Huawei to work with People’s Bank of China on blockchain technology 

In an official announcement released yesterday on Chinese messaging platform WeChat, multinational technology company Huawei shared its plans to work with the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) on digital asset integration and financial research.

In a meeting on November 4, the Digital Currency Research Institute – part of the PBoC – signed a memorandum of cooperation with Huawei while attending the 27th China International Finance Exhibition, held in Shenzhen.

Notable members attending the exhibition included PBoC vice president Fan Yifei as well as Huawei chairman Xu Zhijun.

Although few details were included in the announcement on what the memorandum would entail, it’s likely that the PBoC and Huawei will be jointly contributing to Beijing’s new push for better blockchain financial and legal infrastructure.

Building a new financial ecosystem

Huawei attended the event to promote its Kunpeng Industry Ecosystem, a distributed computing initiative based on the company’s self-developed chip technology.

The PBoC Clearing Center and Liquidation Center also signed agreements with Huawei at the same event. The announcement stated that together with recent innovations in 5G and AI technology, Huawei is committed to building a “solid digital financial base” for Chinese users, which may explain the multiple areas of focus with the PBoC.

Today, the financial innovation forum, also led by Huawei, is being held in Shenzhen. The forum, entitled “Building a new open economy”, is being hosted as part of the Huawei Financial Open Innovation Alliance. The alliance focuses on integrating bleeding-edge technologies into existing financial infrastructure.

China’s latest spotlight on blockchain

It’s been a busy few months for the Chinese blockchain sector with sweeping changes in government sentiment towards digital assets. President Xi Jinping voiced his support for blockchain technology last month, emphasising the role decentralised systems could play in Chinese financial infrastructure.

Beijing has taken a measured approach to blockchain technology, asking the Chinese public to focus on “Blockchain, not Bitcoin” and exploring the launch of a national digital currency.

With the recent escalation of the trade war between Washington DC and Beijing, Chinese companies such as Huawei are placing more emphasis on developing infrastructure within East Asian nations. The endorsement of blockchain technology by Beijing may be the latest development in the growing ‘tech war’ between the US and China.