Huang Qicai, the Deputy Director of the Fujian Academy of Social Sciences, recently suggested in an opinion piece for Guangming Daily, republished by the People’s Daily, that digital currencies such as China’s digital yuan could play a role in helping China and its allies de-dollarize. He claimed that the process of de-dollarization was already underway, and would eventually result in “world currency multi-polarization” as nations look to de-couple from the USD.
Huang explained that digital currency applications continuing to mature could result in a “super-sovereign ‘world currency’” in some form, becoming the new center of the international monetary governance system. He suggested that international digital currencies could “play an innovative role” in de-dollarization, although he stopped short of directly suggesting the e-CNY could or should perform such a role.
Huang made note of the in-development digital payments platform BRICS Pay – which masterminds claim will be both digitized and decentralized. He said that bilateral or multilateral cross-border transactions could be realized through digital currency bridge projects, and that it is necessary for Chinese allies to promote the process of de-dollarization in areas such as energy and commodities. He claimed that using local currencies along with the yuan for settlements with commodity-producing countries would help to gradually loosen the bond between oil and the US dollar.
