China's central bank, the People’s Bank of China, has suddenly announced that its digital currency, the digital RMB (Renminbi or Chinese Yuan), is now fully connected for cross-border transactions with 10 ASEAN countries and 6 Middle Eastern nations. This means that 38% of global trade volume is now entering the era of the digital Yuan, bypassing the traditional SWIFT system, which has long been dominated by the US dollar.
The Economist has described this shift as the “first battle of the Bretton Woods 2.0 system”—a financial war that is changing the structure of the global economy using blockchain technology.
While the SWIFT system still takes 3 to 5 days to complete international payments, China’s Digital Currency Bridge has reduced the processing time to just 7 seconds. In a pilot test between Hong Kong and Abu Dhabi, a company paid its supplier in the Middle East using the digital Yuan. Instead of the payment passing through six different banks, it was sent directly using a distributed ledger, reducing the transaction fee by 98%. This “lightning-fast payment” system has made the old dollar-based system look outdated.
What’s even more concerning for the West is China’s technological lead in digital currency. The blockchain behind the digital Yuan not only keeps transactions traceable but also automatically enforces anti-money laundering regulations. In a project called “Two Countries, Two Parks” between China and Indonesia, the first cross-border payment using the digital Yuan was completed in just 8 seconds, from order confirmation to payment settlement—making it 100 times more efficient than traditional methods. Because of this, 23 central banks worldwide have joined the pilot project, and energy traders in the Middle East have already cut their transaction costs by 75%.
This technological revolution is reshaping the concept of financial independence. When the US tried to impose sanctions on Iran using the SWIFT system, China had already built a full digital Yuan payment system in Southeast Asia. In 2024, cross-border settlements using the RMB with ASEAN countries reached 5.8 trillion Yuan, a 120% increase from 2021. Countries like Malaysia and Singapore have added the Yuan to their foreign reserves, and Thailand completed its first oil payment using the digital Yuan. This powerful wave of “de-dollarization” is so strong that even the Bank for International Settlements said, “China is setting the rules of the game in the digital currency era.”
What’s even more surprising is China’s strategic planning. The digital Yuan is not just a payment tool—it is also a core part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Projects like the China-Laos railway and the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway are using the digital Yuan alongside Beidou navigation and quantum communication technology to create a Digital Silk Road. When European car companies make freight payments via the Arctic route in digital Yuan, China boosts trade efficiency by up to 400% using blockchain technology. This “virtual-real strategy” has now become a serious challenge to the global dominance of the US dollar.
Today, 87% of countries have aligned with China’s digital Yuan system, and the volume of cross-border payments has exceeded 1.2 trillion US dollars. While the United States is still debating whether digital currency is a threat to the dollar’s power, China has already quietly built a digital payment network covering 200 countries.
This silent financial revolution isn’t just about currency—it’s about who will control the lifeblood of the global economy in the future.
