China’s digital currency: Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong commit to new digital yuan trials in 2021
- Political leaders in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong province are pledging new pilot tests for the country’s digital currency this year
- Many central banks are exploring their own digital currencies, but China is the closest to making its own a reality as authorities push financial development

Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong, China’s wealthiest province, all made new commitments over the weekend to testing the digital yuan, as the country moves closer to becoming the first in the world to launch a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
Neither of the cities’ People’s Congress work reports offered any details on planned trials, but they both linked digital yuan pilots to wider plans for financial development and “opening up”.
Guangdong Governor Ma Xingrui also said in a work report that the province would promote digital yuan pilots and support a digital currency innovation zone in Shenzhen, China’s tech hub sometimes dubbed the country’s Silicon Valley.

“The pace [of developing and testing the DCEP] is relatively fast,” said Wang Pengbo, a Beijing-based analyst who follows China’s finance industry. “It’s quite possible for China to become the world’s first nation with a digital sovereign currency.”