[ti:China Planning to Become First Country to Launch Digital Currency] [00:00.00]如果您也喜欢 恒星英语学习网 www.hxen.com 请与您的朋友分享... [00:00.04]China is preparing to become the first country to launch its own digital currency. [00:08.08]China's central bank has released few details of its Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP) project. [00:18.32]Work on the project began five years. [00:23.84]Some observers say the DCEP shows both financial innovation [00:31.21]and the government's desire to increase control over the movement of money. [00:39.36]China's digital currency has similarities to Facebook's proposed digital currency Libra [00:48.64]and existing cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. [00:55.60]Like those forms of payment, the Chinese currency will be stored in a digital wallet. [01:04.84]What is somewhat different is that China's central bank [01:09.72]will be able to follow where the money is going and even supervise trading. [01:18.24]Observers say the goal of the project is for China to protect its economy [01:26.09]at a time when newer payment systems could permit illegal money flows. [01:35.44]Keyu Jin is a professor at the London School of Economics. [01:43.12]She said, "There's a consensus around the world among central bank governors [01:49.97]and governments at large that they want to have control of money and money supply." [01:59.88]She added that the strong desire for control "is probably more unique to China than anything else." [02:11.20]In September, China's central bank chief Yi Gang said there was no timeline [02:19.36]for launching the digital currency and that more work needed to be done. [02:27.16]The Reuters news agency reports that the People's Bank of China [02:33.08]has sought legal rights to more than 50 inventions related to the digital currency. [02:42.92]Chinese officials have not hidden their disapproval of Facebook's Libra. [02:50.04]They have called it a threat to the sovereignty of China and other developing economies. [02:58.84]China claims that digital currencies should only be provided by governments or central banks. [03:09.52]Mu Changchun is the head of the Chinese central bank's digital currency research center. [03:19.00]He has suggested that the new currency should be made available [03:24.82]through commercial banks, just as physical money is. [03:30.88]The digital currency will follow models similar to systems [03:38.20]such as Apple Pay and the Chinese payment system Alipay. [03:46.00]These require a commercial bank to put money into a digital wallet [03:52.20]that can be downloaded onto a smartphone. [03:58.36]Unlike physical money, however, a tracking system [04:03.00]could follow the digital currency's movements from one person to another. [04:11.32]Mu said the digital currency would strike a balance [04:16.44]between anonymous payments and "classified supervision." [04:23.48]He said the goal is to prevent illegal financial activities, [04:29.40]with officials able to watch for such activity by studying huge amounts of information. [04:38.68]"Once we analyze these transactions, use big data and data mining technology [04:46.36]and conduct identity comparisons, we will be able to find the culprits," he said. [04:56.80]So far, there has been limited public reaction in China, [05:02.43]a country already used to weak privacy protections and government control. [05:10.80]But people on social media sites such as Weibo have expressed a mix of feelings. [05:20.40]Some say a digital currency could prevent corruption. [05:26.36]But others are concerned. [05:29.55]One user asked: "What will happen to my freedom to build wealth, my secrets and safety?" [05:40.72]Huang Qigan is a vice chairman of the China Center [05:46.09]for International Economic Exchange research group. [05:52.32]He said the People's Bank of China has been studying digital currency for five or six years. [06:02.32]He believes it is ready to be put into use. [06:08.16]"China will likely be the first country in the world to issue sovereign digital currency," he said. [06:18.64]I'm Mario Ritter Jr.如果您也喜欢 恒星英语学习网 www.hxen.com 请与您的朋友分享...