It goes without saying that the United States and China don’t exactly get along most of the time, if at all. Whether the conflict is cultural, ideological, physical, economic, or financial, the two global superpowers have made countless attempts in the past to constantly undermine one another, and these antics continue to this very day.

Most recently, though, a handful of Republican senators have now written a letter to USOPC (The United States Olympic Paralympic Committee) regarding mounting concerns pertaining to China’s new central bank digital currency, the digital yuan, as the lawmakers believe that this CBDC is actually another initiative to try and spy on the Americans and gain sensitive intel.

Republicans believe China will use CBDC for nefarious purposes

There had been three Republican senators in total who had expressed the aforementioned concerns about China using its CBDC to spy on the American team in the global sporting event, namely the Beijing Winter Olympics scheduled to take place next year. The senators’ names were Roger Wicker, Cynthia Lummis and Marsha Blackburn, and these lawmakers had sent the joint letter on Monday. The main fears are centred around breaches of data security and espionage.

As if to further get the point across, the senators firmly believe that not only could the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) plan on using the digital yuan for spying and espionage purposes, but that this may already be happening. Interestingly enough, there had been other letters written in the past which voiced similar concerns. Tom Cotton had written to President Joe Biden last month about his fear that China may attempt to gather Team USA’s DNA during the upcoming games for unknown purposes.

Fears about the digital yuan

Keeping the abovementioned information in mind, the senators have therefore asked that the U.S athletes be protected from the Chinese CBDC and that usage of the digital yuan for Americans be banned. This is all part of the mounting fears of the CBDC, which shall be under the complete and total control of the PBoC (People’s Republic of China). This means that anyone who uses the digital yuan and the CBDC itself can be traced and monitored by the government.

The letter stated that all athletes must be aware of the potential for the digital yuan to be misused and manipulated by the Chinese and that caution must be exercised during next year’s games.