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China is paying some workers in digital yuan – but few are choosing to use it
- Some Chinese cities have begun to pay state employees with the country’s digital currency, but most of these early adopters convert to cash immediately
- Challenges remain in the e-CNY’s popularisation, as universally adopted mobile payment apps present convenient, functional alternative
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Mandy Zuoin Shanghai
At the end of each month, Sammy Lin – an account manager at a state-owned bank in eastern China’s Suzhou – receives her monthly salary in a form that would be unfamiliar to most.
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When payday arrives, she receives a sum not as a direct deposit, but as a balance of digital currency in her “e-CNY” app. From there, the money automatically transfers to her bank account, where she can turn it into regular cash and save or spend it as she chooses.
Lin is one of the first group of workers who are being fully paid in digital yuan, as China tries to popularise the currency via a pilot programme that began with employees of government bodies and state-owned companies.
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A year ago, Changshu, a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Suzhou, took the lead by paying all public sector workers in digital yuan, and Lin’s employer followed suit months later.
I prefer not to keep the money in the e-CNY app, because there’s no interest if I leave it there
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