Re: China says rejecting physical cash is illegal amid e-payments popularity
China appears to be adopting the inverse polar opposite of a cashless society.
I think that the conclusion is incorrect.
Any government may try to convince you to use cashless means of payment because it's cheaper and easier to track. But they have to support the original paper currency too, it may be even in the constitution.
The "cashless" society will not mean in the near future that all the payments will be done without physical cash. Even a 75% would be already a huge percentage. And I guess they may push to 90-95%. Try to see the reality behind the commercials
On another side, also abandoning completely the "cashless society" direction would not surprise me. The ways of Chinese government are quite strange in many aspects, we know that.
You said it right. Going cashless or electronic does not mean that paper or fiat money should be rejected because there will always be segments of the population that will prefer things the old way. What about if one has no gadget or maybe has no card...should we then exclude that person in the workings of the economy? Of course not. When credit and debit cards were introduced decades ago, many were then concluding that soon after people will stop using the fiat money but look at the world now we are still using them while cards are also popular. Those can happily seat alongside each other so why choose to impose one over the other. We are in the global economy that is very diversified and complex so choices should be available to all to enjoy.