Top Chinese official ousted by Communist Party for supporting crypto mining
China’s Communist Party recently kicked out one of its top officials after he was found promoting and supporting crypto mining in the country, reports the South China Morning Post.
Xiao Yi, formerly of the Jiangxi Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, allegedly “abused his power to introduce and support enterprises to engage in virtual currency ‘mining’ activities that do not meet the requirements of national industrial policy.”
According to a government statement released on Saturday, a government probe also claimed he’d taken bribes, stuffed himself at swanky banquets, and leveraged his status for sex.
Xiao is the eighth Chinese Communist Party official investigated this year as China’s President Xi Jinping continues his crusade against corruption and crypto.
Beijing is also under pressure to achieve carbon neutrality across the country by 2060.
Communist Party wants rich to stop using crypto
In June, Beijing banned cryptocurrency mining across the country, triggering a major exodus of Bitcoin infrastructure.
Bitcoin’s hashrate nearly halved in the weeks following the ban, but has since recovered as miners found new homes in places like Kazakhstan and Texas.
Despite Beijing’s crackdown, cryptocurrencies are still popular with China’s mega-rich looking to ring-fence their assets.
The Communist Party’s “common prosperity” campaign, which proposes taxes and wealth redistribution, has the country’s richest citizens worried.
Read more: [Why China’s Bitcoin ban gives US and Europe a competitive advantage]
As a result, the wealthy are reportedly turning to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to move funds out of China without arousing suspicion.
Last week, authorities in Tokyo uncovered one such scheme.
A tax audit discovered a team of middlemen using crypto to move billions of yen into Japanese real estate on behalf of Chinese investors.
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