China Proposes Asia-Wide Digital Currency To Ease Dependence on USD

• Chinese researchers have floated the idea of the Asian Yuan to loosen reliance on the US dollar.
• The Asian Yuan is an Asia-wide digital currency based on distributed ledger technology.
• The DLT-backed Asian Yuan will include 13 currencies.

Chinese state-run think tank researchers, Liu Dongmin, Song Shuan, and Zhou Xuezhi have proposed the idea of an Asia-wide digital currency called “Asian Yuan” in order to reduce Asia’s dependency on the United States Dollar.

Belonging to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), the concept of the Asian Yuan was published in the September issue of the World Affairs Journal. They reiterated in the editorial that an Asian Yuan would make Asia independent from the USD.

Like the tested and trialed Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), the Asian Yuan will be backed by digital ledger technology that will include 13 currencies including 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

According to the researchers, China’s Yuan, Japan’s Yen, and South Korea’s Won will be part of the 13 currencies.

Printed in the South China Morning Post, the journal mentioned,

More than 20 years of deepened economic integration in East Asia has laid a good foundation for regional currency cooperation. The conditions for setting up the Asian yuan have gradually formed.

Moreover, the researchers come from the Institute of World Economics and Politics which is a unit under CASS associated with China’s ruling party, while the journal is affiliated with the Chinese Foreign Affairs department.

The suggestion for Asian Yuan came in prior to the Chinese Bank CBDC’s announcement that the e-CNY transacted $14 billion in value with 5.6 million merchant stores supporting the digital currency.