Facebook is launching their own cryptocurrency. Doesn't it eventually make it easier for the Chinese to move their money out of the Chinese Yuan?
China will find very little sympathy from the Democratic Party. Many candidates don't like the tariffs - but every one of them has openly stated that China needed to be confronted. Forbes: Dear Chinese Government, The Democrats Won't Save You https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrap...ent-the-democrats-wont-save-you/#79bdd40e5f51
Here's the thing. The CCP shoots people. In the back of the head. Sentences citizens for long stints of hard labor for violating currency laws. In fact, as of August 2017 Chinese Bank employees and foreign banks are now required to report overseas spending via domestic Chinese bank accounts of over 1,000 RMB (about $150 USD). It's amazing that there has been such an enormous exodus of cash out of China despite such draconian deterrents. Very telling.
Bone is mostly talking out of his ass, above at least, but imo a tiny minority only of chinese citizens use VPNs. Even a few 100yards from HK, in modern and wealthy Shenzhen, my guess is many people don't really know what happened the last few days in HK and have no idea about the extradition bill (I can't really do a public survey, but noticed that was the case with some mainlanders, who DO have a lot of relations with foreigners). Note that it appears a widely held opinion in China, that one should mind his business but not politics. Not sure why but people from Shanghai seem to be more open to the outside world, and it is usually a much more fun place for foreigners - the chinese I meet here who use VPNs seem to come from Shanghai btw. Anyway CNY, or onshore yuan, is heavily controlled. A VPN won't allow you to move any of it to buy facebook crypto afaik (there are other ways to move money in and out of the country, it has apparently become more difficult and costly over the last few years, but it is still there).
@luisHK my experience is that pretty much everyone in the younger generation has/is using a VPN. Some of the setups were not plug and play options either, some pretty impressive stuff with Shadowsocks. FWIW, it was Shanghai.