Thanks @btuniverse for a most interesting post.

President Xi will not do anything unless he's 100% sure that what he proposes will work. The Army Generals are nearby and they need to pay their troops.

Already, the Chinese are about to launch a state-backed cryptocurrency to seven major institutions including Alibaba, Tencent, and Union Pay. Potential launch date November 11, Singles Day in China: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeldelcastillo/2019/08/27/alibaba-tencent-five-others-to-recieve-first-chinese-government-cryptocurrency/#3cd2ff811a51

Given that the blockchain supporting this new crypto will be centralized and under Government control, I suspect what we actually have is a digitalised yuan rather than crypto, in effect a defacto fiat. Why print money, when you can dream it!

Also, there's a potential for this "blockchain" to include hidden trackers so that the Chinese Government will be able to capture the spend data. They could argue that such a course of action is needed to prevent money-laundering and dark economy use, and to protect consumers and investors from fraud and hackers. In effect, a Clayton's crypto.

What we could now have is an assault on decentralised blockchains; governments across the world foregoing liberty in exchange for control, under the banner of democracy. Same old!