Their reason?

Not what you'd expect...

Welcome to China Uncensored, I'm Chris Chappell.

Good news! The Chinese Communist  Party has found something new  

to declare war on. This time it's  crypto mining. Stirring wider fear...

...into a porridge of peril.

This is a big deal for Bitcoin, which  is the most popular cryptocurrency. 

That's because “China accounts for around  65% of all Bitcoin mining globally.”

“In comparison, the United States accounts  

for 7.2% of global Bitcoin mining.”
 I'll explain why that is in a bit. 

But the Chinese Communist  Party is not a fan of Bitcoin.

“Bitcoin are created and moved around not  by a central bank or financial institution  

but by a broad and disparate network of  computers,” on what's called a blockchain. 

Bitcoin operates entirely outside of China's  Central Bank or Communist Party control. It gives  

Chinese people a way to use money completely  free from oversight by the government.

So if you're, say, a Chinese  dissident, the Communist Party  

can make the bank freeze your savings account.  But they can't freeze your Bitcoin assets.

But that's not why the Communist Party is cracking  down on Bitcoin mining. No, no, no. It's cracking  

down, because the Communist Party wants to  save the environment. More after the break.

Welcome back. Unless you didn't see an ad,  in which case YouTube may have demonetized  

us. That's why China Uncensored relies  mainly on viewer support. Which reminds me,  

did you know we accept Bitcoin? Visit  chinauncensored.tv/support to learn more.

So China has declared war on crypto mining.

In order to help the environment,  you see. You might be thinking—WHAT?!  

Well, it makes total sense.

Simply put, Bitcoin mining is a process  where people can run powerful computers  

to solve complex math problems  that validate Bitcoin transactions.  

They're rewarded with Bitcoins. This  is how new Bitcoins are created. 

And the computers doing that Bitcoin  mining requires a huge amount of energy,  

more than entire countries  like Ukraine and Argentina.

And as I said, China makes up about  65% of all Bitcoin mining globally. 

And the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia alone  “accounts for about 8%, due to its cheap energy.”

Which is why Inner Mongolia is  not only banning Bitcoin mining,  

but also banning any new digital coin projects.

You see, Chinese leader Xi Jinping promised,  

promised the UN that China will be  carbon neutral within four decades.

You can make that kind of long-term promise  when you have the power to rule indefinitely.

But becoming carbon neutral is going to be tough,  

considering China burns more coal  than the rest of the world combined.

So yeah, Xi could have reined in the  number of new coal plants they're building.

But banning Bitcoin mining instead—that  just makes so much more sense.  

For purely environmental reasons. 

A few weeks ago, China's top economic planner  released this statement blasting Inner Mongolia  

not meeting energy targets.

So they had to ban Bitcoin mining  you see. For the environment.

This has led to a surge in the price of Bitcoin.

Did I mention we take Bitcoin?

So you can see, the Chinese  Communist Party has nothing  

at all against Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency.

In fact, they love the idea so much, the  Party wants to make its own digital currency!

More after the break.

Welcome back.

So I wouldn't want you to think the  Chinese Communist Party has something  

against Bitcoin. Sure they've  declared war on Bitcoin mining.

And in 2017 they banned cryptocurrency exchanges.

For the environment…?

But as the New York Times recently reported,  

China is charging ahead with a National Digital  Currency, called the e-Chinese-yuan. (eCNY)

China's central bank began testing  it in four cities last year.

And now it's being brought to bigger  cities like Shanghai and Beijing.

“In my hand is the new digital RMB. It's held  inside a digital wallet on an app on my phone.”

Held by Mao Zedong, who's  watching you from the grave.

But China's digital currency  is like the anti-Bitcoin.

Because while Bitcoin uses blockchain  technology that keeps transactions anonymous,  

China's digital currency...does not  do that. In fact, Chinese authorities  

can see every transaction you  make with the digital yuan. 

China's digital currency is not actually a  cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrencies by definition use  

a decentralized system to record transactions.  That keeps the records from being manipulated.

But China's digital currency uses a  centralized system. It's controlled by  

the Chinese Central Bank, and ultimately  by the Chinese Communist Party itself.  

But it *feels* kind of like cryptocurrency,  so it's the same thing, right?

The digital yuan could “give the  Chinese government more power  

to monitor finance flows because a digital  currency system can record every transaction.”

“[It] can make it easier for governments  to track financial transactions  

to stamp out tax evasion and  crack down on dissidents.”

Those two things definitely  belong in the same sentence.

And believe it or not, it gets better.

“It will give the central  bank new powers, including  

novel types of monetary policy  to help the economy grow.” 

“In one possibility that economists have  discussed, a central bank could program  

its digital currency to slowly lose value so that  consumers are encouraged to spend it immediately.”

Great! I hate wasting all my money on savings.  

Well gosh, how long until we can  have that in the United States?! 

A bunch of countries are experimenting  with a national digital currency,  

“Yet no major power is as far along as China.  

Its early moves could signal where the rest  of the world goes with digital currencies.”

The New York Times always  manages to fill me with hope. 

You know, the Chinese Communist Party  has for years been trying to weaponize  

its currency and defeat the US dollar. And  now some say the digital yuan could help.

But will the yuan be able to defeat the  dollar as the global currency? That's a whole  

nother episode. Let me know in the comments  below if you'd like to see us do that one. 

And now it's time for me to answer questions from  a member of the China Uncensored 50 Cent Army,  

fans who support China Uncensored on  the crowd funding website Patreon.

James Wallberg asks, “Chris when the CCP falls  do you think China will stay a single country  

or split up into several smaller ones?  To quote Romance of the Three Kingdoms.  

"That which is divided must unite,  that which is united must divide."

First of all James, Romance of the Three  Kingdoms is one of my favorite books,  

and definitely my favorite  of the four Chinese classics.  

I highly recommend reading it if you  haven't. Or at least play Dynasty Warriors.

But what happens after the CCP  falls is a very good question.  

China has existed for thousands of years.  Despite so many different dynasties,  

over the last two millennia there has always  been something that eventually unified people  

into the country we call China. That will  surely continue even after the CCP falls.  

However, regions like Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang,  Tibet—places that have not always been  

historically part of China—they might become  their own independent countries again.

Thanks for your question James.

And thank you for watching. Once again  I'm Chris Chappell, see you next time.