Jakarta. The Chinese government said Thursday that the yuan cross-border settlements with ASEAN had almost doubled, reaching almost $1.3 trillion in value, as Southeast Asia distances itself from the American dollar.

In recent years, China has been settling trade and investment transactions with several Southeast Asian countries, including Indonesia, in their respective local currencies. The use of Chinese yuan and rupiahs will make it easier for businesses as they no longer have to convert to dollars. According to Liu Jun, a counsellor at the Chinese Mission to ASEAN, the no-dollar trend had surged dramatically in the region.

“Our cross-border renminbi settlement in ASEAN reached 8.9 trillion yuan [worth nearly $1.3 trillion] in 2024, up by over 50% year-on-year,” Liu told a press briefing in Jakarta on Thursday.

“The renminbi is celebrating its role as a key regional currency. It contributes significantly to the financial stability of this region.”

A People’s Bank of China (PBOC) report wrote that around 2.4 trillion yuan settlements registered with ASEAN in 2024 had come from goods trade. Some 900 billion yuan were direct investments. Jakarta is in the lead with its local currency settlement that took effect in September 2021. The cumulative renminbi settlement with Indonesia hit 46.2 billion yuan. 

As de-dollarization goes into full swing, the PBOC described the CNY/IDR as the “most actively traded currency pair” in China’s regional foreign exchange market, notching a cumulative trading volume of 14.4 billion yuan. As of the end of 2024, the Chinese central bank had inked bilateral local currency settlement deals with its Indonesian, Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian counterparts.

Chinese Ambassador to ASEAN Wang Qing dismissed Western criticisms over Beijing’s “unfair competition and subsidy” that led to its seismic surpluses. Wang went on to say his country did not intentionally seek to grow its surpluses, but innovations automatically put the numbers in Beijing’s favor.

“The subsidies and unfair competition [allegations] are not true. Our industrial competitiveness comes from our market. We apply innovations. … A new generation of products appears in the market within a matter of days,” Wang told the same presser.

Wang went on to say that China is the “only country to actively reduce its tariffs” on foreign goods as the world faces uncertainties from US import duty hikes. The diplomat said that the recently upgraded ASEAN-China trade pact — which encompasses green and digital economies — could narrow the trade imbalance.

In 2025, ASEAN-China trade in goods topped $1 trillion. The Chinese mainland’s trade with Indonesia neared $155 billion throughout last year, with Jakarta running a $20.5 billion deficit. Hong Kong-specific trade reached $5.5 billion, which resulted in a $891.8 million negative balance for Indonesia.

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