COMMENT Zhou Xiaochuan, China’s central bank governor, has delivered a powerful message to the world this week. He wants an end to the dollar era. This is not sabre-rattling. He has made serious proposals for a reserve currency to rival the greenback and he deserves a hearing.
During the 1997 crisis, Asia’s emerging market economies learnt a painful lesson: do not run out of foreign reserves. China, in common with many other Asian emerging market economies, built up towering mounds of foreign assets to give itself a backstop against future emergencies.
