China’s yuan internationalisation goal ‘is not to replace US dollar’, top banking official insists

China’s efforts to promote its digital currency, as well as the internationalisation of the yuan, had caused concerns it wanted to topple the US dollar as the world’s main reserve currency

New People’s Bank of China (PBOC) deputy governor Li Bo also confirmed that there remains no timeline for a nationwide rollout of the digital yuan

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Last week, a senior Bank of Japan official downplayed the potential for China’s digital yuan to threaten the US dollar’s position as the world’s main reserve currency. Photo: Reuters

Published: 1:30pm, 19 Apr 2021Updated: 6:23pm, 27 Apr 2021

China has played down US concerns about its ambitions for the yuan, with the new deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) insisting “our goal is not to replace the US dollar or any other international currency”.

The gathering momentum of China’s digital currency efforts has caught the attention of various American officials, with the US Treasury, State Department, Pentagon and National Security Council reported to be bolstering their efforts to understand the potential implications of a digital yuan.

“For the internationalisation of [the yuan], we have said many times that it’s a natural process,” Li Bo, who was appointed as a new deputy governor of the PBOC earlier this month, told the Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan on Sunday.

“Our goal is not to replace the US dollar or any other international currency, our goal is to allow the market to choose and to facilitate international trade and investment.”

We know what we need to do, there are several things we need to do before we can roll out the digital currency nationally

Li Bo

Last week, a senior Bank of Japan official downplayed the potential for China’s digital yuan to threaten the US dollar’s position as the world’s main reserve currency.