Wary of US dollar hegemony, Chinese state researchers float idea of a pan-Asian digital currency
- The digital token would be pegged to a basket of 13 currencies, including the yuan, Japanese yen, South Korean won and those of the 10 Asean countries
- The government researchers said a common Asian digital currency would lower the region’s reliance on the US dollar and help safeguard financial stability
The conditions are right for the establishment of a pan-Asian digital currency that could enhance regional monetary cooperation and loosen reliance on the US dollar, Chinese state researchers say.
The idea of an Asia-wide digital token comes as Beijing tries to consolidate its economic influence in the region and its position as a global leader in digital currency development.
“More than 20 years of deepened economic integration in East Asia has laid a good foundation for regional currency cooperation. The conditions for setting up the Asian yuan have gradually formed,” said researchers Song Shuang, Liu Dongmin and Zhou Xuezhi, from the Institute of World Economics and Politics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
The digital token would be pegged to a basket of 13 currencies, including the yuan, Japanese yen, South Korean won and those of the 10 member countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), the researchers wrote in an article.