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Sen. Toomey Sounds Warning About China’s Digital Yuan as Olympics Start
The country is using the Winter Olympics in Beijing as an international test of its central bank digital currency (CBDC).
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), a ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, warned of the impact of China’s digital yuan on U.S. economic and national security interests in a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday.
- "Analysts have raised the eCNY's potential to subvert U.S. sanctions, facilitate illicit money flows, enhance China's surveillance capabilities and provide Beijing with 'first mover' advantages such as setting standards in cross-border digital payments," Toomey wrote.
- China is using the Winter Olympics in Beijing as an international test of its digital yuan, which it has been testing in the country since 2019. In Olympic Village, athletes and visitors can make purchases only with cash, a Visa card or the digital yuan, Toomey noted.
- Toomey added, however, that China’s crackdown on private cryptocurrencies gave a potential opening for the U.S.
- "China's crackdown presents an opportunity for the United States to be the forerunner of crypto innovation, grounded in individual freedom, and other American and democratic principles," he wrote.
- Toomey has asked the Treasury and State departments to scrutinize Beijing’s digital yuan rollout during the Olympics and provide a full briefing by March 7.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Nelson Wang
Nelson edits features and opinion stories and was previously CoinDesk’s U.S. News Editor for the East Coast. He has also been an editor at Unchained and DL News, and prior to working at CoinDesk, he was the technology stocks editor and consumer stocks editor at TheStreet. He has also held editing positions at Yahoo.com and Condé Nast Portfolio’s website, and was the content director for aMedia, an Asian American media company. Nelson grew up on Long Island, New York and went to Harvard College, earning a degree in Social Studies. He holds BTC, ETH and SOL above CoinDesk’s disclosure threshold of $1,000.
