US lawmakers don’t want Olympic athletes to use the digital yuan

Three US senators have signed a letter calling on Olympic officials to ban US athletes from using the digital yuan during the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

In a letter Monday to U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee President Susanne Lyons, Republican Senators Marsha Blackburn, Roger Wicker, and Cynthia Lummis urged officials to stop U.S. athletes from the People’s Bank of China (PBoC ) be “pursued and pursued”. All three claim that the Chinese Communist Party can use the digital currency to interview visiting athletes and when they return to the US.

The senators said the Chinese government recently introduced new features for the digital yuan that allow officials “to know exactly what someone has bought and where”. They cite the WeChat messaging and payment app as a precedent, claiming the platform was “used to track, intimidate and arrest Chinese citizens.”

Lummis, Blackburn, and Wicker asked the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation for a briefing on the matter within 30 days. They called on the Olympic Committee to work with federal agencies “to protect the privacy of American athletes from the Chinese communist government.”

Connected: China wants to enable foreigners to use the digital yuan at the 2022 Winter Olympics

China started testing its digital yuan in April 2020, giving away thousands of dollars in central bank digital currency, or CBDC, to people in other cities. The PBoC also said it is looking at ways for foreign athletes and visitors to use CBDCs during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, which is believed to be the first such test by foreign nationals in China.

Although the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo have been postponed by a year due to the ongoing pandemic, Beijing is said to be still preparing for the Winter Games, which are due to start in February 2022. China’s National Health Commission consistently has fewer than 200. reported new COVID-19 cases per day in the country since March 2020, but some reports suggest the government is responsible for a campaign to translate misinformation related to the pandemic.