> winners have until January 17 to spend their e-yuan before it expires
The caveat there is that expiration in this case is probably to encourage winners to spend the money/provide an end date to the experiment. Most likely regular e-money would not have that condition but special payments (ex: stimulus) could.
c.f. speed of yuan CBDC rollout; https://www.economist.com/the-world-ahead/2021/11/08/central...
c.f. central banks salivating at the prospect of having extra levers to pull: https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2021/02/16/...
> An impediment to negative interest rates at the moment is that savers can switch to cash, which has a de facto interest rate of zero. In a cashless world central banks could in theory programme digital currency to have negative rates.
> Once ascendant, govcoins could become panopticons for the state to control citizens: think of instant e-fines for bad behaviour.