E-RMB: a moeda digital de Banco Central da China sob a perspectiva de projeção de poder internacional

Abstract

This research aims to analyze how the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) from the People's Republic of China, the E-RMB, functions as a mean to project Chinese power to the international environment. This study begins with the contributions of the chartal and monetary theories, in order to relate the State to the creation of currency and the institution of money, understanding money as intrinsically related to state power. Thus, by looking at Georg Knapp's research and Benjamin Cohen's monetary theory, the research analyses how the State projects its power through the internationalization of a currency. It is shown how the International Monetary System is organized, in order to understand it as competitive and hierarchical, in order to delineate how China positions itself in the face of the hegemonic dollar. Therefore, the theoretical study is applied to the specific case under analysis, in order to outline what Central Bank Digital Currencies are, their history, their fundamental assumptions and, in particular, the Chinese E-RMB - CBDC on the rise. Hence, this work sheds a light on the E-RMB capability to offer China the ability to deepen the already consolidated efforts to internationalize its currency. Therefore, the Chinese CBDC is identified a way to achieve power through autonomy (COHEN, 2018), and serving as an alternative to the current hegemony of the dollar and the global payment system, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT).