February 7, 2025

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Specialists in technology

U.S. bill would bar Google, Apple from hosting apps that accept China’s digital yuan

WASHINGTON, May well 26 (Reuters) – Republican senators want to bar U.S. app retailers together with Apple and Google from web hosting applications that let payments to be manufactured with China’s digital currency, amid fears the payment program could let Beijing to spy on People in america.

The bill, unveiled Thursday and initial reported by Reuters, states that corporations that very own or regulate app suppliers “shall not carry or guidance any app in [their] application store(s) in just the United States that supports or enables transactions in e-CNY.” It is sponsored by Senators Tom Cotton, Marco Rubio and Mike Braun.

According to Cotton’s business office, electronic yuan could provide the Chinese governing administration with “actual-time visibility into all transactions on the community, posing privateness and protection worries for American individuals who be a part of this network.”

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The Heart for a New American Security, a Washington, D.C.-primarily based think tank, claimed in a January 2021 report that China’s electronic currency and digital payments program was “very likely to be a boon for CCP surveillance in the overall economy and for govt interference in the life of Chinese citizens,” noting that “transactions will incorporate exact info about people and their economic action.”

The transfer arrives right after WeChat, a messaging and payment application owned by China’s Tencent with more than 1.2 billion consumers, declared it would commence supporting the currency earlier this calendar year. Alipay, the vastly common payments application owned by Jack Ma’s Ant Group, also accepts the electronic currency. Both applications are readily available in the Apple and Google App retailers.

Apple Inc (AAPL.O), Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google, Ant Team (688688.SS) and Tencent (0700.HK) did not respond to requests for remark.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington called the legislation “one more illustration of the United States wantonly bullying international businesses by abusing point out electricity on the untenable ground of national protection.”

Although stopping opportunity national protection threats connected to China is a uncommon stage of bipartisan settlement in the deeply divided U.S. Congress, potential clients for the bill’s passage ahead of midterm elections are unsure.

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Reporting by Alexandra Alper
Modifying by Nick Zieminski and Leslie Adler

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