Expected head of China’s new SEC regulations bureau is crypto savvy

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A new initiative by China’s government could be coming that would provide oversight of the country’s technological innovations. According to an exclusive report by Chinese business media outlet Caijing, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) is set to establish the Science and Technology Regulatory Bureau and its expected chief is someone extremely familiar to the industry. Chosen to lead the efforts is Yao Qian, the man behind China’s central bank-led cryptocurrency development.

Yao has a long and successful history in technology and digital currency. He was behind the People’s Bank of China’s (PoBC) central bank digital currency (SBDC) and its digital currency research lab, and has been involved, either as author or co-author, in a number of patent applications submitted by the PoBC.

China is said to be seriously working on rolling out a state-backed digital currency, a program that has been underway for the past couple of years. Yao supported the idea publicly two years ago when he wrote an op-ed piece for CoinDesk that detailed how the currency could easily function alongside conventional fiat. The system he described at the time is similar to what China is now said to be developing.

As enthusiastic as he has appeared to be about crypto and blockchain, Yao still has some reservations. He recognizes the multitude of benefits the technology can provide, but also realizes that there are certain limitations that need to be addressed if it is to “become the financial infrastructure of the future.”

As part of the implementation of the CSRC strategy, the new bureau will cover “five basic data analysis capabilities, seven categories of 32 supervision business analysis scenarios, puts forward the principles for the construction of big data analysis centers, data resource management work ideas, and the ‘twelve major mechanisms’ for supervision and operation of science and technology,” according to Caijing.

Zhang Ye, the director of the CSRC’s Information Center, explains, “China’s capital market has entered the 3.0 era of science and technology supervision,” adding that “the construction of science and technology by the China Securities Regulatory Commission is based on the actual situation of China’s capital market. Big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and other scientific and technological means provide comprehensive and accurate data and analysis services for the CSRC.”