WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Monday issued an order blocking a Chinese-backed cryptocurrency mining company from owning land near a nuclear missile base in Wyoming.
The order forces the sale of assets operated as cryptocurrency mining facilities near Francis E. Warren Air Force Base. It will also force the removal of certain equipment owned by MineOne Partners Ltd., a company partially owned by the Chinese state.
This comes as the US does Major new tariffs set to go into effect on Tuesday U.S. officials and another person familiar with the plan said the move would target electric vehicles, semiconductors, solar power equipment and medical supplies imported from China.
The sale order was made in coordination with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. The commission is a little-known but potentially powerful government agency tasked with investigating corporate transactions due to national security concerns, and has the power to force companies to make changes.
A 2018 law gave CFIUS the authority to review real estate transactions near sensitive locations across the United States, including F.E. Warren Air Force Base.
The order is vague about specific national security concerns, with the Treasury Department warning that foreign procurement “poses a significant national security risk” and “has special requirements for foreign procurement that could potentially facilitate surveillance or espionage.” He only said that there was a problem with the “equipment.”
According to CFIUS, the purchases were not submitted to the entity upon request until the committee received public information.
Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, who chairs CFIUS, said the committee’s role is to ensure that “foreign investments, especially those related to sensitive U.S. military facilities or transactions that pose risks to U.S. military facilities, protect our national security. “We must ensure that we do not damage it,” he said. Items that involve special equipment or technology. ”
