The Chinese government is reportedly putting pressure on US-based companies including McDonald’s, Visa and Nike to accept payments in digital yuan before the start of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

McDonald’s China has already begun accepting payments in the central bank digital currency in 270 of its food outlets in Shanghai, but the Chinese government now wants the fast food giant to roll out digital yuan acceptance at more locations across the country.

Visa — a worldwide Olympic partner — and Nike have also come under pressure to install systems that support digital yuan payments, according to a Financial Times report.

The report quotes sources familiar with the situation who say that China’s aim is to ensure that these payment systems are in operation before the Winter Olympics opens in February next year.

“I always assumed large US firms would be put under pressure to provide weight to the digital renminbi, because most large retailers will be put under pressure and American firms won’t be exempted,” Stanford University researcher Darrell Duffie told the Financial Times.

In a response to the report emailed to Business Insider, McDonald’s China said that “accepting digital RMB is a business decision made with customer interests in mind and there is no pressure to do so”.

Reports that China plans to launch the digital yuan nationwide after the Beijing Olympics in early 2022 began emerging in the Chinese media in July.

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