Officials in the U.S. national security and financial apparatus are looking askance at China's development of a digital yuan.
A Bloomberg report from April 11, citing anonymous sources, states that the U.S. Treasury, State Department, Pentagon and National Security Council are investigating China's central bank digital currency project with concern for its potential to circumvent U.S. sanctions.
In November, news broke that Trump administration intelligence officials wanted the Securities and Exchange Commission to brief them on China's involvement in cryptocurrencies, which they viewed as a national security concern.
Meanwhile, China's digital yuan project continues to advance in public view. As of February, over $17 million worth of the digital yuan were in circulation. However, many have noted that the principal target of digitizing the yuan is not international at all, but rather an effort to compete with local tech giants like Alibaba and Tencent, whose platforms dominate payments within China.
Written by Kollen Post