Beijing wants Hong Kong to sow the seeds for the digital yuan. Will its plans bear fruit?

In September, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu unveiled the city’s first five-year plan along with his policy address, highlighting Hong Kong’s strategic role in promoting the greater use of the yuan outside mainland China as a key priority. In the third part of a four-part series on the globalisation of the yuan, Xinmei Shen explores how Hong Kong is testing the interoperability of the e-CNY and other digital assets in an effort to broaden the currency’s international appeal.

In a US Senate hearing in February, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent received a pressing question about how China could challenge “American financial leadership”.

The primary concern was the use of new technologies – including blockchain and digital assets – as Beijing seeks to promote China’s yuan, or renminbi, with officials expressing worries the currency could become an alternative to US-led financial infrastructure and the US dollar.