Xi Jinping has called for the renminbi to become a global reserve currency, in some of his clearest comments on his ambitions for China’s currency as Beijing seeks to play a greater role in the international monetary system.

In commentary published on Saturday in Qiushi, the ruling communist party’s flagship ideology journal, China’s president said the country needed to build a “powerful currency” that could be “widely used in international trade, investment and foreign exchange markets, and attain reserve currency status”.

China’s leadership has long sought to promote the internationalisation of the renminbi. But the comments marked Xi’s clearest definition yet of his goal of a “strong currency”, as well as the broader financial foundations Beijing will need to build to support it.

These include a “powerful central bank” capable of effective monetary management, globally competitive financial institutions and international financial centres able to “attract global capital and exert influence over global pricing,” Xi wrote.

The comments were originally part of a speech Xi delivered in 2024 to top regional officials, but had not been released publicly until this week.

The publication of Xi’s comments comes amid heightened uncertainty in global markets as a weaker US dollar — which President Donald Trump last week called a “great” development — a change in leadership of the Federal Reserve and geopolitical and trade tensions have prompted central banks to rethink their exposure to dollar assets.

“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 reflected “recent ruptures in the global order”, he added.

China’s central bank governor Pan Gongsheng last year forecast a new global currency order, telling investors, regulators and local officials in Shanghai that the renminbi would compete with other currencies in a “multi-polar international monetary system”.

“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 US leverage in a fracturing financial order,” said Han Shen Lin, China country director at The Asia Group.

The renminbi has become the world’s second-largest trade finance currency since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but it plays a limited role in official reserves. As of the third quarter of 2025, the dollar accounted for about 57 per cent of global reserves, down from 71 per cent in 2000, while the euro stood at roughly 20 per cent, according to data from the IMF. The renminbi was sixth, at just 1.93 per cent.

Analysts said an open capital account and full convertibility were critical for global investors and central banks to hold more renminbi.

China’s trading partners have also called for Beijing to allow a sharper appreciation of the renminbi, which they argue is undervalued, making the country’s exports cheaper and helping fuel an unprecedented trade surplus that hit $1.2tn last year.

IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva late last year called on China to fix “imbalances” in its economy, including deflation that she said had “resulted in significant real exchange rate depreciation”.

People’s Bank of China vice-governor Zou Lan said at a conference last month that China had no intention of using a weaker renminbi to gain a trade advantage.

Chinese policymakers have signalled tolerance for mild appreciation, allowing the renminbi to strengthen past Rmb7 against a weaker US dollar. But it has continued to depreciate against the euro.

“The core objective of China’s foreign exchange policy is to keep the renminbi stable and preserve its role as a store of value,” Lam said.

China’s priorities of reviving stronger domestic growth and advances in emerging technology would support longer-term appreciation for the renminbi, said Zhang Jun, chief economist at China Galaxy Securities.

Asia Group’s Han said: “Xi’s rhetoric won’t flip global foreign exchange markets today but it cements a long-term tilt investors are already sniffing out.”

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