Chinese State Media Outlets Surprise With Pro-Crypto Reports

Tim Alper
Last updated: | 1 min read

Chinese crypto advocates have reacted with surprise after a number of state news outlets in the country reported on a positive-spin story that explains how cryptoassets have become the most successful asset class in the year to date.

Source: Twitter/@DoveyWan

But the story itself is not exactly a pro-crypto piece of reporting from Beijing. In fact, it merely consists of a commentary-free report on the contents of a Bloomberg article from earlier this week, detailing how crypto is outperforming other asset classes in 2020 – quoting bitcoin (BTC) advoctes such as Mike McGlone, Senior Commodity Strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence.

The Chinese piece, which is essentially little more than a Mandarin-language version of the Bloomberg report, does not really pretend to be anything else. It can be seen here, published by the Xinhua news agency, via Yicai.

However, although the story itself seems to be relatively commonplace – its distribution has been anything but.

Xinhua is China’s official state-run press agency, and answers directly to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The story was also reported on news programs aired by CCTV, the state television broadcaster. And it also made the print edition of Cankao Xiaoxi, Xinhua’s newspaper and one of Beijing’s most notable mouthpieces.

Considering China has maintained a strict policy of promoting blockchain technology while in effect banning crypto usage, the development seems bizarre if nothing else – as pro-crypto news stories rarely make the mainstream agenda in the Middle Kingdom.

Primitive Ventures founder Dovey Wan mused on Twitter,

“This an interesting propaganda vibe from the CCP’s official media outlets… It’s rare for such a coordinated effort.”

Binance chief Changpeng “CZ” Zhao also chimed in, claiming that this was indeed a “big” turn of events from Beijing.

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