US will ban Google, Apple from hosting apps that accept China’s digital yuan

Citing concerns that Beijing could use it to spy on citizens USA, three Republican senators introduced a bill titled “The Protection of Americans From Authoritarian Digital Currencies Act”. The bill further proposes to strengthen controls on China’s digital yuan to protect American users’ personal information from being tracked.

Specifically, Republican senators want to ban US app stores including those of Apple and Google from hosting apps that allow payments in Chinese digital currency, amid concerns. This payment system could allow Beijing to spy on Americans.

The bill, just announced and first reported by Reuters, suggests that companies that own or control app stores “will not offer or support any apps in the stores.” Their application in the United States supports, or allows transactions in, the Chinese digital yuan e-CNY.The bill was proposed by Senators Tom Cotton, Marco Rubio and Mike Braun.

According to Cotton’s office, the digital yuan could give the Chinese government “real-time visibility into all transactions on the network, raising privacy concerns” and security for Americans participating in this payment network.”

The introduction of this new law is based on the notion that the digital renminbi is built on blockchain technology and thus gives China more power over its financial system.

The Chinese Communist Party will use its digital currency to control and track anyone who uses it. The United States should reject China’s attempt to sabotage our economy at the most fundamental level. It makes no sense to tie us to the digital currency of a regime like them, who always hate us and want to replace us on the world stage. This is a major and serious financial oversight risk that the United States cannot afford to cover and control,” said Tom Cotton.

This is not the first time US lawmakers have tried to regulate the digital yuan. In March, U.S. senators Bill Cassidy and Marsha Blackburn proposed the Say No to the Silk Road Act, which would direct U.S. government agencies to establish regulations and guidelines related to copper. China’s digital currency. The act also requires any foreign government that receives financial assistance from the US to disclose whether they use a digital yuan.

The Silk Road Say No Act suggests, among other concerns, that China’s digital currency could allow countries like Russia to bypass sanctions, and allow China to violate its rights. of their citizens.

Even the Center for a New American Security, a Washington, DC-based think tank, said in a January 2021 report that China’s digital currency and electronic payment system “might be a boon to the CCP’s surveillance of the economy and government interference in the lives of Chinese citizens, they seriously “note that” the transactions will contain accurate data about users and their financial performance”.

The move comes after WeChat, a messaging and payment app owned by China’s Tencent with more than 1.2 billion users, announced it would start supporting the currency earlier this year. Alipay, the hugely popular payment app owned by Jack Ma’s Ant Corporation, also accepts digital currency. Both apps are available in the App Store and Google Play Store.

Apple Inc, Alphabet Inc, Ant Group and Tencent did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Reuters team.

The Chinese embassy in Washington called the act “another example of the United States intentionally bullying foreign companies by abusing state power on the basis of the inability to guarantee national security.” “.

It is known that the digital yuan is a digital currency of the central bank of China (CBDC), which means that it is pegged to the Chinese Yuan and issued by the central bank of China. Country of issue. It was used in at least 15 cities after being deployed at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

In general, the digital yuan is also only in the early stages of launch. Akram Keram, a China expert at the National Endowment for Democracy, wrote last year that digital currency would provide the Chinese Communist Party with “direct control and access to the financial life of the Chinese Communist Party.” individuals without the need for powerful financial intermediaries”. In a society that consumes digital yuan, the government can easily suspend the digital wallets of dissidents and human rights activists, he added.