The city of Shenzhen will airdrop 30 million digital Yuan to local residents in an attempt to revitalize consumer spending.
The airdrop is a joint effort between the city of Shenzhen and Meituan Dianping, China’s leading food delivery app. As per instructions the users would need to first login to the Meituan app, sign up for the incentive, and then potentially receive the e-CNY rewards as part of a lottery draw.
If chosen the e-CNY is distributed to users and can be spent at more than 15,000 in app merchant terminals that accept the state owned digital currency. The People’s Bank of China had identified the e-CNY as a potential tool for advancing regional economies and improving the efficacy of select financial services.
Unlike other countries China has strictly stood by their zero-COVID policy that has seen the frequent lockdown and closure of non-essential businesses in financial hubs such as Shanghai. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang held an emergency meeting to discuss the overwhelming economic impacts of the country’s COVID policy. Amid economic shortfalls, 20 out of 31 Chinese provinces have issued consumer spending incentives such as the recent e-CNY airdrop, from January to April.
