In an announcement made on Wednesday, China\u2019s official Xinhua News Agency will issue its first series of nonfungible token (NFT) collectibles. The move is a thumbs up to blockchain technology previously shunned by the People\u2019s Republic of China (PRC). In an official notice, Xinhua plans to publish 10,000 copies of 11 photos taken by journalists in 2021.<\/p>\n
The stride into NFTs is puzzling in light of recent events in the world\u2019s second-largest economy. Following a nationwide crypto crackdown where Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) mining was banned, China has recently taken\u00a0aim at NFTs and metaverses\u00a0and proposed that they should be heavily monitored. Despite the anti-crypto sentiment, tech giants Tencent and Huawei were not discouraged from pursuing trademarks in the metaverse. <\/p>\n
Elsewhere, in early December, as part of a broader anti-crypto crackdown, some websites in Beijing, including ChainNews, went offline. Chinese crypto media kept a low profile on their websites and instead focused on growing communities on Twitter and Telegram.<\/p>\n
Curiously, however, it\u2019s not the country\u2019s first move into NFTs. During the \u201cDeFi Summer 2.0,\u201d The South China Morning Post created a series of NFTs using a new token standard called \u201cARTIFACT,\u201d which is designed to preserve historical assets on the blockchain. However, it\u2019s important to note that the SCMP is based in Hong Kong. As a result, the paper benefits from higher levels of autonomy as well as the executive, legislative and independent judicial power for which Hong Kong is known.<\/p>\n
Related: <\/em><\/strong>Chinese companies embark on a metaverse trademark race<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Hong Kong is no stranger to blockchain technology or minting NFTs. In June this year, pro-Hong Kong activists managed to\u00a0archive articles from the Hong Kong pro-democracy newspaper onto the blockchain. More than 4,000 Apple Daily articles were uploaded to ARWeave, a popular blockchain storage platform backed by Andreessen Horowitz.<\/p>\n