A group of Republican members of Congress has urged American Olympic athletes to steer clear of using China’s digital yuan while in Beijing for the Games, suggesting it will lead to increased surveillance, Breitbart revealed.
“China, the main adversary to the United States, has a history of surveillance of American citizens.,” Representative Lance Gooden (R-Texas) told Breitbart in a statement on Thursday, urging the US Olympic Committee to “Take every step to ensure that American athletes’ privacy is protected from communist Chinese authorities.”
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Amid recent news that the Internal Revenue Service would be horning in on bank transactions worth just $600, some have suggested America already surveils its own people financially. Still, Gooden focused on China, declaring that because the digital yuan is “The entire process is controlled entirely by [People’s Bank of China]They can also be traced and tracked by the central banking,” its use in global commerce has “Many privacy issues.”
In addition to Gooden, Reps Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma), Jake Ellzey (R-Texas), and Lisa McClain (R-Michigan) have signed on to the initiative, noting that the expansion of the digital yuan is of particular concern due to the “New and emerging technology used to oppress the Uyghur minority, Hong Kong’s people, and all those in China that strive for freedom and expression..”
WeChat and other digital payment platforms are being used already to monitor, threaten, or arrest Chinese citizens.
This letter is the second sent by Senators MarshaBlackburn (Republican-Tennessee), Roger Wicker, and Cynthia Lummis(Republican-Wyoming). Writing to the Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPAC), the trio demanded it work alongside the State Department, Treasury Department, and Department of Commerce to “Protect American athletes’ privacy from the Chinese Communist government.”
China is planning to relax its restrictions on social media platforms from Western nations for athletes who are accredited during the Games. They will even give them special SIM cards. Beijing usually blocks access to social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube.
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