The former head of the Chinese central bank has sought to assuage concerns about the potential impacts of China’s Digital Renminbi upon the global financial system.
“With regard to some voices that have said that the Digital Renminbi will create major shock or ruin for the global financial system, in actuality it [won’t be] that severe,” said Zhou Xiaochuan (周小川), former governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) at a “meet the press” event held during the 2021 Boai Forum in Hainan.
Zhou pointed out that efforts to drive the cross-border usage of the renminbi depend primarily upon improving the stability of the Chinese economy, financial system and exchange rate, as well as efforts to step up free exchange and usage of the renminbi.
“We are gradually improving the reputation of the renminbi, improving its free usage, as well as improving infrastructure, including cross-border payments systems,” said Zhou.
Official testing of the Digital Renminbi first commenced in April 2020, and has since spread to at least ten cities around China, including Beijing, Chengdu, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Suzhou.
At the Boai Forum Zhou also said that the digitisation of the renminbi would not lead to the development of a unified world currency, while PBOC Deputy Governor Li Bo said that China had no plans to use the Digital Renminbi to supplant the greenback as the leading reserve currency.
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