WASHINGTON—United States Senators Mark Warner (D-VA) and Bill Hagerty’s (R-TN) Communist China’s Digital Currency – National Security Risks Act has been included in the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 as marked-up by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. 

The bill requires the Biden Administration to report on the potential short-, medium-, and long-term national security risks to the United States associated with Communist China’s creation and use of an official digital currency. The bill requires reporting specifically on risks arising from the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) potential surveillance of financial transactions; risks related to security and illicit finance; and risks related to economic coercion and social control by the CCP.

“A Chinese digital currency could have significant national security implications for the U.S.,” said Senator Warner, Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. “This bill will ensure the intelligence community is monitoring and reporting on the risks posed by China’s digital currency, including its potential to be used as a way to evade U.S. sanctions or increase the Chinese government’s surveillance and ability to exert social or economic control. We cannot be caught flat-footed on these developments, which is why I fought to include this bill in the Intelligence Authorization Act.”

“I am pleased the Intelligence Committee has included this requirement for a report in its Intelligence Authorization Act,” said Senator Hagerty, a member of the Senate Banking Committee. “Since 2014, the Chinese Communist Party has been developing a digital version of its currency and may have the most advanced state-sponsored digital currency among major economies in the world. CCP officials are now ramping up for wider-spread deployment of its digital currency by the 2022 Winter Olympics. This will provide the CCP with additional information about financial transactions and economic activity, and could be used to evade U.S. sanctions. Now is the time for the U.S. intelligence community to act and inform us of their assessment of the different national security risks to America so that Congress may act appropriately and protect the U.S. Dollar’s position as the world’s reserve currency—a key ingredient of America’s global leadership.”

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