The International Monetary Fund is expected to admit China’s renminbi to its elite basket of reserve currencies today in what would be a major vote of confidence in Beijing’s economic reforms and its bid to internationalise its currency.

预计国际货币基金组织(IMF)今日将把中国的人民币纳入其精英储备货币篮子。这将是对中国经济改革和人民币国际化努力的一张重大信心投票。

Confirming China’s place at the top table of the world’s economies, IMF shareholders are set to vote overwhelmingly to include the renminbi as the fifth member of the basket used to value the fund’s own de facto currency, the “special drawing right”.

IMF股东将以压倒性多数投票支持让人民币成为该组织货币篮子中的第五种货币，确认中国进入世界顶级经济体行列。IMF货币篮子用于对其事实上的货币——特别提款权(SDR)——进行估值。

The move comes at a crucial time for China, which is managing a significant slowdown in growth and has suffered deep falls in financial markets as questions have mounted over the leadership in Beijing’s response and commitment to reforms.

此举发生在对中国而言至关重要的时刻。中国正在应对增长显著下滑，还遭受了金融市场大跌，外界对于中国领导层的对策及改革承诺的质疑有所加深。

But today’s vote by the IMF board will also come amid questions over just how much the IMF has been forced to bend its own rules to make the case for the renminbi and accommodate China at a sensitive time in the relationship between the fund and Beijing.

但是，IMF董事会今日的投票也会面临其他质疑：IMF到底在多大程度上被迫变通自己的规则以支持纳入人民币，并在该组织与中国的关系敏感之际照顾中国？

“They are stretching their criteria,” said Edwin Truman, a former US Treasury official and veteran watcher of the IMF at the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics.

“他们在勉强应用自己的标准，”美国财政部前官员、目前任职于华盛顿的彼得森国际经济研究所(Peterson Institute for International Economics)的资深IMF关注者埃德温尠腧门(Edwin Truman)表示。

Eswar Prasad, a former head of the IMF’s China team, said that had the IMF review been applied to any other currency, the case would probably not have been made for inclusion in the SDR basket. Becoming part of the SDR basket is largely symbolic, but membership is limited to easily traded large currencies that are widely used by central banks to hold foreign exchange reserves.

IMF中国部前负责人埃斯瓦尔渠拉萨德(Eswar Prasad)表示，如果IMF的审议被应用于其他任何货币，那就很可能不会提出将该货币纳入SDR货币篮子。进入SDR货币篮子在很大程度上只具有象征意义，但成员资格通常仅限于那些被各国央行当作外汇储备普遍持有的易于交易的主要货币。

“It is very clear that [IMF staff and management] were willing not to break the rules but to bend them,” Mr Prasad said. “Given how much the IMF needs China, they did not have much choice.” With China being the world’s largest economy, measured by purchasing power parity, the fund would be open to accusations of lacking global legitimacy without giving a leading role to Beijing.

“很明显，（IMF官员及其管理层）愿意不打破规则，而是作出变通，”普拉萨德说。“鉴于IMF那么需要中国，他们没有太多选择。”由于中国已成为世界最大经济体（以购买力平价衡量），IMF如果不给予中国一个领导性角色，就容易面临缺乏全球合法性的指责。

Several Western diplomats in Beijing have said the renminbi’s inclusion in the SDR basket was a heavily political decision and that the Chinese government had been very effective at lobbying countries to support the inclusion, regardless of whether the renminbi met the requirements.

多名驻北京的西方外交官表示，把人民币纳入SDR货币篮子在很大程度上是一个政治决定，中国政府在游说各国支持人民币被纳入方面非常有效——无论人民币是否达到要求。

However, the IMF’s management insists that its review of the case for including the renminbi was purely “technical” in nature and focused on practical issues of whether the renminbi could be used in IMF transactions with its members.

然而，IMF管理层坚称，对于纳入人民币的审议是一个纯粹的“技术性”问题，焦点是人民币是否可被用于IMF与其成员国的交易的实际问题。

“There is no politics in this,” said a senior IMF official.

“这里不存在政治因素，”IMF一名高级官员表示。

The IMF’s staff earlier this month recommended in a report to the fund’s board that the renminbi join the dollar, euro, UK pound and Japanese yen in the SDR basket as part of a regular five-yearly review.

本月早些时候，IMF工作人员在提交给IMF董事会的一份报告中建议，在五年一次的定期审议时，给予人民币与美元、欧元、英镑和日元相同的地位，将其纳入SDR货币篮子。

The staff’s findings hinged on the renminbi meeting two criteria. The first was that China and the renminbi have a significant role in global trade, a bar which Beijing passed years ago. But the second — that the renminbi be both widely used and “freely usable” internationally — has proven more contentious.

IMF工作人员的结论取决于人民币满足了两条标准。第一，中国和人民币在全球贸易中具有重要影响，中国在多年前就跨过了这个门槛。但第二条标准——人民币被广泛使用而且在国际上“可自由使用”——具有更大的争议。