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Renminbi

official currency of the People's Republic of China

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 12, 2026
Entity authorityQ39099 ↗
Source-derived summary

Renminbi (; Chinese: 人民币; symbol: ¥; ISO code: CNY; abbreviation: RMB) is the official currency of the People's Republic of China and the unrecognized territory of Wa State. The currency is issued by the People's Bank of China, the country's monetary authority. It is the world's fifth-most-traded currency as of April 2025.

The yuan (元) is the base unit of renminbi. Each yuan is divided into 10 jiao (角), and each jiao is further subdivided into 10 fen (分; a total of 100 fen in each yuan). However, fen-denominated coins are now rarely used due to inflation. The word yuan is widely used to refer to the Chinese currency generally, especially in international contexts.

Exchange rate

Until 2005, the exchange rate of the renminbi was pegged to the US dollar. As China pursued the reform and opening up to transition from central planning to a market economy and increased its participation in foreign trade, the renminbi was devalued to increase the competitiveness of Chinese industry. It has previously been claimed that the renminbi's official exchange rate was undervalued by as much as 37.5% against its purchasing power parity.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Renminbi” as official currency of the People's Republic of China. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2025, 2005—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Renminbi, official and currency can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as official currency of the People's Republic of China. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q39099. The Library of Congress control number is sh2006007426. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2025 and 2005.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Renminbi”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Renminbi primary sources, Renminbi archive and Renminbi research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Renminbi”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Renminbi” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.