September 17, 2024
By Our Correspondent
China is taking steps to revise its legislation in order to combat emerging money laundering activities related to new forms of currency and cryptocurrency.
The National People’s Congress is preparing to introduce new concepts concerning money laundering in the second review of the draft revision of the money laundering law, which will impose additional requirements for monitoring risks associated with technology-driven money laundering.
China is actively working to enhance its regulatory framework to mitigate money laundering risks. The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the country’s foremost legislative body, is expected to incorporate new provisions aimed at addressing money laundering offenses linked to technology-based currencies and cryptocurrencies.
As reported by SCMP, the proposed revision redefines the crime of money laundering by adding seven categories of predicate offenses, thereby connecting these illicit activities to intricate criminal networks and organized crime. These amendments aim to update Chinese regulations in accordance with international standards, thereby enabling authorities to intensify their efforts against criminals exploiting these mechanisms for money laundering purposes. China has consistently opposed the use of cryptocurrency as legal tender and has banned its circulation within national markets.
Wang Xiang, spokesperson for the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee, acknowledged that advancements in technology have complicated the monitoring of money laundering activities. He remarked: The swift evolution of new technologies and business models has heightened the challenges associated with detecting and investigating money laundering activities.
The forthcoming revision will also empower the central bank to issue specific guidelines for other institutions to adhere to in order to effectively monitor these risks. This initiative aligns with the actions of other Chinese state institutions aimed at addressing the risks of money laundering associated with cryptocurrencies.
In the previous month, the Supreme People’s Court of China, the nation’s highest judicial authority, along with the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, released a collaborative document identifying cryptocurrency transactions conducted via exchanges as a method employed by criminals to obscure or disguise “the source and nature of the proceeds of the crime and the proceeds by other means.”