China has sought to ease U.S. concerns that it wants to replace the dollar as the leading currency as Beijing ramps up a digital yuan, The South China Morning Post reported Monday.
China's central bank deputy governor Li Bo said China's objective of "internationalizing" the yuan is not to topple the U.S. dollar, and measures being taken to create its own digital currency are intended for local application.
A senior official of the Bank of Japan said that Beijing's digital yuan will not be able to pose a threat to the greenback's dominant position as the world's top reserve currency, CrowdFund Insider reported.
"For the internationalization of the renminbi (yuan), we have said many times that our goal is not to replace the U.S. dollar or other international currencies," Bloomberg quoted Li as saying during the Boao forum Sunday.
Central banks have grappled in recent years with the concept of electronic currency. Few nations, though, have been as aggressive as China in their approach to creating an exclusive central bank digital currency.
The People's Bank of China, which started to research on the digital yuan in 2014, is inching closer to becoming the first central bank in the world to issue a virtual currency. Pilots of the program have already been proposed for local consumers and businesses in key Chinese cities.
For instance, China is trying to make it possible for foreign athletes and guests to use the digital yuan during the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, a central bank official said Sunday.
Meanwhile, a report earlier this week disclosed the Biden administration is increasing its scrutiny of China's progress in its digital currency in the face of concerns it could threaten the U.S. dollar's global standing.
