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It is, but the linked article is worth reading in its entirety. Relevant excerpt:
It’s too late to undo. The Hormuz tollbooth currency is only a small part of it, but I’m really curious as to whether France paid in yuan. If so it would be would be very telling.
I think if China were willing to run its currency in the world’s interest as the US has largely done since Bretton Woods the switch would have happened already.
China is too married to capital controls and undervaluing the renminbi.
I think the euro is more likely to become the primary reserve currency. Ze Germans love strong currency.
Plus Europe’s refusal to form a political union means every state(?) government’s bonds pay big dividends.
I would argue that the US has run its currency in its own interests while providing the fig leaf of world interest and stability.
The yuan doesn’t need to replace the dollar as the world reserve currency to damage the US economy. Having an alternate financial settlement network for massive oil transactions is enough. As long as everyone needs to pay for oil in dollars, there is lots of demand for dollars, and the US can run enormous trade and domestic spending deficits, managing to maintain a AAA credit rating despite $40T in debt.
GWB went after Saddam Hussein not because of WMDs, but because he started selling oil in Euros instead of dollars.
Xi is really smart, and he has been building domestically for the long term. Despite many hiccups, CCP’s tightly managed capitalism/fascism has been very efficient in building tons of stuff domestically, making hay while the global trade sun has been shining. They would suffer greatly if global trade collapsed, but not as much as everyone else.
I expect that Donny has started WWIII and has no good way out. China has been waiting a while now for just the right time to attack Taiwan and unleash a host of consequences, and what better opportunity than after the US has removed experienced top generals (who have some idea about what the hell they’re doing but refuse to commit war crimes), and has used up most of their expensive missile interceptors somewhere else?
Having the alternate financial settlement infrastructure means that the US can’t use their economic leverage to strangle the world, so China could continue to trade with many countries over strenuous objections from the US.
But I’m not a historian or an economist, just a lightly educated armchair observer. Maybe I’m way off base.