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Pan Gongsheng (潘功勝)

Governor

People's Bank of China

POSITION

Governor

COMPANY

People's Bank of China

COUNTRY

China

Website

People's Bank of China

SCENE

Business

What makes Pan Gongsheng a Global Shaker?

Pan Gongsheng is the deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) and the director of the country’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

In January 2018, the PBoC issued a statement to stop cryptocurrency trading activities, which also required payment providers to conduct internal investigations to determine whether such activities were occurring within their systems. Later that year, over 120 foreign cryptocurrency exchanges were blocked in the country, as the digital currency crackdown increased in scale. During that time, at least eight blockchain and cryptocurrency-focused online media outlets were blocked, as well.

“If things were still the way they were at the beginning of the year, over 80 per cent of the world’s bitcoin trading and ICO financing would take place in China – what would things look like today?” Gongsheng said, as reported by the South China Morning Post. “It’s really quite scary.”

Gongsheng has called for a wider ban on services related to cryptocurrency trading and more stronger regulations to prevent market risk. He appears to be staunchly against a cryptocurrency market developing within China and, alongside Zhou Xiaochuan (周小川), the former governor of the PBoC, will be extremely influential in connection with its development in the future.

“As Keynes has taught us, ‘the market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent,'” he said, as reported by CoinTelegraph. “There is only one thing left to do: Sit by the river bank and see Bitcoin’s body pass by one day.”

Tags: Asia, cryptocurrency, Government and Politics

Last updated: May 9, 2019