Different ways for a currency to become international reserve

Comments on Yukon Huang "Rationalising China’s exchange rate policy", 28/09/2015

While the author, Yukon Huang argues it is easier to make the Chinese currency a regional reserve currency than a global one, China is probably more interested in making the RMB a global one. A global currency does not mean the stability against a particular major currency. The British pound, the Japanese yen and the euro all have had much greater fluctuations against the US dollar and against each other. So the idea that China must have a stable exchange rate with the US dollar is unnecessary in China's endeavour for the RMB to become a major international currency. If China's authority or its monetary authority has had that idea, that is naïve and unnecessary too.

However, it is probably good to have a stable currency in terms of against a basket of the major international currencies, as opposed to a particular one, even though the US dollar is by far the one used by most countries as the world currency reserve.

I am confounded by the argument that for a currency to become a major international reserve currency its host country must run a trade deficit to do it. There must be more than one way and different ways to make to happen, as lone as there is a need for other countries to hold that currency as a reserve. For example, the host countries can run trade deficits, or purely exchange its currency for another major or a number of other major currencies, so its currency can be available to other countries which need them. The host country can then invest those other currencies internationally, such as buy US bonds and other securities. The host country can, of course also buy gold from other countries.

It seems people see the US has run trade deficits and the US dollar is a major international reserve currency and therefore mistakenly think any host country of an international currency must run trade deficits.