In a span of a few weeks, there were two separate pushes for the Bitcoin currency in China. One came from a former official of the People's Bank of China (PBOC) and the other from an official of an Australia-based Bitcoin business.

Wu Xiaoling, former deputy director of the PBOC, said in a talk before the Sanya International Finance Forum in Hainan that private digital money could co-exist with currency issued by the Chinese government, the yuan.

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Wu, who did not mention Bitcoin by name, forecast that the co-existence of private money and government money "will be a normal part of our world."

Wu, also the dean of the Tsinghua University Wudaokou Finance College, instead used the terms "private digital money," "algorithmic money" and "virtual money" to refer to Bitcoin during the panel discussion that followed her speech, reports Cryptocoin News.

In pushing for allowing the use of virtual money, Wu pointed out that it would cut cost and boost efficiency. She added that the said currency is worth exploring and developing.

Leon Lin, CEO of Huobi, a Bitcoin exchange in China, who was part of the panel discussion, later posted to Bitcoin subreddit members that Wu is the highest-ranking Chinese government official who had gave her approval of Bitcoin, which many governments still do not recognize.

Prior to Wu's talk, Ryan Xu suggested on November 8, in a post on Yibite.com, that a Bitcoin advocacy group should be formed in China. He listed five Bitcoin-related issues that the group could address such as more local support, people who would push for the development of the community, more publicity, stronger communication with business and government and connectivity with the global community, reports Forbes.

Xu, the chief strategy officer of a Bitcoin company in Australia named Bitcoin Group, said that the Bitcoin Foundation has actually began its first project to conduct a survey in China to study the characteristics of Chinese who use Bitcoin and their attitudes toward virtual money.

Tagsbitcoin, PBOC, people's bank of china, Wu Xiaoling