China’s Digital Currency Could Overturn US Sanctions, Improve Surveillance Capabilities CryptoGlobe
A US senator has warned against China’s central bank digital currency. “Analysts have raised eCNY’s potential to reverse U.S. sanctions, facilitate illicit money flows, bolster China’s surveillance capabilities, and provide Beijing with ‘first-mover’ benefits,” the senator said. to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
US senator warns of threat from China’s central bank digital currency
US Senator Pat Toomey last week sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Secretary of State Tony Blinken raising concerns about China’s central bank digital currency, the digital yuan.
“I’m writing to ask for your commitment to a momentous development in Beijing this week: the rollout of the world’s first major central bank digital currency (CBDC) to overseas audiences,” he told Yellen and Blinken.
“While the United States is still evaluating the concept of a digital dollar, China is using the Beijing Winter Olympics as an international test for the digital yuan (eCNY), which has been piloted domestically since 2019,” he said. describes the Pennsylvania legislator, elaborating:
Analysts have spoken of eCNY’s potential to overturn US sanctions, facilitate illicit money flows, improve China’s surveillance capabilities, and provide Beijing with “first-mover” benefits, such as establishing standards for cross-border digital payments.
The senator noted that “Beijing has also launched the world’s first state-backed distributed ledger infrastructure, the Blockchain-Based Service Network (BSN).”
Additionally, Senator Toomey commented on China’s crackdown on cryptocurrency, saying, “China’s crackdown presents the United States with an opportunity to be the forerunner of crypto innovation, grounded in individual freedom and other American and Democratic principles”.
The senator continues:
Given the potential threat to the economic and national security interests of the United States, I request that the Treasury and State Departments closely examine the deployment of the Beijing CBDC during the Olympics.
Senator Toomey also requested information on nine areas to be provided to his office by March 7.
They include how the digital yuan was distributed, the strategies used to advance the adoption of eCNY by Chinese and non-Chinese, the adoption rate of eCNY by foreigners, the issuance total eCNY after the Olympics, lessons for the US government and possible challenges for the United States. interests.
In January, China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), revealed that the digital yuan now has over 261 million users and transactions worth nearly $14 billion have been made. using central bank digital currency. Last week, China designated 15 national pilot areas and 164 entities for blockchain projects.
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