(NewsNation) – The Biden administration this week issued an order banning a Chinese cryptocurrency mining company from owning land near a nuclear missile base in Wyoming, citing national security risks.
Chinese-backed MineOne Partners operates less than a mile from FE Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne. The administration called the proximity a “national security risk.”
The Treasury Department said “specialized and foreign-sourced equipment potentially capable of facilitating surveillance and espionage activities” partly inspired the order, but did not provide details on the risks.
MineOne purchased the land in 2022 but did not report the purchase according to proper protocols. Public information finally alerted authorities to the potentially questionable motivations for the choice of location.
U.S. officials are sounding the alarm over a rise in the number of foreigners caught checking into U.S. military bases.
Chinese nationals attempted to enter U.S. military sites more than 100 times last year, often posing as tourists or food delivery drivers for DoorDash, according to the Daily Mail.
Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. John Teichert told NewsNation that this Chinese Communist Party (CCP) surveillance tactic is not new and “it’s certainly not the only way they actively surveil the United States.”
“Just observing the lifestyle and gathering open source intelligence provides many opportunities for them to understand our security practices,” Teichert said. “When you put a lot of these data points together, then you get an overall picture of our capabilities or our readiness and our vulnerabilities.”
In a statement to NewsNation, DoorDash said: “These reports are deeply concerning, and we take any allegations that our platform is being misused extremely seriously. »
The order gives MineOne 90 days to remove the structures and equipment and 120 days to sell the property. However, Teichert warned that it could be too late if bad actors have already gathered information.
“It’s about Chinese Communist clubs on college campuses or Chinese police stations in American cities or $700 billion in intellectual property stolen a year by the Chinese Communist Party,” he said. “Unfortunately, they have been implementing this strategy for twenty-five years and, to some extent, we are not as vigilant and diligent as we should be in stopping them.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Justice and TikTok have asked a federal appeals court to expedite a ruling on the new law forcing Chinese company ByteDance to divest TikTok’s U.S. assets by January 19 under penalty of ban.
News Source : www.newsnationnow.com
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