China’s Accelerating Efforts to Internationalize the Renminbi

In recent weeks, a cluster of news reports and commentary has drawn attention to China’s accelerating efforts to internationalize the renminbi (RMB). At the Lujiazui Forum in Shanghai, The New York Times reported that People’s Bank of China governor Pan Gongsheng delivered a pointed critique of global dependence on a single national currency, warning that financial risks stemming from the dominant issuer could spill over internationally and trigger crises. 

Without naming the United States, Pan called for a more diversified global monetary system and promoted China’s digital RMB as part of the solution. According to this framing, China’s current push to expand the RMB’s global role is a strategic response to the vulnerabilities of dollar dependence, rather than a direct challenge to dollar hegemony.

In the Financial Times, economist Gerard Lyons argued that Beijing should consider allowing a gradual appreciation of the RMB to support its international ambitions.

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