News Analysis Off and on over the years, people—in the West and in China—have speculated how that country’s fast-developing economy will remake the world’s trading and economic system. During this time, it has also become popular to speculate about when and how China’s yuan will supplant the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. Official statements from Beijing have shown greater modesty on these points than media speculation does, but it has also been clear that China’s leadership enjoys hearing such things. But a recent directive from the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) suggests that such “glorious” ambitions are still a very long way off. This directive shows instead that China still relies on its original, export-driven development model and is in no position either to upend the world trading system or to raise the yuan to the status of the global reserve. This revealing guidance emerged recently from China’s Foreign …