Neat rows of Chinese currency bills sit behind glass at the center of the national security gallery inside Hong Kong’s Museum of History, along with model fighter jets, attack helicopters and vials of rare-earth metals.

在香港历史博物馆的国家安全展厅中心，玻璃柜后整齐地陈列着一叠叠人民币纸币，旁边还有战斗机模型、武装直升机以及装有稀土金属的小瓶。

Set with instruments of war and trade, the display underscores a central idea: The internationalization of its currency, the renminbi, is considered a pillar of China’s national security.

这组集战争工具与贸易手段于一体的展品凸显了一个核心理念：人民币的国际化被视为中国国家安全的重要支柱。

Despite its rise as an economic superpower, China remains reliant on a global financial system anchored by the dollar. Turning the renminbi into a globally accepted currency would let Beijing conduct more trade on its own terms and blunt a longstanding source of American leverage.

尽管中国已崛起为经济超级大国，但仍依赖于以美元为锚的全球金融体系。将人民币转变为全球公认的货币将使北京能够按照自己的条件开展更多贸易，并削弱美国长期以来的杠杆。

That push has gained momentum from the wars in Ukraine and Iran, as sanctions drive American adversaries toward the renminbi to bypass the Western financial system. In effect, China’s 20-year project to build the international financial ties and technological infrastructure for a globally accepted currency is paying off, even if others are the ones sidestepping the dollar.

乌克兰和伊朗的战争进一步推动了这一进程，制裁正迫使美国的对手转而使用人民币，以绕过西方金融体系。事实上，中国为建立全球认可货币所需的国际金融纽带和技术基础设施而进行的这项计划已耗时20年，如今正在产生回报，即使目前主要是其他国家在利用它来规避美元。

香港历史博物馆展出的中国纸币。对电子产品生产至关重要的稀土金属样本正在展出。

China’s financial positioning is “meeting the demand for de-dollarization” from countries seeking to trade with restricted nations like Iran, said Alisha Chhangani, an associate director at the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank.

华盛顿智库大西洋理事会副总监阿丽莎·昌加尼表示，中国的金融布局正在“满足那些寻求与伊朗等受限国家进行贸易的国家的去美元化需求”。

Since the end of World War II, when 44 countries agreed to make the dollar the world’s reserve currency, most global trade has run on it. That dominance has given the United States powerful leverage, allowing it to impose sanctions that can all but ensure financial ruin.

自二战结束、44国同意将美元定为世界储备货币以来，大多数全球贸易都以美元结算。这种主导地位赋予了美国强大的影响力，通过制裁，美国能够几乎确保对方在金融上陷入绝境。

Recent conflicts have shown how a Chinese alternative can offer a way around the system. At least two ships have paid Iran in renminbi to secure safe transit through the Strait of Hormuz, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence, a maritime information service.

近期的冲突表明，中国的替代方案可以提供一条绕过该体系的路径。据航运情报服务机构劳氏情报称，至少已有两艘船只向伊朗支付人民币，以确保安全通过霍尔木兹海峡。

Payments using China’s network rose nearly 50 percent last month as countries bought Iranian oil, according to data from the Atlantic Council. Russia, cut off from the dollar after invading Ukraine, now settles most of its trade with China in renminbi.

根据大西洋理事会的数据，随着各国购买伊朗石油，上个月使用中国支付网络的结算量增长了近50%。而俄罗斯因入侵乌克兰被切断美元渠道，目前与中国的大部分贸易都使用人民币结算。

In March, Qiushi, the Chinese Communist Party’s ideological journal, resurfaced a 2024 speech by Xi Jinping, China’s leader, calling for the renminbi to be “widely used in international trade” and to “attain reserve currency status.”

今年3月，中国共产党的意识形态刊物《求是》重刊了中国领导人习近平在2024年的一次讲话，呼吁人民币在“国际贸易投资和外汇市场广泛使用”，并取得“储备货币地位”。

The dollar is still the top currency of choice in international trade, valued for its liquidity and ease of use. The euro, yen and British pound are distant runners-up. Even transactions that do not involve the United States are often done with dollars, including most of China’s own trade. The renminbi accounts for just 3 percent of global transactions, roughly the same as the Canadian dollar.

目前，美元仍是国际贸易的首选货币，因其流动性和易用性而备受青睐。欧元、日元和英镑则远远落后。即使不涉及美国的交易（包括中国自身的大部分贸易）也通常使用美元。人民币仅占全球交易量的3%，与加元大致持平。

China’s tight financial controls have long held back the renminbi’s global use, making it less attractive to hold. Capital flows are tightly managed. Citizens can move only limited sums abroad each year, and foreign investors face strict quotas and must obtain approvals to buy Chinese stocks and bonds.

长期以来，中国严格的金融管制限制了人民币的全球使用，使其作为持有资产的吸引力大打折扣。资本流动受到严格管理，公民每年向境外转移资金的数额有限，而外国投资者则面临严格的配额限制，且必须获得批准才能购买中国股票和债券。

中国与各国央行建立了总额达6000亿美元的货币互换网络——既提供了流动性，又将影响力扩展到了美元体系之外。

But China doesn’t need to displace the dollar to move closer to escaping America’s financial grip, said Edward Fishman, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Simply having an alternative system in place for emergencies is enough to weaken Washington’s chokehold on global finance.

但美国对外关系委员会研究员爱德华·菲什曼指出，中国不需要取代美元就能接近摆脱美国的金融钳制。只要有一套备用的替代系统以应对紧急情况，就足以削弱华盛顿对全球金融的扼制。

Beijing has gone to extraordinary lengths to insulate itself from geopolitical shocks, building stockpiles of oil, gas and critical materials. It even maintains a strategic reserve of pork, a staple of the nation’s diet. In the same vein, China has spent decades developing a parallel financial infrastructure that operates outside the dollar system.

北京已采取非同寻常的措施来防范地缘政治冲击，包括建立石油、天然气和关键材料的储备，甚至还设有国家重要食品猪肉的战略储备。同样，中国数十年来一直在开发一套运行在美元体系之外的平行金融基础设施。

Beginning in the 2000s, China signed currency-swap agreements with dozens of central banks, giving trading partners access to the renminbi without going through the dollar-based system. These so-called swap lines, totaling roughly $600 billion, provide emergency liquidity and could expand China’s influence in a financial crisis.

从2000年代开始，中国与数十家央行签署了货币互换协议，使贸易伙伴无需通过美元系统即可获得人民币。这些总额约为6000亿美元的所谓互换额度提供了应急流动性，并能在金融危机中扩大中国的影响力。

In 2015, China launched the Cross-border Interbank Payment System, or CIPS, allowing banks worldwide to settle payments in renminbi. The system offers an alternative to SWIFT, the Belgian-based messaging network that underpins most global transactions. Both Russian and Iranian banks have been kicked off SWIFT under U.S. pressure.

2015年，中国启动了人民币跨境支付系统(CIPS)，允许全球银行以人民币结算支付。该系统提供了SWIFT之外的另一种选择，后者是支撑全球绝大多数交易的比利时通讯网络。在美方的压力下，俄罗斯和伊朗的银行都已被踢出SWIFT。

Since Russian banks were removed from SWIFT after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the number of institutions directly participating in CIPS has nearly tripled, rising to nearly 200 from 75, according to Chinese government data.

据中国政府数据显示，自2022年俄罗斯银行因全面入侵乌克兰被移出SWIFT以来，直接参与CIPS的机构数量已从75家增至近200家，接近原来的三倍。

Money flowing through China’s financial plumbing has surged since the war in Iran forced the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping channel through which roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil flows, according to the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center. Countries desperate for oil are increasingly using the Chinese network to pay for internationally restricted crude outside the dollar system.

大西洋理事会地缘经济中心称，自伊朗战争迫使霍尔木兹海峡（全球约20%石油流经的重要航道）关闭以来，流向中国金融系统的资金激增。急需石油的国家正越来越多地利用中国网络在美元体系之外支付受国际限制的原油。

本月，多艘油轮在伊朗格什姆岛附近的霍尔木兹海峡抛锚停泊。

From February to March, the average daily payments rose to more than $131 billion a day from $86 billion, while the average transaction size increased over 8 percent, according to data from the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center. Shanghai Securities News, a state-owned newspaper, attributed the growth in use to “continued uncertainty in the Middle East.”

大西洋理事会地缘经济中心的数据显示，从2月到3月，平均日支付额从860亿美元增至超过1310亿美元，平均交易规模增长了8%以上。中国国有的《上海证券报》将这一增长归因于“持续震荡的中东局势”。

“The uptick has to be other countries in Asia that are switching to usage in this moment” to buy restricted oil, said Josh Lipsky, the director of the GeoEconomics Center at the Atlantic Council.

“这种回升势头必然源于亚洲其他国家当前正在转向”使用人民币来购买受限石油，大西洋理事会地缘经济中心主任乔什·利普斯基表示。

Major hurdles remain for the renminbi to challenge the dollar’s dominance, said Eswar Prasad, a professor of economics at Cornell University.

康奈尔大学经济学教授埃斯瓦尔·普拉萨德表示，人民币要挑战美元的主导地位仍面临重大障碍。

For the currency to play a larger global role, it must be easier to use outside China, which requires loosening Beijing’s tight capital flow controls. The government has been reluctant to take that step for fear of losing control of its exchange rate. Without that opening, there is not enough renminbi circulating abroad for trading partners to do much beyond buying Chinese goods, Mr. Prasad said.

要使人民币发挥更大的全球作用，它必须在境外更容易被使用，这需要北京放宽严格的资本流动管制。由于担心失去对汇率的控制，中国政府一直不愿采取这一步。普拉萨德表示，如果不开放，境外流通的人民币就不够多，贸易伙伴除了购买中国商品外，无法开展更多业务。

When countries like Saudi Arabia sell their oil for dollars, they can easily recycle those proceeds into liquid assets such as U.S. Treasury bonds. With renminbi, there is no equivalent yet.

当沙特阿拉伯等国以美元出售石油时，他们可以轻易将收益转为美国国债等流动资产，而人民币目前还没有同等的途径。

So far, China has taken small but meaningful steps toward strengthening its cross-border payment system. It is still unclear whether China is truly on a “durable path” to becoming a major global payments currency, Mr. Prasad said. But one thing is clear: “There is a desperate desire in the world to escape the clutches of the dollar-denominated system.”

到目前为止，中国在加强跨境支付系统方面采取了虽然微小但具有意义的步骤。普拉萨德认为，目前尚不清楚中国是否真正走上了成为主要全球支付货币的“持久路径”，但有一点是明确的：“世界各国都迫切希望摆脱美元计价体系的束缚。”