Existential Threat or Digital Yawn: Evaluating China's Central Bank Digital Currency

China is one of the first governments to rein in virtual currencies while also working to consider how a central bank digital currency ("CBDC") could advance its policy goals. This Note evaluates the impact of China's CBDC-the e-CNY-on the United States and on the international financial system by framing it within China's broader domestic policy initiatives. Although China certainly hopes to reduce reliance on the U.S.-dominated international financial infrastructure in the decades ahead, it is also driven by important domestic policy priorities-namely, cracking down on financial crime and illegal gambling, reasserting control over outbound capital flows, and addressing an increasingly concentrated market of powerful private sector payment platforms. Financial and political implications follow for the U.S. sanctions regime, as well as U.S. dollar dominance, the global balance of economic power, and the ability of an increasingly authoritarian regime to monitor and control its society. However, the introduction of a new financial technology is but one factor among many others, and any gains from the adoption of the e-CNY that China may enjoy relative to the United States may be marginal.