China is explicitly tying its financial-powerhouse roadmap to a “strong currency” mission aimed at pushing the renminbi toward global reserve status, according to excerpts of a 2024 speech by President Xi Jinping published Saturday by the Communist Party’s journal Qiushi.
Xi’s stated objective is functional and sequential: build a currency that is widely used across international trade, cross-border investment, and foreign exchange markets, then progress to a currency that can be held as a reserve by central banks. The framing shifts the yuan goal from more usage to reserve eligibility.
The president laid out prerequisites that read like an institutional checklist: a more capable People’s Bank of China, globally competitive financial institutions, and financial centers deep enough to attract overseas capital and influence price-setting in global markets.
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The comments were delivered in 2024 but only released publicly this week, as investors and policymakers reassess concentration risk around the dollar amid volatility, policy uncertainty, and geopolitics.
That reassessment has been amplified by a US political backdrop where President Donald Trump has recently welcomed a softer dollar, alongside chatter about leadership dynamics at the Federal Reserve and renewed trade frictions, all of which keeps currency exposure in active debate for reserve managers.
Despite years of internationalization efforts, the yuan’s role in official reserves remains limited. IMF reserve-composition data put the renminbi at under 2% of global reserves in the third quarter of 2025, well behind the dollar and the euro.
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