In the shadow of the escalating trade war with the United States, Beijing formally announced its long-term strategy to build a global financial power. In an article published on 31 January 2026 in “Quushi”, the authoritative theoretical magazine of the Communist organization of China, president Xi Jinping presented a imagination of the “Chinese way of financial development”. This is not only a technocratic plan, but a geopolitical manifesto that challenges the direct dominance of the US dollar and offers an alternate to the Global South states. Despite the historical importance of this document, in the Western media it passed almost without echo.
Eight pillars of the fresh financial order
Xi's speech, a evidence of his lecture for the highest organization staff, precisely defines the foundations on which China's future financial power is to be based. This conscious and clear cut-off from the Western model, which in the paper is criticised as serving "capital and fewer rich". The Chinese alternate is based on 8 pillars:
| Pillar | Short description |
| 1. organization leadership | Absolute and centralised supervision of the Communist organization of China over the full financial sector, seen as a warrant of stableness and appropriate direction. |
| 2. Human Orientation | Finance is intended to service the well-being of society as a full and to support the real needs of citizens, not maximize profits for the narrow elite. |
| 3. Service to the real economy | The primary work of the financial sector is to support industry, innovation and infrastructure. Rejection of speculation and “reft of reality”. |
| 4. hazard control | Constant and systemic prevention of financial crises through rigorous supervision, which is intended to increase the resilience of the strategy to shocks. |
| 5. marketplace and regulation of law | Financial innovation is desirable but must take place within a well-defined legal framework to prevent chaos and illegal practices. |
| 6. Structural reforms | Optimising the financial system, including balancing the function of banks and capital markets to better service the economy. |
| 7. beginning and safety balance | Gradual and controlled beginning of financial markets to the world, with an absolute precedence for national and economical security. |
| 8. stableness and progress | Avoiding violent, shocking reforms. The rule of “build first, then storms” is to guarantee evolutionary alternatively than revolutionary development. |
A Challenge for America and a Chance for a Global South
The Chinese model represents a fundamental challenge for the American financial system, which is based on deregulation, the free movement of capital and the dominance of the dollar. Beijing proposes an order in which the state plays a central function and the stableness and long-term improvement of the real economy are more crucial than short-term gains in financial markets.
This imagination is highly attractive to the countries of the Global South. Faced with rising US interest rates and the instability of the dollar, the Chinese proposal offers concrete benefits:
- De-dollarisation: Allowing commercial settlements in local currencies or yuan reduces transaction costs and reduces dependence on US national Reserve monetary policy.
- Access to finance: Chinese improvement banks, specified as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), are becoming an alternate to the global Monetary Fund and the planet Bank, frequently offering backing without strict political conditions imposed by the West.
- Stability: The real economy-oriented and risk-control model is seen as more predictable and resilient to crises that frequently begin in Western financial centres, and whose costs are borne by developing countries.
Europe in the ticks of superpowers
Xi Jinping's declaration puts Europe in a peculiarly hard situation. On the 1 hand, the European Union is profoundly integrated into the US financial strategy – the European institutions hold over $3 trillion in US fiscal bonds. Donald Trump's aggressive and unpredictable customs policy, which since the beginning of his second word in 2025 drastically tightened the trade war, undermined his trust in the US as a unchangeable partner. The average effective US rate of work increased from 2.5% to 27% over a fewer months of 2025, which is the highest level in over a century.
On the another hand, China's increasing financial power offers Europe the chance to diversify and strengthen its own strategical autonomy. The volume of trade between the EU and China is already expanding in euro and yuan. However, Europe is besides afraid about Beijing's dependence, becoming a "side offering" in the clash of giants.
Ignored Revolution: Why is the West silent?
Despite its fundamental importance, Xi Jinping's article has not become a major subject in the Western media. There are respective reasons for this:
- The text was published in "Quushi", an elite organization magazine, which makes it hard to scope and poorly understood by the average Western journalist.
- Western media focus on more direct and "medial" aspects of confrontation with China, specified as customs, technological disputes (e.g. around Huawei) or tensions in the South China Sea. The long-term complex financial strategy is little catchy.
- There is inactive a tendency in the West to view Chinese ambition as unrealistic. Many analysts believe that a closed capital account and close state control will prevent the Yuan from having a real threat to the dollar. Xi's speech is so treated more as interior propaganda than a real action plan.
However, ignoring this silent revolution may prove to be a strategical mistake. Beijing not only announced its intentions, but consistently builds an alternate financial architecture – from digital yuan to payment systems bypassing SWIFT. The financial planet as we know it may shortly look completely different, and the West risks waking up in a fresh reality that he has not noticed, busy with matters and sensations of highly short term.
The article is based on an analysis of Xi Jinping's speech of 16 January 2024, published in Qiushi magazine on 31 January 2026, and data on commercial and financial relations from publically available sources.
Leszek B. Glass
Email: [email protected]
