The International Monetary Fund’s decision to include the Chinese renminbi as a reserve currency marked a political triumph for Beijing. It gives the currency the same gravitas as the US dollar, yen, euro, and British pound.
Was it truly deserved Not so much.
The IMF trumpeted that the renminbi is freely usable, meaning that it is widely used both for foreign exchange trading and global trade payments. Yet while Swift, the company that monitors international bank payments, reports that the renminbi is the world's fifth-most used currency, the fact of the matter is that non-Chinese usage of the renminbi is heavily predicated upon Hong Kong...
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