Several universities in China’s Jiangsu Province, including Yangzhou University, Nantong University and Jiangsu Normal University, have recently notified staff that the salaries of permanent employees will gradually be paid into digital yuan wallets.
The People’s Daily reported that the cities of Changshu in Jiangsu and Meizhou in Guangdong had already piloted paying salaries in digital yuan.
The digital yuan is issued by the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank. It has the same value as physical renminbi and is legal tender, meaning no organization or individual may refuse it.
The report distinguished the digital yuan from payment platforms such as WeChat and Alipay, describing the latter as tools for “moving money” that must be linked to a bank card before funds can be withdrawn from a bank and spent. The digital yuan, by contrast, is money itself and does not need to be routed through a third-party platform.
Yangzhou University’s notice states that faculty and staff may still choose whether to transfer money in their digital wallets back to their original salary accounts. According to the report, converting funds from a digital wallet back to a linked bank card incurs no fee and arrives instantly, including for transfers between different banks. The digital yuan can also be used through channels such as WeChat and Alipay.
Digital yuan wallets can earn interest. Since the start of this year, China’s six major banks have paid interest on balances in real-name wallets at the demand deposit rate. This shifts the digital yuan from a “cash-type” instrument to a “deposit-money-type” one, brings it under deposit insurance protection, and makes its legal and economic nature similar to that of a bank deposit.
Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), October 27, 2026
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202610270302.aspx