How do you propose other nations to acquire more RMB without either reversing their trade deficit with China or exchanging depreciating dollars for RMB? One thing Chinese economists and current US economists agree on is that the absolute last thing you want is for your currency to become a global reserves currency. China wants an alternative to the dollar as the global currency of trade- but it absolutely does not want the RMB to be the replacement.
I've thought about this for a while and concluded that there's really only one way you can satisfy all of the following criteria simultaneously:
1) Capital controls remain. Not to say that money can't move in and out of China, but that the government retains oversight and strong control on which money can move and where.
2) Manufacturing dominance remains. No transitioning to a financialized service economy of useless paper shufflers and losing the strong foundations and eventually crown jewels of Chinese manufacturing to any country or group of countries.
3) Trade surpluses remain. This is an extension of 2; so long as Chinese manufacturing remains dominant, countries will always trade low-value raw materials and intermediate goods for high-value Chinese manufactures. It's structural, and China should actively embed and defend this privileged position in the world economy. I would argue that it is and should be the core of Chinese foreign policy and a corollary of China's right to development.
The Triffin Dilemma states that China cannot have the global reserve currency while satisfying these conditions. That's true; China can't have the global reserve currency, but it can have the global reserve
bank. It can simply buy its trading partners' currencies with RMB.
Wouldn't that mean China now has an ever-growing mishmash hoard of currencies, ranging from the fairly stable and useful Russian ruble to the volatile Congolese franc? Yes, but that's the bullet China's going to have to bite to make this work. It's the cost of doing business. It's what it'll take to bind other countries into this system and overthrow the dollar.