The yuan has been one of the world’s most stable major currencies

That may sound like a good point, but for the average person in China, does it matter? The average person cares about being able to buy bread and eggs and having a stable currency with which to do that. It's the moneyed classes that care about being able to offshore their wealth.

With a more stable currency, this means more investor confidence, and more confidence for other countries to trade using that currency. There are a lot to be said on this topic, but overall, countries use another's currency to facilitate trade look at 2 main factors: how big your economy is (to cushion the global trade) and how stable your currency is. This was why the pound was THE major global currency about 100 years ago, until it lost its empire, which massively reduced the size of its economy, and hence the mantle was passed onto the US dollar. In recent years, the US dollar seem to be starting to lose its shine given the country is losing its stability and some US politician's allure to the MMT https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Monetary_Theory

As for the amount limit that's transferrable, this is only there to individuals to prevent capital flight (limited to $50,000 per annum), it's not limited to companies.

I remember the last time I tried to buy a flight ticket with Qatar Airways, one of the currencies they accepted was the yuan (kinda upset they didn't accept the sterling). This probably will challenge the US Dollar's role as the dominant currency, which is actually terrible for the US in its long term debt structuring.

Indeed the currency exchange limit has been going down. Banks use various excuses to forbid currency exchange, even before you hit the personal legal limit of US $50k.

A monetary policy maker at the central bank and a supporter capital controls was ironically denied to exchange USD $20k a year ago when trying to visit an overseas relative. The reason for denial was cited as being over 65 years old and not providing sufficient documents. He didn’t exceed the US $50k limit. [1]

Earlier last year, China made it illegal to transfer for a profit of RMB 100k or with amount exceeding RMB 5M. This was considered as a measure to curb currency exchange among overseas friends and relatives. [2]

Since two years ago, Chinese banks were required to report transfer of at least RMB 50k or US $10k. Seven banks were fined for not keeping track of such transfers. [3]

Also two years ago, bank card withdrawal limits outside of China was reduced to RMB 100k. [4]

With all these additional restrictions, the amount that one can exchange for is way less than US $50k per year (or about RMB 350k at current exchange rate).

Possibly related: The People’s Bank of China just announced that depositing or withdrawing RMB 100k or more will require registration. [5]

[1] https://money.163.com/19/0529/12/EGBJMPI4002580S6.html (in simplified Chinese)

[2] https://www.auliving.com.au/zh-tw/201902/116872.html (in traditional Chinese)

[3] http://finance.sina.com/bg/economy/economy_forex/sinacn/2018... (in simplified Chinese)

[4] https://www.hk01.com/%E8%B2%A1%E7%B6%93%E5%BF%AB%E8%A8%8A/14... (in traditional Chinese)

[5] https://www.msn.com/zh-tw/news/world/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9C%8B%E6%9... (in traditional Chinese)

I sure wish we could do that (South Africa), instead our currency is at the whims of international finance and investors, which makes it highly unstable.

We could also use exchange controls to arrest our capital flight which is just draining us.

But isn't majority of central banks have ability to control value of their currency using various means.

The Plaza Accord was instigated by the US. But that was the 1980s; these days, when a safe-haven country attempts to keep Francs from appreciating (which should be under our control) due to sabre-rattling by China and the US (not under our control), we get placed under the double secret probation.

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss-franc-climbs-after-us-add... (why is the US treasury telling us what to do? We've attempted to adjust against EUR, so if you all don't like USD/CHF why don't you all work the USD lever instead?)

> devaluing the dollar (predominantly Warren on the left and Trump on the right), which would weaken the international position of the US and of course effectively make American consumers poorer.

Devaluing the dollar makes exports more competitive (cheaper), which is appealing to leaders.

Also, it devalues China's US holdings, so bonus.

(The Chinese hate that the US can do that, and released a short film explaining how that works, and warning the USA not to do it. The film used to run on Chinese airlines. High-quality film.)

Basket of currencies. Its a slightly managed float.

That's pretty out of date information, a quick look on XE shows this is not the case at all:

https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=USD&to=CNY&view=10Y

Thank God you're here to save the day!

ironically, you answering our questions doesnt make us more likely to read the article

> As of writing this comment all but one comment here is either a question answered by the article, or a statement superseded by the article with better information. Good job, guys.

The posted article is behind a paywall. What did you expect?

I frequently go straight to HN comments instead of the article itself because the article might be exaggerating a point to attract more clicks, whereas the discussion is typically a bit broader. That people don't keep it DRY is a feature to me, not a bug.

There’s a paywall