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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Kean Fan Lim
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press.This article addresses two interrelated questions pertaining to the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) attempt to internationalize the Chinese currency – the renminbi (RMB). First, what is the historical rationale of RMB internationalization, and what are its implications? Second, how does the rationale for, and implications of, RMB internationalization distinguish this process from the emergence of the US dollar as the global reserve currency? The article proceeds by framing the RMB internationalization process as a historical palimpsest that emerges from three critical moments following the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. It then assesses their collective global historical significance through a comparison with the rationale and effects of dollar internationalization. Through foregrounding the domestic and global path-dependence of the RMB’s historical evolution, the article argues that RMB internationalization does not constitute a rupture in global historical terms by challenging the dollar’s global reserve currency status; rather, it paradoxically consolidates a dollar-centric global monetary system because the CPC is committed to sustaining the Mao-era (1949-76) legacy of absolute macroeconomic control.
Author(s): Lim KF
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Journal of Global History
Year: 2023
Volume: 18
Issue: 2
Pages: 304-325
Print publication date: 01/07/2023
Online publication date: 27/02/2023
Acceptance date: 02/04/2022
Date deposited: 28/03/2023
ISSN (print): 1740-0228
ISSN (electronic): 1740-0236
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
URL: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1740022823000025
DOI: 10.1017/S1740022823000025
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