"Süddeutsche Zeitung" commented that according to Beijing's beautiful vision, in the future, more and more countries should use RMB to settle international trade and reduce the global financial system's dependence on the U.S. dollar. But at the same time, Beijing is unwilling to relax its strict control over its currency, which is the core obstacle for the RMB to go global. The commentary titled "World Currency Under China's Control" reads:
“Strict government control is certainly a problem for a currency that wants to go global. After all, anyone who invests in the renminbi must ensure that they can freely use the funds in the future. However, Beijing wants to have it both ways: to enhance the renminbi’s international status while maintaining its respect for the renminbi. Strict control. The underlying logic of this idea has long gone beyond the scope of pure monetary policy. For many years, China has been calling for the establishment of a multipolar world, that is, the world should not be dominated by one big country, but should be participated by multiple forces. Of course, Beijing also hopes to integrate this global political concept into the global financial system.
Pan Gongsheng, President of the Central Bank of China, once described this in detail. He called for the establishment of a "multipolar international monetary system" where multiple strong currencies can coexist and balance each other. It is not difficult to see that this suggestion is clearly aimed at the US dollar. From Beijing's perspective, there is a design flaw in today's financial order: the world currency is actually the currency of a single country, and this country happens to be China's strongest geopolitical rival.
China's challenge to the dominance of the US dollar is not intended to replace the US dollar with the renminbi. For Beijing, it is enough to reduce the global financial system's high dependence on the dollar. Beijing wants other countries to use the yuan more for trade settlements, loans in the currency, as a reserve currency and payments in the currency, eliminating the need to convert into dollars each time.
China has acquired an excellent testing ground for this purpose: the BRICS, which includes China, Russia, Brazil and India. A week ago, the BRICS countries held a summit in New Delhi, India. Taking the euro as a model, the issuance of a BRICS currency is not an issue at this summit, but the focus of discussions is exactly in line with China's efforts: to promote multilateral trade settled in the currencies of the BRICS countries and improve the interconnected operation of the payment systems of various countries. "
“China wants the world to trust the RMB, but it refuses to deliver the RMB to the world.”
A comment in the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" pointed out that although the status of the RMB in the BRICS countries and the global financial system has been improved, its proportion in global payments and central bank reserves is still very low. Compared with the world currency of the US dollar, the RMB still has a huge gap:
"Strict control of capital flows and exchange rates remain Beijing's unwavering policy. A few months ago, stablecoins linked to the renminbi provided new possibilities to enhance the overseas attractiveness of the Chinese currency. However, regulatory authorities immediately took action and the overseas issuance of stablecoins without permission has been stopped. In other words, the internationalization of the renminbi must of course continue to advance, but it must be carried out according to Beijing's script. This is where the limitations of the Chinese model lie.
A world currency is attractive because investors are confident that the currency can be bought and sold across national borders at any time. China, on the other hand, is doing the opposite: it wants to make the renminbi a freely convertible world currency, but it does not want to give up full control over the renminbi. In other words, China hopes that the world can trust the RMB, but it will never deliver the RMB to the world. "
“It is urgent to control artificial intelligence”
CNN previously reported, citing multiple sources, that in the early days of the Iran war, a piece of erroneous intelligence assisted by artificial intelligence almost caused the US military to rush onto a Chinese ship. If the commander had not discovered it in time, this misunderstanding might even have triggered a military conflict between China and the United States. The Daily commented on this and wrote:
"CNN published the above report at a time when a discussion about the threat artificial intelligence will pose to mankind is ongoing, and artificial intelligence will also be one of the topics at the upcoming meeting between the leaders of China and the United States this Thursday. Both China and the United States hope to become global hegemons in the field of artificial intelligence. For this reason, neither government is willing to slow down the research and development of artificial intelligence, let alone introduce a joint control mechanism for artificial intelligence, or at least they do not want their countries to be subject to any restrictions.
The revelation that the CNN report brings to people is that it is urgent to control artificial intelligence. The risks of AI must be minimized, made as transparent as possible, and democratically overseen. Sadly, however, it is almost impossible for intelligence agencies to do this. Likewise, authoritarian China, an increasingly authoritarian Trump, and virtually uncontrolled high-tech companies will not do the same. Nonetheless, we have no choice but to call for tighter regulation of artificial intelligence. "
