you kinda contradict yourself and i'm pretty positive that you have your own agenda by spreading "seemingly informative articles" about bitcoin situation in china... for certain things you don't need to be in china to understand what it's like in china, you can pretty much get an idea of what's going on if you know your way around...
in your original post you mentioned 0 population traded bitcoins and now you think government is trying to maintain its image by saving its citizens from some sort of evil get quick rich scheme... if there are only bunch of traders why would pboc be concerned at all? are there fly by night shops promoting high returns on bitcoins? any articles of citizens who became victims of this "evil pyramid scheme" to me if pboc was determined to go against bitcoin that's where it would've started...
ok let's assume there was population involved do you really think by just banning bitcoin it can save its citizens from all that "evil pyramid scheme"? if it were really concerned first thing it should do is ban its own citizens from gambling overseas period, gambling causes more social problems than investing in bitcoins and you know very well gambling is in their blood... but the same pboc that's trying to act noble closes its one eye when its citizens still can bypass capital controls by using unionpay to feed their gambling habits in macau....
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/03/12/uk-china-unionpay-special-report-idUKBREA2B00B20140312 as you say bitcoin is a small fly to pboc but if it were why stir up the whole ban fud? now if we ever come to a point where pboc will decide to move against bitcoin it is going to be for the same reason it did to limit QQcoin from trading virtual currencies into fiat... source:
http://www.informationweek.com/e-commerce/china-limits-use-of-virtual-currency/d/d-id/1080926imho there are far more serious issues for your government to deal with, i'll just list the most serious ones:
tax evasion
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http://money.cnn.com/2014/02/09/news/economy/china-tax/corrupted politburo
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2014/04/how-far-will-chinas-anti-corruption-fifteen-billion-dollar-purge-go.htmlproperty bubble that PBOC itself created which is now bursting (this one is a serious shitstorm)
http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2014-02/26/content_17305583.htmFED's QE tapering which china says is not really concerned about but in reality they are... look at what's happening now..
http://www.scmp.com/business/economy/article/1386189/feds-qe-taper-risks-slowing-chinese-reformshttp://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/19/hongkong-property-chinese-idUSL3N0MG1B220140319now capital flight is just another bs, pboc is smart enough to just invalidate and purge it from its system... yuan stability? then why let it trade offshore? actually yuan devaluation is just another tactic in currency war handbook... it's very much welcome in china because it helps maintain its export competitiveness... i personally think if pboc really moves against bitcoin then it means it's going to acknowledge that it's not that harmless as you say it is, that means deep down there it's raising eyebrows... in that case trust me it won't need to wait for imaginary April 15 or April 17, it will simply be like SWAT team all over the exchange offices... also if you look at those dumps don't assume someone is losing his shirt in china, it's just same bunch of traders taking money from right pocket and putting it in their left pocket, but the goal which is illusion has been achieved... it's going to be same bunch of people that will move the market in china anyway they want...
PS. honestly i don't really care how this fud turns out in china, i'm all in and pretty comfortable with it, in fact i would've bought more if i had the opportunity... also i can't thank enough all those fudsters and trolls who keep spreading fear because a month ago i thought i wouldn't be able to buy at these prices...
They banned Bitcoin simply because they don't want the people to have the ability to flee should the value of the yuan collapse.
Yes, it is an act in prevention, not in reaction, and a few other reasons (that I state below). It is not for the on-going capital fleet which many others guess. Bitcoin is too small for PBOC to act for capital fleet. As I mentioned in the past, PBOC has reserve to buy up market cap of Bitcoin half a million times. To get you a picture, bitcoin to PBOC is like an ordinary citizen to the Mexco city. PBOC is facing problems many times the scale of Bitcoin. Bitcoin is harmless.
The motiviation is 1) maintain authority of CNY; 2) maintain controll over Internat Finance (under competition of Alibaba's YU'E BAO) and 3) perhaps partly triggered by all major exchange's inclusion of LTC, which makes the whole crypto currency thing look like child's play to PBOC - and PBOC should maintain its image by protecting people from 吸储 (evil guys taking in people's rainy day money).
You would think the order is:
1) they ignore you
2) they laugh at you
3) they fight you (= ban you)
4) you win
The order in China should be:
1) they ignore you
2) they ban you, and left you for dead (ban is not a fight, it is punishment/sentence, you should be dead)
3) they fight you (different from ban, a fight is usually signalled by state-own media's opinion maniuplation)
4) you are really dead (unless a new tech removes the need of centralized exchanges)
5) China goverment dead -> this is the longest phase, measured in decades
6) you are revived when others thrived
Yes, I mean that bitcoin outlives this government.