In China, Typhoon Yagi Exposes Risks In Cashless Payment System Amid Power Outages – News18

Yagi, the strongest storm of the year in Asia, made landfall in China’s Hainan province on September 6, bringing heavy rainfall and wind speeds of 234 kilometres per hour. The super typhoon caused blackouts, leading to hardships for residents in the aftermath. Now, an X thread is making headlines exposing the “Downside of a cashless society.” In a video shared by a user, residents are shown charging their mobile phones at a makeshift station in a densely packed space. It seems the vendor was using an engine for the power source.

The caption read, “After the typhoon, the water and electricity were cut off. Chinese people desperately want to charge their phones as all their money is in their mobile phones. Without a mobile phone, you can’t even buy a piece of bread.”

Another video demonstrated the drawbacks of electric vehicles, showing people stranded and running to charging stations to top off their batteries.

It also states that recharging an electric car is restricted to users of WeChat, China’s digital wallet, whose social credit score is 550 or above.

It was also mentioned that digital currency in China has “expiration dates” incorporated in it. This implies that if the currency is not used within a specific period, it will expire. Additionally, if your account or digital wallet is frozen by the social credit system, you will not be able to use your digital currency.

It added that you were not permitted to use the digital money WeChat for payments during COVID-19 if your vaccination passport expired which is when the code in your Covid app becomes red.

It further mentioned that during COVID-19, China’s digital wallet WeChat or Alipay prevented you from using your digital money if your vaccination passport expires since WeChat functions as China’s contact tracing and vaccine passport app.

According to the thread, the country established “quarantine camps,” which were “literally concentration camps,” to imprison anyone who refused to receive vaccinations.

A user commented, “Now, imagine the Internet goes down for an extended period.”

Another said, “Maybe going cashless isn’t a good idea after all.”

Another user added, “Well, if your cash is in the bank, and the cash machine has no electricity you are not much better off.”

“They could at least charge phones but we couldn’t charge the ATM,” a comment read.

In 2024, Yagi ranks as the most severe tropical cyclone in the Pacific, and the second most violent tropical storm, behind Category 5 Atlantic Hurricane Beryl. According to state news agency Xinhua, at least 419,367 inhabitants were relocated before Yagi.