I’ve also heard that bitcoin is becoming more popular among regular Chinese citizens, as more and more restrictions are put in place on the flow of RMB within the country, not just across its borders.
WeChat, the “Chinese WhatsApp”, is an application platform that allows you to do things like apply for loans, pay bills, and pass small sums of money to other users of the application, and it is utterly compromised by government regulation and surveillance. It will do things like check what other applications you have installed and who your friends are, and it will put a black mark on your record if you or anyone you know is doing anything unsanctioned. So I hear that more and more Chinese people will have two phones, one for being an ostensibly good citizen and another that can be used for working around restrictions imposed by WeChat. RMB on one, bitcoin on the other.
In many ways China is years ahead of the western world.
