This episode unpacks China’s push to develop a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). Our guest, Dr. Kevin Desouza, explains Beijing's motives and compares China’s plans for creating its own national digital currency with those of other countries that have undertaken similar initiatives. Dr. Desouza explores how a national digital currency can be used to bolster China’s finance and technology sectors, as well as its economy as a whole. He also offers his views on what China’s timeline might be for rolling out its own CBDC, particularly in light of the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Dr. Kevin Desouza is a professor of Business, Technology and Strategy in the School of Management at the Queensland University of Technology Business School. Dr. Desouza is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow in the Governance Studies Program at the Brookings Institution, and a Distinguished Research Fellow at the China Institute for Urban Governance at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He has held tenured faculty appointments at the University of Washington, Virginia Tech, and Arizona State University.