Republican senator urges U.S. to monitor China's digital yuan push
during Olympics
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[February 05, 2022]
By Hannah Lang
(Reuters) - A leading Senate Republican is
urging the Biden administration to closely monitor the use of China’s
recently launched digital currency during the Beijing Winter Olympics,
where the country is expected to showcase the project to foreign
visitors.
In a letter sent Thursday to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Senator Pat Toomey expressed concern
that the Chinese government could use the global event to help its
digital yuan, dubbed e-CNY, gain a global foothold. Such an effort could
be used to set standards in cross-border payments, as the People’s Bank
of China looks to get out ahead of other countries in the race to
develop central bank digital currencies, he warned.
“The importance of remaining a leader in the global digital economy and
supporting new innovations like digital currencies is a significant
domain of strategic competition with other countries, including China,”
Toomey said.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Feb/05/images/ads/current/ldn_sda_062409.png)
Toomey asked the Treasury and State Departments to report back on the
adoption rate of the digital yuan by foreign visitors compared to
Chinese citizens, the total issuance of e-CNY during the 2022 Winter
Olympics and if the rollout of e-CNY can offer any lessons to the U.S.
government as it considers developing its own central bank digital
currency.
A Treasury Department spokesman declined to comment and the State
Department did not respond to a request for comment.
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![](../images/020522pics/news_p65.jpg)
A sign indicating digital yuan, also referred to as e-CNY, is
pictured at a shopping mall in Shanghai, China May 5, 2021. REUTERS/Aly
Song
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/Feb/05/images/ads/current/heartland_lda_NOV2021.png) A pilot version of the digital yuan
wallet application has been available for downloads in mobile phone
app stores in China since Jan. 4.
The use of e-CNY is still limited to 10 major "pilot" cities, plus
the site of the Beijing Winter Olympics, which officially began
Friday, but has been hampered by people's preference for Ant Group's
Alipay and Tencent's WeChat Pay, which dominate China's online
payments.
The U.S. is still undecided on developing its own digital currency,
with the Federal Reserve pledging not to move forward on any such
effort without congressional authorization.
On Thursday, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) unveiled long-awaited
technical research and open-source code that could be used as the
groundwork for a potential central bank digital currency.
The team behind that effort developed technology that can be
adjusted in the future as more policy questions regarding the
structure and purpose of a U.S. CBDC are addressed, including how a
digital dollar would be intermediated.
(Reporting by Hannah Lang in Washington; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
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