People's Daily, Communist Party of China’s official newspaper and frequent mouthpiece, devoted one full page on Feb. 26 explaining Blockchain’s technological potential and applications outside of cryptocurrencies.
This is an unprecedented scale of coverage on Blockchain technology by the paper, which is widely seen as an indicator of where Chinese policy is going.
Blockchain-related stocks on China’s Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchange saw their prices jump at the release of the reports.
“The main report, titled ‘Three questions for Blockchain,’ addressed the ‘Wild Wild West’ situation of initial coin offerings, calling it ‘just another way of attracting funds.”
Hu Danqing of Alibaba Group’s Ant Finance said initiators of ICOs should be held accountable and that government regulation of the industry will be good for its development.
Home-grown Blockchain
According to Wang Jun, senior researcher at Tencent’s fintech think tank as quoted in the newspaper, China needs to develop home-grown Blockchain technology.
The article also explored Blockchain’s application in finance, charity, compliance and combating counterfeit products, a longstanding headache in China.
Other industry experts cited are He Fei of China Bank of Communications and Zhang Kaixiang, senior architect of WeBank, who helped develop China’s first open-source Blockchain platform.
The report is published less than 10 days before the beginning of “two sessions,” China’s annual gathering of National People’s Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, in which representatives all over the country will gather in Beijing and discuss policy issues as a demonstration of China’s representative politics.
Arman Shirinyan
Alex Dovbnya
