The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has expelled an official for allowing crypto mining to occur, among other party infringements, per an announcement.
Xiao Yi was not only a party member of the CCP, he was also the vice-chairman of the Jiangxi Provincial CPP Consultative Conference.
The CPP claimed Yi “abused his power to introduce and support enterprises to engage in virtual currencies that do not meet the requirements of national industrial policies,” later specifying that “mining activities” were among Yi’s alleged infringements.
“Xiao Yi seriously violated the party’s political discipline, organizational discipline, integrity discipline, work discipline, and life discipline, constituted a serious job violation and was suspected of taking bribes and abuse of power,” the party announcement adds.
The expulsion of a former CPP member serves to underline China’s hostile stance to the crypto industry, a stance which—yet again—has been reinforced by the government issuing yet another warning.
An ongoing battle with crypto
China has long maintained a ban on cryptocurrencycryptocurrency trading, and earlier this year, imposed another ban on crypto mining.
Since then, the government has repeatedly reiterated its anti-crypto stance, at times causing crypto prices to plummet.
The latest in the long string of Chinese statements against the crypto industry reportedly came earlier today, when the government pressured state-owned businesses against involvement with the industry.
Flooded Coal Mine Highlights Chinese Bitcoin Miners’ Reliance on Dirty Power
A coal mine located in China’s Xinjiang region flooded and shut down last weekend. The resulting effect on China’s Bitcoin mining industry has highlighted how the practice is still heavily reliant on coal. The mine’s shutdown coincided with a significant drop in Bitcoin’s hash rate—the measuring unit of the Bitcoin network’s processing power. In fact, the Bitcoin hash rate dropped to its lowest level since November 2020 during the mine blackout, per Coin Metrics figures. Coin Metrics data. Im...
The National Development and Reform Commission has allegedly pivoted its attention to the illegal crypto mining industry. Meng Wei, a spokeswoman for the organization, reportedly said it plans to crack down on “industrial-scale” Bitcoin mining.
The government’s mining ban came at a time when China was facing increased scrutiny over its climate promises.
China, crypto, and the climate
Last year, China pledged to hit peak carbon emissions by 2030 and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.
Those pledges appeared at odds with what was—until April of this year—a burgeoning and environmentally harmful mining industry in the country.
A report published in April suggested that Chinese Bitcoin mining—if it was left unabated—would have reached 130 million metric tons by 2024, the broad equivalent of 14% of the aviation industry’s emissions.
US Becomes Largest Bitcoin Mining Market After China's Crypto Ban
The United States has become the world's largest market for Bitcoin mining, according to new data from Cambridge University. The United States now holds a share of 35.4% of the market, following a mass exodus of miners from China after the Chinese government banned mining earlier this year. Kazakhstan and Russia follow the United States, with shares of 18.1% and 11% respectively. "The immediate effect of the government-mandated ban on crypto mining in China was a 38% drop in global network has...
Since China’s crypto mining ban, the country has lost its foothold in the mining industry. At its peak, China held approximately two-thirds of the mining industry. Today, the United States has become the world’s crypto mining leader.
In the penultimate hours of the recently concluded COP26 summit, both China and India objected to a global commitment to “phase out” unabated coal power.
A compromise to “phase down” coal power was agreed upon instead.
