The deputy governor of the People's Bank of China has made strong comments regarding ICOs that market to Chinese citizens from abroad, according to CoinDesk.
Pan Gongsheng, who is also head of the Leading Group of Internet Financial Risks Remediation (name translated from Chinese), reiterated at an internal meeting that ICOs are not allowed in the country and that Chinese businesses that escaped the ban and market to Chinese citizens from abroad are also breaking the law. The working group was set up in April 2016 and is the body from which the widely-publicised crackdowns on the cryptocurrency industry originated.
Gongsheng, previously Vice President of Agricultural Bank of China, has been the central bank's deputy governor since December 2012.
Attending the meeting were the PBoC, the Financial Stability Development Committee, the aforementioned working group, and municipal representatives.
The official report says that the Party Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to dealing with risks stemming from internet finance.
Gongsheng identified three "major battles" faced by the government. The first is to "establish a regulatory system that adapts to the characteristics of Internet finance."
The second is for all regions of China to "carry out administrative punishment and criminal strikes, and steadily and orderly accelerate the withdrawal of illegal institutions and business activities."
The third is to "play an active role in improving ...the inclusiveness of financial services."
Gongsheng said: “Financial business activities must be licensed. This is a very clear one at the Central Financial Work Conference last year. There should be clear requirements for capital, shareholders' qualifications, qualifications of employees, senior management qualifications, and corporate governance."
Background
China banned ICOs and cryptocurrency exchanges in September 2017, and in January Gongsheng told Bitcoin mining businesses to leave the country.
The biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world are from China. They moved abroad, and Chinese people continued trading with them until the national firewall was also strengthened to block this too.
in January Gongsheng said: “Pseudo-financial innovations that have no relationship with the real economy should not be supported." It was hoped that when American-educated Yi Gang took the helm of the central bank in 2018 that a new era was coming, but this has not been the case.
At the same time however the Chinese government is supportive of approved Blockchain technology projects - NEO and Tron are examples of this.
