The People's Bank of China (PBOC) stated that it will "steadily develop" the digital yuan over the next five years.
In a recently published reform plan, the digital yuan (e-CNY) is now listed among the central bank's key tasks.
What measures has China taken to develop its digital yuan?
The People's Bank of China (PBOC) published the so-called " Reform and Development Plan, with supervision, financing of the real economy, and a higher level of openness for China's financial system—all reflected in separate sections of these plans. for the 15th Five-Year Plan", along with nine separate action plans covering more specific policy areas. Monetary policy,
The digital yuan is included in the fifth priority, concerning financial infrastructure and central bank services. The People's Bank of China expresses its desire to improve payment systems, assist the credit industry, and tighten anti-money laundering regulations.
A separate section of the plan places greater emphasis on the international aspect. There, the People's Bank of China commits to expanding the use of the yuan in trade and investment, creating a cross-border payment network, and developing offshore yuan markets, while simultaneously strengthening Shanghai as an international financial center and enhancing Hong Kong's status.
The central bank defined the direction for implementing the 15-year plan as early as the beginning of 2026, when the PBOC established a mechanism allowing commercial banks to pay interest on clients' digital yuan balances.
The People's Bank of China began research on the digital Chinese yuan project in 2014 under the name DCEP and launched the digital yuan in April 2022, encouraging its early adoption through currency giveaways in pilot cities.
As reported by Cryptopolitan, at the 2026 National People's Congress, deputy Fu Xiguo proposed revising the People's Bank of China Law, which was last updated in 2003, arguing that it does not yet define the digital yuan as legal tender.
Has the digital yuan been applied outside of China?
Guangdong Province published a draft five-year plan for public comment until September 5th. The plan calls for larger-scale cross-border payment pilots using the digital yuan and expanding the use cases for this currency.
These calls followed China's first cross-border digital yuan payment with Singapore, where ICBC branches settled approximately 10 million yuan in shipping fees via the upgraded CBETS platform. In June, the first 26 financial institutions connected to this system.
On the other hand, the mBridge project, a multi-central bank settlement platform including Mainland China, Hong Kong, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia, recently extended its services to Macao through cooperation with Industrial Bank and was used to transfer 500 million yuan (74 million US dollars) in a share acquisition deal.
In the first half of the year, the number of corporate clients using this service increased by 176% compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, the Bank of China branch in Fujian Province transferred over 10 billion Hong Kong dollars (1.28 billion US dollars) via mBridge, calling it the largest single transfer on the platform to date.
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