Xi Signals Renminbi Reserve Currency Goal in Party Journal
Feb 26th 2026
Xi Jinping explicitly urged the renminbi to reach reserve currency status in Qiushi, formalizing a long-discussed goal and reframing China’s incremental measures—swap lines, payment rails and targeted deals—as strategic steps rather than mere convenience.
- Xi published a call for the renminbi to attain reserve currency status in Qiushi, signaling an official, settled party priority rather than a trial balloon.
- The renminbi accounted for 1.93 percent of allocated global foreign exchange reserves in 2025, so it remains a minor store of value for central banks.
- RMB usage in payments and trade finance is growing, with a 3.17 percent SWIFT share in September 2025 and about a 6 percent share of global trade finance.
- Renminbi invoicing and unit-of-account use remain low, under 2 percent of global exports, meaning it is more often used to settle transactions than to price them.
- China is advancing international use through a corridor strategy of swap lines, payment rails, targeted sector deals, and RMB-denominated contracts instead of full capital account liberalization.
- The People’s Bank of China has 31 active swap agreements totaling about 4.16 trillion renminbi and China’s cross-border payment system processed 175 trillion renminbi in 2024, showing operational footholds that lower frictions.
- Becoming a true reserve currency depends on exit confidence and predictable rules and would require macro tradeoffs for China, while U.S. and allied policy that preserves liquidity and legal certainty will matter most for currency leadership.