What does China’s Two Sessions mean for Blockchain and DCEP?

All eyes are on China’s Two Sessions (Langhui) meeting which is underway in Beijing and, reports have suggested new technologies like blockchain are integral to the national plan. 

With huge political implications for China’s future, many analysts of the People’s Republic will be looking keenly at the event which began May 21st and lasts two weeks. So, what are the Two Sessions and what does it mean for blockchain and the new digital currency electronic payment (DCEP) in China? 

What are the Two Sessions Meetings?

The Two sessions meeting is a yearly convening of China’s Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) – a group of advisers totalling 2,000 members – and 1,000 National People’s Congress members, China’s highest legislative body.

Seen as the most important meeting of the year, it sets out the policy and plans for the future. The event and policies are all headed by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the body which organises the plan for the future. The year plan will be set out in the Work Report by Premier Li Keqiang. 

However, this year, which comes amidst the backdrop of the Coronavirus and US tension concerns, holds special importance as it should see the creation of China’s 14th five-year plan. The five-year plans are the bedrock for future policies in China. 

Blockchain and digital currencies are popular

Blockchain and digital currencies have been a popular topic for legislators and advisors at the meeting. From both sides, there are a number of local and central policies involving the new technologies. 

Spurred on by their leader, Xi Jinping’s backing of blockchain in October 2019 and the Na­tional De­vel­op­ment and Re­form Com­mis­sion making the technology a part of the new in­fra­struc­ture”, policymakers have worked hard to build applications and legislations. 

Chinabankingnews gave a comprehensive list of the various bills put forward by the NPC and CPPCC. The NPC bills submitted include: 

NPC mem­ber	Bill
Cui Yu (崔瑜), chair­woman of City Com­mer­cial Banks Clear­ing Co., Ltd	Ac­tively striv­ing for ad­vanced tri­als of dig­i­tal cur­rency in the Yangtze River Re­gion. Cui has called for fur­ther pay­ments in­te­gra­tion of the Yangtze River Re­gion.
Zhang Jin­dong (张近东), chair of Sun­ing Hold­ings Group	Var­i­ous lev­els of gov­ern­ment co­or­di­nat­ing with e-com­merce en­ter­prises in the use of blockchain and big data tech­nol­ogy to help pro­tect es­tab­lished brands.
Kong Fa­long (孔发龙), party sec­re­tary of Jiangxi Rural Com­mer­cial Bank	Sup­port for the de­vel­op­ment of in­de­pen­dent and con­trol­lable Made-in-China blockchain plat­forms, to over­come Chi­na’s weak­nesses in the ar­eas of key tech­nolo­gies and core patents.
Wang Tianyu (王天宇), chair of Bank of Zhengzhou	Dri­ving use of blockchain and other tech­nolo­gies such as AI, bio­met­rics, cloud com­put­ing and big data by small and medium-sized banks. i) Loosen digi­ti­sa­tion reg­u­la­tion for smaller banks; ii) im­prove per­sonal data rights pro­tec­tion laws, iii) es­tab­lish ex­change plat­forms.
Sun Pishu (孙丕恕), CEO of In­spur	Sup­port for Chi­na’s new in­fra­struc­ture de­vel­op­ment, en­com­pass­ing big data, blockchain and ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence.
Zhou Yun­jie (周云杰), pres­i­dent of Haier Group	In­te­gra­tion of 5G, ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence, cloud com­put­ing, the blockchain and the In­dus­trial In­ter­net of Things into Chi­na’s “new in­fra­struc­ture.”

CP­PCC bills put forward:

CP­PCC mem­ber	Bill
Zhou Yanli (周延礼), for­mer deputy-chair of the China In­sur­ance Reg­u­la­tory Com­mis­sion (CIRC)	Use of blockchain tech­nol­ogy to “re­forge the trust foun­da­tions of in­sur­ance.”
Cheng Jing (程静), chair of Zhizao Da­jie (智造大街)	Ap­pli­ca­tion of the blockchain to var­i­ous in­dus­tries in­clud­ing avi­a­tion, lo­gis­tics, fi­nance and health­care.
Luo Sham­ing (骆沙鸣), deputy chair of the Quanzhou mu­nic­i­pal PPCC	In­creas­ing spe­cial plans for blockchain re­search and ap­pli­ca­tions in Chi­na’s 14th Five Year Plan.
Zhang Ye (张野), deputy-chair of the Regtech Work Com­mit­tee of the China Se­cu­ri­ties Reg­u­la­tory Com­mis­sion (CSRC)	Ex­plor­ing in­no­v­a­tive ap­pli­ca­tion of the blockchain to se­cu­ri­ties funds and the fu­tures sec­tor.
Gong Fuwen (巩富文), deputy-head of the Shaanxi province Supreme Peo­ple’s Court	Gov­ern­ment dri­ving the in­no­v­a­tive de­vel­op­ment of blockchain tech­nol­ogy.
Liu Wei (刘伟), chair of PCI-Sun­tek Tech­nol­ogy	Use of blockchain tech­nol­ogy to cre­ate city in­for­ma­tion mod­els and plat­form-model ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence hubs.
Ou Zon­grong (欧宗荣), deputy-chair of the Fu­jian Province In­dus­trial and Com­mer­cial League	Rapid de­vel­op­ment of mod­ern tech­nolo­gies such as the blockchain, sup­port for dig­i­tal reg­u­la­tion.

Alongside the numerous bills drafted, Jieqing Tan, NDRC deputy has also called for a blockchain industry development fund, with the aim of promoting the technology and fostering unicorn enterprises in the blockchain space. 

Overall, it would appear that blockchain is integral to China’s future. More may be revealed on the technology and DCEP by the end of the meeting, but as of now, it would appear that China is looking to be the worldwide leader in blockchain.