While remaining notably hawkish on cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology more broadly, China has, nonetheless, made significant strides in the wide field of Web3. The drive most prominent in the media has been the country’s work on the digital yuan – its central bank’s digital currency (CBDC) – but it is far from the only one.
Among China’s institutions, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) – tasked with governing the telecommunications and information technology sector in the wider sense of the term – has been the most prominent when it comes to the country’s blockchain drive.
MIIT outlined its Web3 strategy by focusing on four key points of development – boost Web3 research and development and formulate a coherent national strategy document, improve the technical research and supervision framework, work with international actors, track developments abroad, and increase promotional and public awareness efforts.
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A closer look at MIIT’s publication
The MIIT publication, made in response to a proposal of the 14th CPPCC National Committee – an advisory body in the Chinese government – focused on several key areas, including the research into the concept of a metaverse and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), particularly in relation to “decentralized identity management and virtual digital people.”
Indeed, in the outline for the planned future efforts, the Ministry also stressed the need to promote various application pilots for things like distributed digital identity (DID). The publication, while outlining the direction of the central plan for national Web3 development, hinted that the work is to be done both by the public and the private sector.
Indeed, MIIT’s wording focused on achieving a balance between “inheritance and innovation, development and security, government and market, and supply and demand,” with “inheritance” likely referring to legacy technologies and established practices and principles.
Overall, the publication falls in line with the approach previously seen in China, which, while clearly investing in various opportunities offered by blockchain technology, has strived to maintain tight oversight and control, as seen earlier in 2023 when the country started implementing a series of aggressive measures aimed at tackling crypto and AI fraud.
References to cryptocurrencies as such are also notably absent from the MIIT document, which, again, falls in line with China’s long-established hawkishness toward the crypto market and its 2021 ban on crypto trading and 2013 Bitcoin (BTC) restrictions.
