A group of Republican senators has submitted a bill to the US Congress that would require app stores to phase out the use of digital yuan (e-CNY). apps with this functionality.

The Law to Protect Americans from Authoritarian Digital Currencies was developed by Tom Cotton, Mike Brown, and Marco Rubio. The initiative aims to create barriers to “direct control” and oversight of the financial activities of US citizens.

The term “app store” includes any “public website, software or other electronic service” that distributes applications to computer and mobile device users.

A supporter of the digital dollar, Senator Tom Cotton supported the bill.

“The Chinese Communist Party will use the digital yuan for control and surveillance. We cannot give China this chance. […] undermining our economy at the most fundamental level.”He wrote.

China has been testing the digital yuan for three years. At the end of 2021, transaction volume with e-CNY reached 87.57 billion yuan (~$13.68 billion), 261 million unique digital wallets were registered.

It joined the “bridge” project for national digital currencies launched by the Central Banks of China and regulators of the UAE, Hong Kong and Thailand in February 2021.

In April 2022, the People’s Bank of China expanded its e-CNY testing program to 23 cities.

Remember, Senator Pat Toomey talked about the digital yuan’s threat to US national security.

Deutsche Bank analysts also suggested that the use of e-CNY in foreign trade could undermine the dominance of the dollar.

Earlier, Zhou Xiaochuan, former head of the People’s Bank of China, said that the digital yuan is designed for the public and merchants and will not replace SWIFT or weaponize the currency.