WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, joined his colleagues in a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Katherine Tai, requesting the administration confront the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) growing footprint in the U.S. financial system and global payments market.
The senators called on the Biden administration to closely examine the infiltration of Chinese payments networks into the U.S., ensure payment providers are not disadvantaged by China’s reckless disregard for international agreements, and conduct a review of any potential gaps in U.S. sanction authority created by the CCP’s expansion of its Cross-Border Interbank Payment System.
“The measures the CCP is taking undermine U.S. foreign policy, threaten Americans’ sensitive financial and consumer data privacy, and violate international trade practices,” the senators wrote. “It is no secret that the CCP seeks to secure a global leadership role in the setting of financial standards and to reduce the world’s reliance on the U.S. dollar. […] Therefore, efforts by the CCP to infiltrate the U.S. financial system must be met with extreme scrutiny.”
Additional cosigners include U.S. Senators Tim Scott (R-SC), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Thom Tillis (R-NC), John Kennedy (R-LA), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), JD Vance (R-OH), Katie Britt (R-AL), and Steve Daines (R-MT).
Click here to read the letter.