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A Chinese economist and assistant director at the International Monetary Institute of Renmin University, Qu Qiang, has predicted that “We’re all going to die” if bitcoin becomes widely adopted as a currency. He foresees our society falling into “a death spiral of deflation,” noting that “the whole society is going to shrink and self-explode.”
An assistant director at the International Monetary Institute of Renmin University, Qu Qiang, was interviewed on CGTN about bitcoin. CGTN is owned by the Chinese state media China Central Television (CCTV). The video of his interview was shared on Twitter Thursday by Hailey Lennon, who said she walked into her hotel room and it was playing on TV.
Qu was asked: “Can you give me the worst scenario, what kind of a systemic shock it will give to the current financial system if bitcoin is widely used in China or the rest of the world?” He replied:
I can tell you exactly what’s going to happen … We’re all going to die. This is not a joke.
His answer was what he called “The worst scenario or the must scenario” that will happen if bitcoin were to become “the ultimate type of currency” and “adopted by all human society.”
Qu then pointed out that “Bitcoin has a very, very strict, limited total number, which means this is a deflation currency,” noting that it will not expand the amount as human development grows.
Consequently, he asserted that with bitcoin adoption, our society will fall into “a death spiral of deflation.” He elaborated: “The whole society is going to shrink and self-explode. That’s what happened at the end of the Ming dynasty when they were short on silver.”
Qu graduated and received his doctorate in economics from Renmin University of China, where he is now a professor and a doctoral advisor. He currently serves as the external supervisor of the Bank of Beijing and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). Among numerous positions he is holding is a director of the China Financial Policy Research Centre, a key research center of humanities and social sciences of the Chinese Ministry of Education.
Bitcoiners had a field day over Qu’s comments on social media. Many just laughed excessively, with some calling the whole thing an “ultimate FUD” and “state-sanctioned bullshit propaganda.”
Some debunked his silver theory. One person tweeted: “Ming dynasty collapsed for many reasons but a deflationary silver spiral ain’t one of them,” citing work by Richard von Glahn, who wrote, “This hypothesis rests on dubious theoretical and empirical grounds.”
Many mocked his knowledge of the fall of the Ming dynasty. One person suggested: “This could easily be a SNL [Saturday Night Live] skit except funnier.” Another exclaimed: “End of the world. Beware.” A third person said, “I didn’t know bitcoin ended the Ming dynasty.” A fourth person chimed in, “Imagine if we had hodled since the 15th century.”
One user got more serious and stated that “for the record, he [Qu] is clueless about Ming dynasty.” Quoting the British Museum’s history of the world, he wrote: “The Ming … state issued too much paper money, however, causing hyper-inflation. By 1425 paper money was worth only a seventieth of its original value and the use of paper currency in China was suspended.”
