China’s De-Dollarization Drive Has Hit a Wall

Chinese planners are once again taking aim at the dollar. On June 17, the governor of the People’s Bank of China unveiled a fresh blueprint to pull the world’s financial streams into the Chinese yuan, including pilot schemes for offshore yuan trading and new swap lines for central banks. Expect the usual chatter about de-dollarization to hit fever pitch ahead of the annual BRICS summit in September in New Delhi, where China and Russia are likely to push for their de-dollarization cause. Over the past decade, Beijing has made genuine progress in building alternative financial channels across three fronts: trade…