The creators of bitcoin dreamed of a currency freed from the grip of states, but communist China is preparing to give them back their coin by giving birth to a cryptocurrency in its own hands. While Facebook is struggling to launch Libra, Beijing is actively working on a "crypto-yuan", with the aim of reconciling blockchain technology and state control. An oxymoron for Silicon Valley purists, obvious for a regime obsessed with political control over the most populous country on the planet. Boosted by the ambitions of Mark Zuckerberg, the world's second-largest economy accelerated its preparations this year for the launch of a virtual currency, but under the leadership of the Central Bank of China (PBOC). Rumors even mentioned a launch for November 11, the date of the online commerce festival launched by Alibaba, before being denied by the "Big Mama", as the PBOC is nicknamed. "Our digital currency research and development has made encouraging progress, but we don't have a launch schedule yet," said Yi Gang, the governor of the world's first central bank, on Sept. of a press conference in Beijing. Libra's setbacks offer respite to the Chinese authorities, but the project remains strategic for the regime, in order to maintain control over its financial sector and resist decentralized cryptocurrencies from the West. “The digital yuan will be a virtual currency that will have the authority of legal tender, guaranteed by the government. It will be created by the central bank and we will not be able to refuse its payments, ”explains Xi Junyang, professor at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. “It will eventually replace everyday electronic money,” adds the researcher. The world's largest online marketplace is already the most advanced in electronic payment, thanks to the Alipay and WeChatpay systems developed by tech giants Alibaba and Tencent. More than 600 million Chinese pay for their groceries or their rent with a caress on their smartphone thanks to the Alipay application, offering a mine of precious data to the e-commerce group founded by Jack Ma. "crypto-yuan", the authorities intend to regain control of a FinTech sector with galloping growth, while strengthening its grip on its population and its transactions. “This is the very negation of the principle of cryptocurrency, which was originally thought to liberate the individual. In China, we are witnessing a redundancy in control, ”decrypts a Western cybersecurity specialist, based in Beijing. The Big Mamma risks turning into an Orwellian Big Brother, accessing a wealth of data on the behavior of its fellow citizens, point out Western critics. A debate on the protection of personal data that leaves most of the 1.3 billion Chinese unmoved, who praise the ease of mobile payment and trust their government. The regime took stock of the threat posed by cryptocurrencies, banning them as early as 2017. It feared they would accelerate the outflow of capital from China or the laundering of corrupt money, and weaken the renminbi. “Its development risks undermining the authority of legal tender, and the financial sector could spiral out of control and threaten economic development. This is why the government will suppress libra like bitcoin,” judge Xi Junyang.

The future crypto-yuan could have global implications, facilitating international transactions, offering a new technological dimension to a long-term strategic objective of Beijing: the internationalization of the yuan, to counter the king dollar. But regulators should keep control of this new tool, even beyond the Great Wall.