You western guys are over-interpreting the CCTV coverage

[jl2012]

There are two lines in the discussion related to the CCTV coverage

I totally agree with this one:

30 minutes coverage on CCTV -> More Chinese people know BTC -> More download and search of bitcoin in China -> Positive for the price of BTC

But this is one just an illusion of China in the eyes of western world:

CCP controls all media in China -> 30 minutes coverage on CCTV (also xinhuanet.com today) == CCP embraces BTC / BTC is legal in China

Here's why:

1. CCP does control all media in China. CCTV and xinhuanet.com are definitely directly operated by the CCP. However, it doesn't mean that every single story on these CCP-operated media represents the thinking of CCP. Actually, they occasionally (if not fequently) make mistakes. Just a few weeks ago, Xinhua reported a fake news about Xi Jinping (the CCP president) riding taxi.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10002599/Xi-Jinpings-anonymous-taxi-ride-through-Beijing.html

It is well-known that in China there are very strict rules in reporting the activities of the major officials, while the Xinhua could still make a mistake like this.

2. About the legality of BTC in China. Please understand that there is NO law in China. CCP rules everything. All businesses are running more or less in grey area, and is definitely so for BTC business. If CCP find BTC threatening their dictatorship, they will shut it down next second with no mercy (at least the exchanges, not sure if they could really shut down the bitcoin network itself). Therefore, I will never leave a single satoshi and a cent of CNY on any Chinese exchange for more than 24 hours.

3. A Chinese blogger has a similar view as mine: http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_67a17e000101kzoc.html . He thinks the CCTV is just trying to report a trendy topic without thinking too much about politics. They will regret because Chinese government is actually printing much harder than Ben.

[noedaRDH]

I agree. Just because it was aired on a big news channel doesn't mean that the government approves of it or is somehow backing it. They can change their tune any time they want, as soon as they feel BTC's as dangerous to their interests.

[Awhut]

It will take a long time for bitcoin to gain enough traction in China to become "dangerous to their interests". This is major news because it will rock the market until that happens (which will rock the market again  )

Also if they didn't crack down that'd be cool too.

[Ultraviolet]

2. About the legality of BTC in China. Please understand that there is NO law in China. CCP rules everything. All businesses are running more or less in grey area, and is definitely so for BTC business. If CCP find BTC threatening their dictatorship, they will shut it down next second with no mercy (at least the exchanges, not sure if they could really shut down the bitcoin network itself). Therefore, I will never leave a single satoshi and a cent of CNY on any Chinese exchange for more than 24 hours.

This is exactly what people need to realize so that they stop getting played by Propaganda Ministry rhetoric.

[UltimateReaper]

China is worse off than I thought--and I thought things were bad.

More people involved will definitely bring up the price but I think its too early to tell how things are going to turn out short term at least.

[ronaldlee0917]

Everything is possible in China, they might ban anything they want on any day. But do you know why most corporations and countries still want to do business with China? Because China is a huge and one of the fastest growing market, the sheer profits alone far outweigh the potential of being kicked out one day. Their media might have made mistakes in the past, but they certainly won't make the same mistake on consecutive days, the guys making those mistakes won't be let alone that long.

[Ares]

According to someone from reddit on the artice on Xinhuanet:

Source is Beijing Evening News. It's a Party-owned publication.

It's reposted on xinhuanet, website of China's official press agency.

[elux]

According to someone from reddit on the artice on Xinhuanet:

Source is Beijing Evening News. It's a Party-owned publication.
It's reposted on xinhuanet, website of China's official press agency.

A case of: "百花齊放，百家爭鳴" / "Let a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend."?

[AmazonStuff]

I have my few personal rules to survive BTC market:

1. Don't believe in possible news, believe in real news.

2. Don't believe in wall that doesn't want to be eaten, believe in wall that does.

[jl2012]

According to someone from reddit on the artice on Xinhuanet:

Source is Beijing Evening News. It's a Party-owned publication.

It's reposted on xinhuanet, website of China's official press agency.

As I said, the Xinhua agency has just made an epic mistake on President Xi. Comparing with XI, bitcoin is just SHIT (in the view of CCP)

[SAQ]

According to someone from reddit on the artice on Xinhuanet:

Source is Beijing Evening News. It's a Party-owned publication.

It's reposted on xinhuanet, website of China's official press agency.

As I said, the Xinhua agency has just made an epic mistake on President Xi. Comparing with XI, bitcoin is just SHIT (in the view of CCP)

If it was just CCTV maybe you could say the party did not sanction or approve it. However, having a report on xinhuanet as well 2 days latter suggests the party is fully aware of it and does approve it.

You say xinhuanet made a mistake with reporting of some official. That isn't relevant. It isn't just one of the CCP controlled media reporting on bitcoins in a very positive light, its two. One mistake ok, but the second time there is no mistake.

[ManBearPig]

What is it they say? The only bad publicity is no publicity.

[jl2012]

According to someone from reddit on the artice on Xinhuanet:

Source is Beijing Evening News. It's a Party-owned publication.

It's reposted on xinhuanet, website of China's official press agency.

As I said, the Xinhua agency has just made an epic mistake on President Xi. Comparing with XI, bitcoin is just SHIT (in the view of CCP)

If it was just CCTV maybe you could say the party did not sanction or approve it. However, having a report on xinhuanet as well 2 days latter suggests the party is fully aware of it and does approve it.

You say xinhuanet made a mistake with reporting of some official. That isn't relevant. It isn't just one of the CCP controlled media reporting on bitcoins in a very positive light, its two. One mistake ok, but the second time there is no mistake.

I bet in this forum there are only less than 5 persons have the experience in using Internet in China in 1998 --- and I'm one of them. I could freely visit any website without any censorship. As soon as they realized the threatening features of the web, the experience became worse and worse.

Another story is about Falungong (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong). They had very good relationship with the authorities in early 1990s, and was not declared as a heresy until they protested in front of the CCP headquarter in 1999.

China is not North Korea. Chinese media, including official media, has limited freedom to report apolitical news. CCTV and Xinhua will keep reporting Bitcoin as long as it is considered as technical and financial, until some events really trigger their political thinking.

By the way, the one on xinhuanet is just a repost from another media and is only semi-official.

[jl2012]

What is it they say? The only bad publicity is no publicity.

Sure, I never say it's bad. It's actually GOOD because it lets more people know it, and it does. Just remind you don't fall into the slippery slope fallacy.

[jinni]

2. About the legality of BTC in China. Please understand that there is NO law in China. CCP rules everything. All businesses are running more or less in grey area, and is definitely so for BTC business. If CCP find BTC threatening their dictatorship, they will shut it down next second with no mercy (at least the exchanges, not sure if they could really shut down the bitcoin network itself). Therefore, I will never leave a single satoshi and a cent of CNY on any Chinese exchange for more than 24 hours.

Let me just say this: I would not leave any satoshi nor any cent in any exchange for longer than strictly necessary.

This is actually an argument for why the Chinese government should not feel threatened by Bitcoin. When most businesses in China are operating in a grey area then Bitcoin will be no different from what is already happening.

Also, China really stands to gain from working against international finance. Also supporting the Bitcoin technology can help them make further advances in Africa for example. Embracing Bitcoin could really help China use this soft pressure they like to apply to slowly by slowly build more influence abroad.

Even if the Chinese government hasn't fully grasped the potential of Bitcoin (unlikely, but possible), strategically it makes sense for them to embrace it, and hence they will gain the understanding in the future and not work against it.

The US, on the other hand, is in bed with international finance and will have a much harder time than China embracing it - hence the advantage is with China and thus they will take the advantage and make sure they get the lead in yet another area.

[Brushan]

I think you guys have been hanging around on this forum too much. Why would China give a shit about something that has a $1B marketcap. If it was a stock company you wouldn't find a bank in the world to invest in it because of it's small size. And here we are talking about the biggest country in the world thinking that they will change the world with Bitcoin. It would be very hard for me to believe this. Maybe in the future yes, but right now we're still just some piss in Mississippi.

[thezerg]

In 2011 I didn't want to be involved in a currency stigmatized as used only for illegal purchases, etc no matter how promising.  But in early 2012 Scientific American included it as one of their 10 greatest ideas -- suddenly there was legitimacy and plausible deniability so I started getting into it.

I wonder if this CCTV special will have the same effect for Chinese people.  It will be pretty hard for an accusation of anti-whatever activities to stick, (even in the accuser's mind, which is what may really matter in a country w/o due process) when you can point to this show on government sponsored TV and say "I thought it was good for China."

If you are living in China, what do you think about this idea?

[jinni]

I think you guys have been hanging around on this forum too much. Why would China give a shit about something that has a $1B marketcap. If it was a stock company you wouldn't find a bank in the world to invest in it because of it's small size. And here we are talking about the biggest country in the world thinking that they will change the world with Bitcoin. It would be very hard for me to believe this. Maybe in the future yes, but right now we're still just some piss in Mississippi.

Just the hype that it might threaten the dollar would be useful for the Chinese in terms of changing the media spin towards an anti-dollar attitude is useful.

And the whole thing about being the first government to endorse Bitcoin is just too great an opportunity for a 1.3bn country to pass up.

[michaelGedi]

Bitcoin itself is not political. This the problem with a lot of the perspectives I've seen on this issue. What you might do with Bitcoin could be political... but it also could not.

It's the ideologies of some of the users of Bitcoin that give it a certain meaning but I doubt that everyone who touches Bitcoin or looks into it will see it in the same way

[wopwop]

are you saying I won't be rich quick?

I don't like what you are saying