When China’s State Council announced in March 2009 its intention that Shanghai will be an international financial centre by 2020, it barely merited media coverage in China. Abroad, however, it sent a signal that Beijing had set an implicit deadline for the liberalisation of its currency that the West has long been clamouring for.
This belief was supported by the slew of policy decisions and regulatory changes that occurred around the same time. In December 2008, the State Council had begun pilot schemes to enable five Chinese cities to settle trade payments with Association of South-east Asian Nations members in renminbi. In 2010, that pilot was expanded to 20 provinces in China and some international companies. In August 2011, the Chinese central bank extended the scheme to include all areas in China.
