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Joe Biden Orders Chinese Cryptocurrency Miner to Sell Land Near US Military Base
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The White House has ordered a Chinese group running a crypto mining operation in Wyoming to sell the land where it keeps its servers because the facility is located next to a base that hosts U.S. nuclear ballistic missiles.
President Joe Biden has ordered MineOne Partners and its partners to sell land near Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming within 120 days. He said the British Virgin Islands group is majority owned by Chinese citizens and did not inform the US government of the sensitive transaction.
The US Army deploys Minuteman III nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles at Warren Base in southeastern Wyoming. In the divestiture order issued Monday, Biden said MineOne used specialized equipment cryptocurrency mining that included foreign-origin technology, which posed a national security risk.
“The proximity of foreign-owned real estate to a strategic missile base and key element of the American nuclear triad, and the presence of specialized, foreign-sourced equipment potentially capable of facilitating surveillance and espionage activities, presents a national security risk of the United States,” Biden said in the order.
The move comes as Congress is increasingly concerned about Chinese groups buying farmland and other land in the United States, particularly near military installations. The event also comes a year after an American fighter plane shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the east coast of the United States. The balloon had been hovering above a nuclear missile facility in Montana during a more than week-long flight over North America.
“This is a decades-long conflict between Chinese investors and the security community,” said Ivan Schlager, a national security law expert at Kirkland and Ellis, adding that similar cases have occurred across the United States. “Is this a casual investment opportunity or something more strategic?”
The Chinese embassy in Washington said it was not aware of the case, but Liu Pengyu, its spokesman, said: “Exaggerating the concept of national security and politicizing economic, trade and investment issues is contrary to the principles of market economy and the rules of international trade”. , as well as undermining international confidence in the US market context.”
The White House said MineOne bought the land in June 2022 without notifying the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, the interagency panel that reviews deals for security reasons.
Cfius began investigating the deal after receiving a tip-off from the public. Biden ordered the divestment after the commission concluded it was not possible to complete a mitigation agreement to address security concerns.
Advised
The presidential order requires MineOne to remove its equipment from the ground within 90 days. He also immediately barred the group and their partners from accessing the location, except for the purpose of moving equipment, until Cfius was satisfied that all equipment was gone.
The case is the latest example of tensions between the US and China on national security issues. This comes as the two countries continue efforts to stabilize relations which hit rock bottom last year.
But U.S. officials have repeatedly stressed that the Biden administration will not shy away from taking punitive action in cases where they believe China, or Chinese companies, pose a threat to national security.