Inclusion in elite list alongside US dollar and euro described as a milestone for world's second largest economy. With the decision, the yuan, also known as the renminbi, will join the US dollar, euro, Japanese yen and British pound next year in the list of currencies the IMF uses as an international reserve asset. – Al Jazeera Dominant Social Theme: It's about time China and the yuan received their due. Over-time, in fact. Free-Market Analysis: It is popular in the Western media to bemoan the fall of the West and the rise of the East. Yet what we have here is peculiar: A Western-controlled institution, the International Monetary Fund, facilitating the ascent of China as a great monetary power despite the public paranoia surrounding the advance. It may not fit certain popular paradigms, but we are not surprised. We have always argued that at the very top of the pyramid, the political, economic and military management of great powers had more in common with each other than the larger mass of citizenry in their respective countries.