Measures to curb illegal mining in Inner Mongolia unveiled

Inner Mongolia Development and Reform Commission (DRC) presented a list of measures to combat illegal mining affecting various organisations operating in the autonomous region.

Sanctions for illegal cryptocurrency mining activity will be applied to:

• industrial parks;
• data centres;
• telecommunications companies;
• power plants;
• cloud computing companies;
• Internet cafés;
• other organisations and individuals benefiting from tax, land or energy concessions.

Public comments on the document will be collected until June 1.

Industrial parks and data centres will be required to curb energy use. Telecommunications companies will be barred from working with miners — violators face license revocation.

Chinese authorities have threatened criminal prosecution of miners connected to the network without permission. Attempts to launder money and illegally raise financing using crypto assets will also be clamped down on. Internet cafés will be shut down if mining activity is detected on their premises.

The publication also states that companies involved in cryptocurrency mining and responsible employees will be included on the list of untrustworthy individuals. Government authorities responsible for supervising compliance with the law will take action against officials who support illegal activity.

Journalist Colin Wu noted that it is not yet clear whether these ‘tough measures’ apply to companies in Xinjiang and Sichuan.

2. However, this new requirement is indeed very strict, and even requires cracking down on Internet cafes that conduct mining. It is currently uncertain whether Xinjiang and Sichuan will follow up.

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) May 25, 2021

Wu emphasized that future plans to fight illegal mining could be unveiled by other agencies, including the central bank and the Ministry of Public Security.

3. Although this implementation plan is detailed, there is nothing particularly new. However, different government departments may issue different plans in the future. Among them, the central bank, the Ministry of Public Security, Sichuan, and Xinjiang received the most attention

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) May 25, 2021

Wu stressed that future plans to fight illegal mining may be unveiled by other authorities, including the central bank and the Ministry of Public Security.

Primitive Ventures managing partner Dovey Wan expressed that similar initiatives are expected soon in Xinjiang and Sichuan.

Earlier, the Inner Mongolia Development and Reform Commission created a platform through which residents will be able to report mining activity in the autonomous region.

Earlier this month, Vice-Premier Liu He stated that it is necessary to ‘crack down on Bitcoin mining and trading, and to prevent the transfer of individual risks into the social sphere’.

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