An article titled "Why other countries are giving China a licence to print money" has sparked off a debate on Twitter as people are raising their concerns over the Indian government allowing China to print Indian currency notes. The Reserve Bank of India has time and again asserted that the country's currency gets printed only within India.
The article, which was first published by the South China Morning Post on Sunday, August 12, suggests that India and several other countries have allowed China's state-owned firms to print their currency. It highlights that foreign currencies are being printed on a vast scale in China as Beijing wants to increase Chinese influence on the world economy and geopolitics.
The article highlights that China is printing foreign currencies on a huge scale as Beijing seeks to increase its influence on the world economy and geopolitics. It also mentions that ever since Beijing launched the belt and road plan in 2013, the company China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation has seized opportunities and has successfully received contracts for currency production from a number of countries including Thailand, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, India, Brazil and Poland.
Belt and Road plan
The belt and road plan is a global development blueprint aimed at stimulating economic growth with large-scale capital investment and infrastructure construction projects from about 60 countries from Asia, Europe and Africa.
Following the article, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor was one of the first persons to raise his concern over the issue. The Thiruvananthapuram MP tweeted that allowing China to print India's currency could have "disturbing national security implications". He added that the move could also make it easier for Pakistan to produce counterfeit currency.
If true, this has disturbing national security implications. Not to mention making it easier for Pak to counterfeit. @PiyushGoyal @arunjaitley please clarify! https://t.co/POD2CcNNuL
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) August 12, 2018
RBI denies claims
The Reserve Bank of India has, however, denied the claims. An official told Moneycontrol.com that the report was incorrect and that all Indian currency notes are being printed in India only.
The article also says that Beijing has been asked by some governments not to publicise the deal because they are concerned that such an information could compromise national security and pave the way for unnecessary debates in the respective countries. It also mentioned that China has increased currency notes production in order to meet an unsually high quota set by the government this year.
The article also qouted an official saying that Yuan bills accounted for only a small portion of the orders and added that most of the orders had come from countries which have partnered with China in its 'Belt and Road initiative.'
The article further said that Chinese people were shifting to online payment mechanism and smartphone wallets, which has resulted in many currency manufacturing plants taking to printing driving licenses and marriage certificates in order to keep the machinery from rusting away.
According to the article, Liu Guisheng, President of the China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation, confirmed that Nepal became the first country to outsource currency printing to China in 2015, which was followed by contracts from several countries including India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, Brazil and Poland.
