China Kicked Out a Communist Party Official for Violating Crypto Rules

It seems even members of the Chinese Communist Party aren't immune to the country's ban on cryptocurrency mining. The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announced Saturday that it expelled Xiao Yi, a former vice chairman of the Jiangxi Provincial Political Consultative Conference, for violating that ban.

The Register reported that Yi "was found to have taken bribes, abused his position corruptly, and allowed crypto mining." It's not clear if he was punished for incidents that took place several years ago, however, or if there were more recent offenses. Either way, the party's signaled that even its members shouldn't dabble with crypto.

Separately, the National Development and Reform Commission said that China's moving forward with its efforts to stomp out cryptocurrency mining operations within the country. Many provinces officially banned mining over the summer, but some operations have continued to defy that ban, and it seems China's had enough.

The NDRC said that on November 10 it "deployed the next phase of work" on the ban by "requiring all provinces, regions and municipalities to effectively assume their territorial responsibilities, establish a system, monitor, clean up and rectify virtual currency 'mining' activities in the region, and strictly investigate and punish the 'mining' activities involved in the computer rooms of state-owned units."

The commission will also hit miners where it hurts: their wallets. Its statement suggested that anyone paying residential electricity prices who is caught mining cryptocurrency will be forced to pay "punitive electricity prices" instead, in a bid to create a "high-pressure situation" that miners would probably do their best to avoid.

These separate announcements suggest that China's government isn't going to do an about-face on the cryptocurrency mining ban any time soon. Whether it's an official accepting bribes to look the other way on mining operations or illicit miners stealing power, the Chinese government is watching, and willing to take action.