China Asks For New World Reserve Currency

In an "open letter" on the official website of The People's Bank of China - which I didn't know existed until today - Chinese central banker Zhou Xiaochuan called for a new world reserve currency.

The outbreak of the current crisis and its spillover in the world have confronted us with a long-existing but still unanswered question,i.e., what kind of international reserve currency do we need to secure global financial stability and facilitate world economic growth, which was one of the purposes for establishing the IMF? There were various institutional arrangements in an attempt to find a solution, including the Silver Standard, the Gold Standard, the Gold Exchange Standard and the Bretton Woods system. The above question, however, as the ongoing financial crisis demonstrates, is far from being solved, and has become even more severe due to the inherent weaknesses of the current international monetary system

While the US Dollar is not explictly singled out in the letter- it obviously might as well be.  It's a quick read, worth checking out if you haven't already.

The real question, I think, is how much of this letter is posturing vs. genuine intent to act.  I'm not sure yet, but this is an awful lot of noise coming from China recently on this subject, following up Luo Ping's comments about US Treasury Bonds.