China’s drive to reduce reliance on the US dollar crystallized during the 2008–2009 global financial crisis. Alarmed by the US Federal Reserve’s aggressive money printing, which threatened the value of Beijing’s $1.9 trillion (€1.65 trillion) in foreign assets, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) launched a pilot scheme in July 2009 to settle cross-border trade in the yuan or renminbi for the first time. The pilot kickstarted a 16-year campaign that now sees the yuan used to settle 30% of China’s