About 7% of China's foreign trade in the first quarter was done in transactions denominated in yuan, up from 0.5% a year earlier, illustrating the Chinese currency's rapidly growing -- though still small -- international role.

　　今年第一季度，中国对外贸易约7%是以人民币结算的交易，远远高于上年同期的0.5%，这表明人民币的国际角色在快速增长，尽管依然较小。

　　China's banks handled a total of 360.3 billion yuan ($55.2 billion) in cross-border trade deals denominated in the Chinese currency in the first three months of the year, Xinhua news agency reported Monday, citing a central-bank official. The volume was up from 309.3 billion yuan in the fourth quarter of 2010, or 5.7% of foreign trade, and was nearly 20 times the 18.4 billion yuan in such deals in the first quarter of 2010, according to earlier data from the People's Bank of China.

　　新华社在周一的报道中援引一位央行官员的话说，2011年一季度银行累计办理跨境贸易人民币结算业务3603亿元（合552亿美元）。根据中国人民银行之前的数据，这个数字高于2010年第四季度的3093亿元（占对外贸易的5.7%），是2010年第一季度184亿元的近20倍。

　　Until a couple of years ago, effectively all of China's foreign trade was done in dollars or, to a much lesser extent, other foreign currencies, a byproduct of the country's tight controls on the use of its currency outside its borders.

　　Bloomberg News直到几年前，中国所有的对外贸易实际上都是以美元或其他外国货币结算（后者的比例要小得多），这是中国严格控制在境外使用人民币造成的。直到几年前，中国所有的对外贸易实际上都是以美元或其他外国货币结算（后者的比例要小得多），这是中国严格控制在境外使用人民币造成的。

　　Since the global financial crisis, however, China's leaders have become increasingly determined to reduce the use of the U.S. dollar. In recent months, they have aggressively pushed the expansion of yuan trading outside mainland China, setting up Hong Kong as a trading hub and encouraging yuan trading in major financial centers such as New York and London.

　　不过，自全球金融危机以来，中国的领导人开始日益坚定地要减少美元的使用。仅几个月，他们积极推进人民币交易在内地以外地区的发展，把香港建成一个交易中心并在纽约和伦敦等主要金融中心促进人民币交易。

　　They also have entered into deals with Russia and Brazil to give companies the option of settling trade deals in local currency rather than in dollars. And Chinese officials have allowed some foreign firms to issue bonds in yuan, including Caterpillar Inc., McDonald's Corp. and Unilever NV.

　　他们还与俄罗斯和巴西达成协议，让公司能够选择以当地货币而非美元结算交易。中国官员还允许卡特彼勒（Caterpillar Inc.）、麦当劳（McDonald's Corp.）和联合利华（Unilever NV）等部分外资公司发行人民币债券。

　　In 2009, the government began allowing exporters and importers in certain regions to use yuan to buy or sell goods abroad with specified trading patterns. The trials started slowly -- yuan deals accounted for just 0.1% of trade in the 2009 fourth quarter -- but have expanded rapidly.

　　2009年，政府开始允许指定地区的进出口商使用人民币通过特定交易方式买卖国外商品。试点工作启动缓慢，2009年第四季度人民币交易仅占贸易总额的0.1%，但后来迅速发展。

　　The process has been helped by the government's move last June to let the yuan start appreciating against the dollar, albeit gradually. Perceptions that the yuan is undervalued and is therefore likely to appreciate have made trading companies outside China more willing to take the currency as payment.

　　去年6月政府允许人民币开始对美元逐渐升值的举动推动了试点工作的进程。由于人们认为人民币被低估因而有可能升值，中国境外的贸易公司更愿意接受用人民币支付的款项。

　　Indeed, most of the yuan-based trade deals so far have involved Chinese companies using the Chinese currency to buy goods from others. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a state-run think tank, said in a study issued Monday that about 80% of yuan trade in the first three quarters of 2010 was accounted for by China's imports.

　　的确，目前大多数人民币结算的贸易交易都是中国公司用人民币购买其他国家商品的交易。国家智库中国社会科学院在周一发表的一份研究报告中说，2010年前三季度80%的人民币结算交易都来自中国的进口。

　　Mark Williams, an economist at research firm Capital Economics, said there is likely a limit to how much foreigners will be willing to accept in yuan payments, because there are still strict curbs on their ability to invest those assets, the result of the still-extensive capital controls that help Beijing manage the yuan's exchange rate. "There's a contradiction between these aims to internationalize the currency on the one hand and to maintain your hold on the value of the currency on the other," he said.

　　研究公司Capital Economics的经济学家威廉姆斯（Mark Williams）说，外国人接受人民币支付的意愿可能会有一个限度，因为中国依然在进行广泛的资本控制，这些措施有助于管理人民币汇率，但外国人用所持的人民币进行投资能力受到抑制。威廉姆斯说，一方面要促进人民币国际化，一方面要维持对人民币价值的控制，二者相互矛盾。

　　The growing use of yuan to pay for imports also may be having the unintended effect of helping pump up the Chinese central bank's holdings of foreign currency, which soared by $197.4 billion in the first quarter, to $3.0447 trillion. That stockpile has caused headaches for Beijing, which holds most of it in U.S. government debt and other dollar assets.

　　 进口贸易越来越多的使用人民币支付还可能会意想不到地帮助增加中国央行的外汇储备。中国外汇储备今年一季度增加了1974亿美元，达到3.0447万亿美元。大量的外汇储备让北京方面头疼，大部分都是美国国债和其他美元资产。

　　The central bank amasses those reserves because it must buy dollars that flow into the country from sources like exporters and foreign investors. In the past, when Chinese importers had to use foreign currency, they had to buy it from the central bank, which acted to reduce the size of the reserves. But payments that are made in yuan do nothing to eat into the reserves.

　　央行囤积这些储备是因为必须购买从出口商和外国投资商等渠道流入中国的美元。央行提出要减少外汇储备规模。过去在中国进口商必须使用外国货币时，他们必须从央行购买。但以人民币支付的款项并不侵蚀外汇储备。

　　Economists say about $130 billion of the first quarter's increase in China's foreign-exchange reserves isn't explained by the usual causes, such as export revenue and foreign investment, indicating there may have been big inflows of speculative "hot money" during the quarter. Mr. Williams said, however, that the use of yuan to pay for imports could explain roughly $40 billion of that increase.

　　 经济学家说，中国外汇储备第一季度约1300亿美元的增幅并不是由于出口收入和外国投资等常规原因，他们暗示这一季度可能有大量投机性“热钱”流入。威廉姆斯说，不过进口使用人民币支付可以解释其中约400亿美元的增幅。