Xi Jinping has set out his most explicit vision yet for the renminbi to become a global reserve currency, framing the goal as central to China’s ambition to reshape the international monetary system, The Financial Times reports.

The Chinese president called for China to build a “powerful currency” that would be “widely used in international trade, investment and foreign exchange markets, and attain reserve currency status,” with Xi’s comments published in Qiushi, the Communist Party’s flagship ideology journal.

Xi said this would require not only currency reform but the construction of a “powerful central bank,” globally competitive financial institutions, and international financial centers capable of “attracting global capital and exerting influence over global pricing.”

Xi’s remarks, which were originally delivered in a speech to senior regional officials in 2024, underscore Beijing’s long-running push to elevate the renminbi’s global role as confidence in the U.S.-led financial order shows signs of strain.

That push is already visible in trade finance.

The renminbi has become the world’s second-largest currency used to fund international trade, a position it has held since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 accelerated the use of non-dollar settlement channels.

The shift has taken place against a backdrop of gradual erosion in the dollar’s dominance.

As of the third quarter of 2025, the U.S. dollar accounted for about 57% of global foreign exchange reserves, down sharply from 71% in 2000, according to IMF data. The euro stood at roughly 20%, while the renminbi remained a distant sixth at 1.93%, highlighting how far China still has to go in official reserve holdings despite gains in trade usage.

China’s central bank governor, Pan Gongsheng, has argued that the world is moving toward a more fragmented monetary landscape.

Speaking last year in Shanghai to investors, regulators, and local officials, Pan forecast the emergence of a “multipolar international monetary system,” in which the renminbi would increasingly compete with other major currencies rather than seek to supplant the dollar outright.

“China senses the change of the global order more real than before,” said Kelvin Lam, senior China+ economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

Xi’s emphasis on the renminbi, Lam added, reflected “recent ruptures in the global order” and growing uncertainty around U.S. monetary leadership.

“Beijing wants the yuan to be a serious global currency — not necessarily to replace the dollar overnight, but to be a strategic counterweight that limits U.S. leverage in a fracturing financial order,” said Han Shen Lin, China country director at The Asia Group.

China’s expanding network of trading partners has been central to the renminbi’s growing use.

Beijing has promoted local-currency settlement with countries across Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, while energy, commodities, and manufactured goods are increasingly invoiced in renminbi.

At the same time, some partners have urged China to allow a stronger currency, arguing the renminbi remains undervalued and contributes to China’s record trade surplus.

“Overall, Beijing senses the dollar’s shine isn’t unblemished and will nudge its currency forward,” Han said.