Beijing Pressures McDonald’s to Support the Digital Yuan

According to a recent report, Beijing is pressuring fast-food retailer McDonald’s to support the digital yuan before the 2022 Winter Olympics in China. According to the report, China is also pressuring companies such as Visa and Nike to participate in the central bank digital currency (CBDC) rollout.

Beijing is preparing to launch the CBDC in its entirety in February 2022, coinciding with the start of the Beijing Winter Olympics. According to unnamed sources in the Financial Times (FT), the Chinese government wants McDonald’s to embrace the digital yuan. According to the Financial Times, a large number of McDonald’s restaurants in Shanghai are currently testing China’s CBDC.

Now, Beijing is putting pressure on the company to get more McDonald’s restaurants to follow Shanghai’s lead. “Shanghai is our pilot city, and we will learn from customers’ responses,” a McDonald’s source told FT. The information about Chinese government pressure comes from sources “close to China’s financial regulators,” according to the report.

China Is Preparing for a Winter Olympics Rollout — Digital Yuan Testing Increases

Every day, China appears to be getting closer to launching the digital yuan, as news of the testing is regularly leaked to the media. For example, China Construction Bank (CCB) and Bank of Communications (Bocom) are experimenting with the CBDC for investment funds and insurance services.

At the end of August, China’s CBDC was leveraged in the country’s futures market for the first time. The country published a white paper on digital yuan in mid-July, which described smart contracts and tracing large transfers.

The digital yuan wallet was opened to 10 million Chinese citizens on July 10, and the following day, a report stated that over $40 million in ‘digital yuan red envelopes’ had been distributed since the project began. The country appears to be on track to launch the CBDC by the 2022 Winter Olympics, but that is only three months away.

Meanwhile, despite the fact that China’s CBDC is far ahead of most other countries, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell stated at the end of September that he does not believe the United States is behind the eight-ball in terms of CBDC launch.

Patrick

Coincu News