RMB Index Hits Third Place Forum Lays Bare Sovereign Debt Power Gaps
By: Adrian Cole – SeaPRwire – Sovereign debt power remains tilted. The fifteenth International Monetary Forum opened at Nankai University’s Balitai campus. It formed part of the 2026 Tianjin Five Avenues Financial Forum series. Nankai University and Renmin University of China co-hosted the event. They released the RMB Internationalization Index and the research report Sovereign Debt Power Risk and Order Reconstruction. The theme targeted international sovereign debt risks and global monetary governance. Experts from financial regulators universities research institutes and the financial industry filled the room. The core tension sits in plain view. A dollar-centered system still shapes who bears crisis costs.
Chen Yulu president of Nankai University and vice president of the China Finance Society spoke first. In the digital era the international monetary order should make room for more countries to grow. RMB internationalization will rest on China’s solid development achievements. It can offer a more reliable currency choice and global public goods. Technological progress should reach wider populations. He noted the close cooperation between Nankai and Renmin University in economic and financial research and talent training. Facing the fifteenth Five-Year Plan period and the drive to build a financial powerhouse Nankai stands ready to deepen joint work. The focus stays on major questions of RMB internationalization and global financial governance. Zhang Donggang Party secretary of Renmin University followed. Both universities rank as strongholds in finance disciplines. Their 2025 strategic cooperation framework agreement aims to serve education powerhouse construction and high-quality national development. The International Monetary Forum serves as the most representative platform of that partnership. It also acts as a key vehicle for serving the national financial strategy. The gathering pools wisdom from government industry academia research and practice. It has already produced solid research results on sovereign debt risks and global monetary governance. He called for continued deepening of talent cultivation discipline building and scientific research so that high-quality financial development can support national strength and rejuvenation.
Wang Fang director of the International Monetary Institute at Renmin University and professor at its School of Finance and Economics released and interpreted both the index and the report. RMB internationalization keeps a long-term upward trend. Cross-border use grows more convenient. The currency now ranks third in the comprehensive international currency ranking. The dollar-dominated international monetary system creates an asymmetric structure of global sovereign debt power. Responding to risk spillovers and crisis-cost shifting from reserve-issuing countries requires reform of the international monetary system. Institutions and rules must protect national economic and financial security. Attention should turn to risks and opportunities inside financial sanctions and Belt and Road debt governance. Cross-border payment and liquidity support systems need improvement. RMB safe-asset supply capacity must be strengthened. Three parallel sub-forums ran in the afternoon. Their themes covered US debt risks and international currency competition digital-intelligence innovation and RMB internationalization and high-level financial opening plus the reshaping of international financial governance. Related colleges centers and institutes of the two universities organized each session. The forum itself has run every year since 2012. This edition marked the fifteenth. It routinely releases the RMB Internationalization Report and the index series while examining major theoretical and practical questions in international finance.
The governance pattern is now clearer. Index rankings and research reports supply the public numbers. Parallel sessions test the practical edges of reform. Portfolios and policy desks that track reserve-currency shifts should treat the third-place RMB reading and the explicit call for system reform as the live signals. Watch the next round of cross-border payment upgrades and safe-asset issuance. Those steps will show whether the stated order reconstruction moves from forum language into measurable market change.
Author bio: Adrian Cole, overseas scholar specializing in public administration and social policy with long-term focus on global financial governance frameworks.