Digital Currencies and Authoritarianism

My latest at the Diplomat channels a recent CNAS report on what China hopes to achieve with its digital currency project:

How does China plan to contest U.S. financial hegemony, and what does this contest mean for the power of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) over China’s private sector economy? A new report from the Center for New American Security examines the Digital Currency/Electronic Payment (DCEP) project, China’s latest efforts to develop and take advantage of technology in the financial domain. “China’s Digital Currency: Adding Financial Data to Digital Authoritarianism,” written by Yaya Fanusie (adjunct senior fellow in the Energy, Economics, and Security Program at CNAS) and Emily Jin  (research assistant in the Energy, Economics, and Security Program at CNAS), details China’s efforts to yoke the development of digital currency to both the domestic and international interests of the CCP.