The growing adoption of blockchain technology may just have found an unlikely ally. Specifically, the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, recently urged for accelerated blockchain technology adoption. This is a notable development, seeing as Xi’s statements usually hold great importance for the future of the world’s most populous nation.

Xi urges China to rush towards blockchain adoption

These comments came during a recent meeting of the Chinese Politburo Committee, on October 24th. Moreover, Xi went on to note how the continued implementation of integrated blockchain technology will be key to promoting technological innovation.

Furthermore, he said that this burgeoning technology could also transform industries substantially. In speaking to the committee, Xi urged his fellow party members to recognize blockchain technology as the technological breakthrough it is:

“We must take blockchain as an important breakthrough for independent innovation of core technologies, clarify the main directions, increase investment, focus on a number of key technologies, and accelerate the development of blockchain and industrial innovation.”

However, this development is nonetheless somewhat surprising. China is perhaps most well known within the cryptocurrency community for its crackdown on crypto. Although the regulatory situation in China has been somewhat unclear, the nation first banned ICOs back in 2017, which was followed by regulations against crypto exchanges.

Will China also launch a CBDC?

Furthermore, some reports have even suggested that at least one governmental agency in China is also considering a ban on crypto mining. As such, Xi’s latest comments are quite surprising. Nevertheless, China has proven to be open to adopt new technologies in order to capitalize on future innovations.

Despite its crypto-averse stance, China has shown interest in launching a central bank digital currency (CBDC). Although this proposed CBDC currently lacks a timetable for its launch, it shows that the Chinese government is, indeed, open to new technologies despite its public stance.

Furthermore, Xi’s latest comments also show that the Asian nation is now recognizing the growing importance of blockchain technology. Mark Zuckerberg has previously said that fears over growing Chinese superiority within the digital currency space is one of the reasons behind Facebook’s development of Libra.

“China is moving quickly to launch a similar idea in the coming months. We can’t sit here and assume that because America is today the leader that it will always get to be the leader if we don’t innovate.”

As the development of Libra faces increasing headwinds, it now appears clear that China seeks to capitalize on the regulatory difficulties in the US and Europe. It remains to be seen in what capacity Chinese agencies adopt blockchain technology in the future.