Since the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the ensuing tsunami from Wall Street that almost swamped the financial world in 2008, China has been busy signing bilateral currency swap agreements in order to minimize the exposure of holding too many dollars.
Such swap agreements allow the two signatory nations to do business with each other using their own currency and skip having to buy dollars and settle the trade invoices in dollars.
This article co-authored with Henry Tang posted in China-U.S. Focus apropos on leap year day can be read in its entirety here.
On going tracking of bilateral swap agreements China has entered can be found here.