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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 cryptocurrency 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.
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.
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.