China’s State Council warns against metaverse fever

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The metaverse is attracting billions of dollars in investments and millions of users, but China remains cautious of this new bold virtual world. In a recent article, China’s State Council warned that the metaverse might not be suitable for all regions and advised investors to tread cautiously when making metaverse bets.

China has been supportive of the metaverse, with several regional governments unveiling various measures to boost the growth and adoption of the virtual world. However, there has been a great effort on their part to distance themselves from NFTs and digital assets.

The China State Council, the chief administrative authority in the Asian country, is now warning the public against feverishly aping into the metaverse.

“The metaverse industry sounds promising, but it may not fit every region. Be wary of feverishly following suit and betting big on it while detached from reality,” a recent article in the Economic Daily states.

The current metaverse hype was similar to the spike in interest in new energy a few years ago, according to the Council. This interest resulted in the excess production of renewable energy from solar and wind in many regions in China.

Despite the warning, the Council reiterated that President Xi Jinping’s government fully supports the metaverse. According to the article, at least 30 local governments in China have implemented policies supporting metaverse development. In addition, there are 18 industrial parks incubating metaverse projects in the country.

This month, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology published a 12-page plan for developing the metaverse in the country. Beijing and Shanghai have also unveiled similar plans.

While local governments push the metaverse, they have been careful not to get roped into NFTs or digital assets amid a crackdown on these two sectors by the government.

Wuhan is one such city. In January this year, the city’s local government announced that it would support metaverse and NFTs to kickstart its economy after the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, earlier this month, the city edited the proposal to omit any mention of NFTs and digital collectibles.

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