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China’s Communist Party is working to keep its cadres up to speed as it embraces cutting-edge technologies from artificial intelligence to blockchain, with a latest step being a textbook guide to digital currencies.

The 200-page handbook Digital Currency: A Reader for Cadres, released by the publishing house of People’s Daily, includes 23 articles with topics ranging from the basics of the concept to its impact on monetary systems and global finance. The book entered the second printing in January, only three months after being launched, and is an addition to a series of guides for cadres covering subjects including artificial intelligence and blockchain.

“Digital currency is inevitable in the course of history,” according to a blurb on the book’s cover. The articles selected “hope to help Party cadres deepen their understanding” of the technology, the postscript said.

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The People’s Bank of China is leading its global peers in the study of digital currencies, although it says it doesn’t have a set timetable to issue one and it’s still unclear how the digital currency will be used. The book tries to explain the concept to officials so once there’s a concrete plan, Party officials will know what they need to know.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Yinan Zhao in Beijing at yzhao300@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeffrey Black at jblack25@bloomberg.net, Jiyeun Lee

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