thecoinrepublic.com
- Three US senators have signed a letter demanding that the digital yuan be banned from use by American athletes during the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing
- They urged the Olympic Committee to work with federal officials to protect the privacy of American athletes from the Chinese Communist government
- The PBoC also indicated that it was contemplating letting international athletes and visitors utilize the CBDC during the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, which would be the first time foreign athletes and tourists have done so in China
Three US senators have signed a letter requesting Olympic authorities to prohibit American athletes from using the digital yuan during the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Republican senators Marsha Blackburn, Roger Wicker, and Cynthia Lummis wrote to U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee board chair Susanne Lyons on Monday, requesting that officials prevent U.S. athletes from using or accepting digital yuan, claiming that it can be “tracked and traced” by the People’s Bank of China, or PBoC. The three alleged that the Chinese Communist Party might use the digital money to spy on visiting athletes and track them after they returned to China.
According to the senators, the Chinese government recently implemented new capabilities for the digital yuan, allowing officials to know the specific details of what someone purchased and where they acquired it. They highlighted WeChat, a messaging and payment service, as an example, alleging that the technology was already being used to surveil, intimidate, and imprison Chinese individuals. Lummis, Blackburn, and Wicker asked the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation for a briefing on the subject within 30 days. They encouraged the Olympic Committee to collaborate with federal authorities to protect American athletes’ privacy from the Chinese Communist Government.
In April 2020, China began conducting trials of its digital yuan, handing out thousands of dollars in the central bank digital currency, or CBDC, to citizens in several locations. The PBoC also stated that it was considering allowing international athletes and tourists to use the CBDC during the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, which would be the first time foreign nationals had done so in China. Despite the fact that the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo has been postponed by a year owing to the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic, Beijing is said to be on pace to host the Winter Olympics in February 2022. Since March 2020, China’s National Health Commission has routinely recorded less than 200 new domestic COVID-19 cases each day, although other stories have indicated the government is behind a pandemic disinformation campaign.