Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for the Chinese yuan to become one of the world’s leading reserve currencies, according to the Financial Times, citing a publication in the Chinese Communist Party’s theoretical journal Qiushi.
An article based on Xi Jinping’s 2024 speech to provincial and ministerial officials emphasises the need to create a ‘strong currency’ that will be widely used in international trade, investment and currency markets, and will also gain the status of a global reserve currency.
‘China must build a strong currency capable of occupying a prominent place in the global financial system,’ said the Chinese leader, identifying this as a long-term strategic goal in the country’s transformation into a global financial power.
Although the yuan has been included in the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket since 2016 and is formally considered a reserve currency, its actual share in global currency reserves remains modest — about 2% according to the latest IMF data for 2025. The US dollar continues to dominate with a share of more than 50–60%.
Experts note that Xi’s current statement is one of the clearest and most direct expressions of Beijing’s ambitions in the currency sphere in recent years. It came against a backdrop of:
growing uncertainty surrounding the US dollar,
discussions of de-dollarisation in developing countries,
and the active use of the yuan in China’s trade with Russia, the BRICS countries and the Middle East.
The Asia Group analyst Han Shen Lin commented: Beijing wants the yuan to become a major global currency — not necessarily to replace the dollar overnight, but to act as a strategic counterweight, limiting the influence of the US in a fragmented global financial system.
To achieve this goal, China must address several structural challenges: further liberalization of the financial market, increasing the convertibility of the yuan, strengthening confidence in the currency, and creating deeper and more open capital markets.
International observers view the statement as a signal of the continuation of the long-term policy of de-dollarization and strengthening China’s role in global finance.