Several universities in Jiangsu, including Yangzhou University, Nantong University and Jiangsu Normal University, are introducing salary payments for permanent staff through digital yuan wallets. The rollout follows pilots in Changshu, Jiangsu, and Meizhou, Guangdong. Issued by China’s central bank, the digital yuan is legal tender and holds the same value as physical renminbi. Unlike WeChat Pay and Alipay, which act as payment services linked to bank accounts, it is itself a form of money rather than a channel for transferring funds.
Employees at Yangzhou University can choose to move their digital yuan wages back to their usual salary accounts. Transfers to linked bank cards are described as free and immediate, including across banks, and the currency can also be used through services such as WeChat and Alipay. A further change is that real-name digital yuan wallets at China’s six largest banks now earn interest at the demand-deposit rate. Those balances are covered by deposit insurance, giving the digital yuan characteristics closer to bank deposits than cash. The shift therefore expands its role from a digital substitute for physical currency toward an interest-bearing form of money integrated with ordinary banking.
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