WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Monday issued an order blocking a Chinese-backed cryptocurrency mining firm from owning land near a Wyoming nuclear missile base.
The move was made in coordination with the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States — a little-known but potentially potent government agency tasked with investigating corporate deals for national security concerns that holds power to force the company to change.
The order was vague about the specific national security concerns, with the Treasury Department saying only that there were issues with “specialized and foreign-sourced equipment potentially capable of facilitating surveillance and espionage activities” that “presented a significant national security risk.”