Chinese Communist Party official pleads guilty to aiding BTC miners

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A former top official at the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has pleaded guilty to charges of corruption and misappropriation of power, including aiding BTC block reward miners for three years.

Xiao Yi, the former CCP secretary for the City of Fuzhou in the southeastern province of Fujian, was accused of receiving over 125 million yuan ($18 million) in bribes related to illegal promotions and construction programs.

Yi was also heavily tied to BTC miners in the city from 2017 to 2021, according to state-owned news outlet Xinwen Lianbo. He was instrumental in their operations which, as recent data has shown, continued despite the much-publicized crackdown by Xi Jinping’s government.

“During his 2017 to 2021 tenure as the Communist Party Secretary of the City of Fuzhou, Xiao Yi provided support to cryptocurrency mining companies in the form of subsidies, capital aid, and electricity assurance. These acts were contrary to national regulations, the theory of New Development, and led to massive losses in public property, leading to adverse consequences,” the outlet claims.

Yi was expelled from the CCP in November 2021 after he was found to have abused his authority to support BTC miners. At the time, he was the senior-most official in Jinping’s government who had been found guilty by the CCP’s disciplinary committee of aiding miners.

“[Xiao] violated the new development concept, and abused his power to introduce and support enterprises to engage in virtual currency ‘mining’ activities that do not meet the requirements of national industrial policy,” the party stated at the time.

China has continued its fight against miners, driving thousands out of the country and some others into illicit underground operations. A CNBC report revealed that the underground miners only source power from local providers and distribute their operations across several facilities to avoid detection by the government.

Data from the Cambridge Centre For Alternative Finance lists China as the world’s second-largest mining hub after the U.S., contributing 21.11% of the BTC hash rate. Sichuan and Xinjiang provinces account for the lion’s share at 42% and 32%, respectively.

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