Analysis: Dollar’s Pain Is Yuan’s Gain

China’s push to internationalize the yuan is entering a more difficult phase, where expanding the currency’s global use will require more than simply settling trade in yuan.

For more than a decade, the yuan’s international use has expanded mainly through cross-border trade settlement. But settlement alone has been seen as insufficient: unless yuan liquidity can circulate more freely through global investment and financing channels, the currency’s broader international role is likely to remain limited.