A lot of posts here make the leap to how decisions like this would work in the West. The contexts could not be more different. Until very, very recently China had pretty much no credit available to private citizens, and until the advent of WeChat a few years ago there wasn't much in the way of electronic funds transactions. And the Chinese have tended to be very, very good savers.

This all adds up to mountains of cash in private hands, especially held by older people in the middle class. The Chinese government and people value stability above all else. Eliminating cash just isn't going to be an option in the near term, even with a totalitarian government.