The Biden administration has ordered a Chinese-backed cryptocurrency mining company to sell land near a U.S. nuclear missile base following an investigation by a government agency.
The company's site contained"specialized and foreign-sourced equipment potentially capable of facilitating surveillance and espionage activities," the presidential order said.Biden said there was"credible evidence" to believe that the company, a British Virgin Islands firm that is majority-owned by Chinese nationals,"might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States.
The move from the Biden administration comes against the backdrop of a wider crackdown on Chinese companies in the U.S. ahead of the upcoming presidential elections, and amid tensions between the world's two largest economies.In April, Biden signed a law to force the divestiture of social media platform TikTok from its Chinese parent company ByteDance on grounds of national security.