The highest U.S. tariffs in almost a century have had a muted impact so far on global growth, but Asian policymakers aren’t lulled by the calm. They’re taking their cues from jumpy markets and plotting what appears to be a mutiny against "King Dollar." In the 1960s, the French could only rail against America’s exorbitant privilege. In the 2020s, China — aided by other countries — may be in a position to challenge it.

Those searching for evidence of that uprising in payment flows are looking in the wrong place. For years to come, de-dollarization will remain hidden in additions and alterations to financial plumbing. The cumulative effects will take time to show.

With little fanfare, China’s e-CNY, the official digital currency, has gone from being interest-free cash to a yield-bearing product of commercial banks. It’s a profound change. Until now the problem with e-CNY adoption was that even the Chinese state workers who received their salaries as tokens in their e-wallets would immediately swipe them into their bank accounts. Now they don’t need to. For them and their banks, e-CNY is no longer any different from a regular deposit account. Popular payment apps like Alipay and WeChat Pay work with both.

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