China seeks oversight of reserve currency issuers

my oh my, everyone has money on their minds these days.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao called for more surveillance of countries that issue major reserve currencies, according to published reports Saturday
Wen did not specify the United States in his remarks at the Boao Forum for Asia in China's Hainan Province. But Chinese officials have recently expressed their concern
about their country's investments in dollar-denominated assets. "We should
advance reform of the international financial system, increase the representation and voice of emerging markets and developing countries, strengthen surveillance of the macro-economic policies of major reserve currency issuing economies, and develop a more diversified international monetary system," Wen said, according to China's official Xinhua news agency. Wen told the conference that China's economy was faring "better than expected." China said last week that its economy grew at an annual rate of 6.1% in the first quarter, a slowdown from 6.8% in the fourth quarter of 2008. Wen said China would seek to expand currency swap agreements that are seen as a step toward eventually making the yuan more of a global reserve asset. "We should give full play to bilateral currency swap agreements and will study expanding currency swaps in scale and to more countries," Wen was quoted as saying. China's central bank has signed six such swap deals since late 2008, totaling 650 billion yuan ($95 billion). China will set up a $10 billion cooperation fund to support infrastructure projects in countries in the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations, Wen said. The plan was announced earlier this month by Chinese Foreign
Minister Yang Jiechi.

Heaven help me for referencing MarketWatch as my first news source, but it's the first piece of news i spy with the starting of my new blog.
Interestingly in the article, it also talks about $10 billion worth of loans being given to these neighboring countries.

Is this how the currency is to be backed? By loans to the very people who are getting money? Well, that’s quite a bit like how the dollar system currency works. Money is initially issued back by loans to the US government (Treasuries), and then many more loans are generated through the commercial system via the fractional reserve system.

“Issuing Source” is an aspect of currency that I’ll talk about more in future posts. This is the supply side of money that end users generally dont think about, and even I often find academics ignoring. The methods of issuance are anything but straightforward, and are a boon to conspiracy theorists. Issuing Source is one of the main things being rethought about currencies. Who gets the privilege and the right to create cash?

The Chinese want this right. It’s quite literally the wellspring of social economic power.