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This article investigates the impacts of the digital revolution on the international monetary and financial system (IMFS), emphasizing the effects generated by the new China's digital currency, e-CNY. It is argued that from the point of view of emerging and developing countries (EDCs) the transformations of the digital age imply considering costs and benefits of implementing central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), in a context where this "new form" does not substantially change the hierarchical and asymmetric character of the SMFI. The e-CNY implies the establishment of new disjunctures, such as, for example, developing systems that are interoperable with the Chinese system, or not. This aspect carries a strong political component in the current context of questioning the status quo in various dimensions of the international system. To illustrate this aspect, the article brings empirical evidence on the evolution of the interconnections between the Chinese economy and the main EDCs in dimensions such as convergence in business cycles and financial cycles. Greater integration with China could work as a potential attraction factor for many EDCs, which could gravitate more towards e-CNY in a scenario of greater opposition to the US dollar dominance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reflects on the meaning of China's Central Bank Digital Currency (CDBC) with respect to money and power relations to argue that it will not represent a rupture with the dollar centric international monetary and financial system (IMFS). It combines three theoretical approaches – on the nature of money, on currency internationalisation and on currency hierarchy – to build an analytical framework that adds to the literature that strives to understand the dynamics between money and state power. This framework stresses the fundamental place of currency dominance and of an underlying currency hierarchy that explains the broader configuration and evolution of the IMFS. While there is an enormous asymmetry between the economic weight of China and the international use of its currency (physical or digital), it does not necessarily follow that this tension will be resolved by assembling a fairer distribution of the economic and political advantages that come along with issuing a currency that is used by the rest of the world (the so-called 'exorbitant privilege'). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]