025, to digitalize China. The digitalization, in turn, is part of China's ambition to become technologically independent of the West and to dominate global tech, and overtake the US as the world's dominant power by 2049," the 100^th anniversary of China's Communist Revolution.
Crucially, China's new digital currency, in addition to increasing state control and surveillance in China.. .could affect the ability of the US, and other countries, to level sanctions at the Chinese government for its human rights abuses and other breaches of international law.
The US, on its part, does not appear ready for China's challenge over the future of money.
"Not only are the American monetary authorities underestimating the threat posed to dollar dominance by China's pioneering combination of digital currency and electronic payments. They are also treating the blockchain-based financial innovations that offer the best alternative to China's e-yuan like gatecrashers at their own exclusive party." — Niall Ferguson, historian, Bloomberg, April 4, 2021.

(Image source: iStock)

Communist China is adding another element to its toolbox of surveilling and controlling its population. Already known as the country in the world with the most pervasive surveillance and social credit system, China has now created a digital currency, the digital renminbi or yuan -- also known as Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP) -- to ensure that hardly any transaction goes unregistered.

Unlike cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, which are not issued by governments and therefore cannot be used as means of payment in most daily transactions, China's digital currency is issued and controlled by China's central bank.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the currency "is expected to give China's government vast new tools to monitor both its economy and its people. By design, the digital yuan will negate one of bitcoin's major draws: anonymity for the user."

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Can a Bangladeshi Visit Israel Now?

by Mohshin Habib • July 27, 2021 at 4:00 am

Whatever the public perception and the explanations by cabinet members are regarding the passport issue, the government of Bangladesh has taken a big step forward by removing the clause. At least, from now on, the state will not be able to prosecute someone for visiting Israel. As an extra benefit, the country's declared foreign policy of "friendship to all and malice towards none" will be more meaningful as well.

Recently, the government of Bangladesh dropped the infamous phrase "this passport is valid for all countries of the world except Israel" from its new passports. Now it has become a national issue of debate. (Image source: Tusharkb2)

Recently, the government of Bangladesh dropped the infamous phrase "this passport is valid for all countries of the world except Israel" from its new passports. Those words had been prominently inscribed since the country's independence from Pakistan in 1971. Six months ago, when Bangladeshi government introduced a new machine-readable passport with an electronic chip, the "except Israel" clause was quietly erased with no public announcement. The change was, in a sense, classified.

In early May, a man went to the passport department headquarters to collect the passports of his mother and brother, when he noticed that the clause had been omitted. Through social media, the news went viral. Now it has become a national issue of debate.

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