I know they've been resistant to exchange in the past, but as the American debt increases the rate at which they purchase bonds is decreasing. Their currency has been too unstable in the past and has been unable to develop significant demand in the market to substantiate significant trade of the Yen.
I think they want to be the reserve currency because it's only logical, the US did everything they could to ensure it after WW2 because they knew it would give them an economic advantage and it did. You are thinking in the past, the way things have been and you are correct about that, but any country that wants to be the dominant superpower has to look at the actions of the US after WW2 and see that their economic dominance was in large part due to the fact that they were the reserve currency. China will eventually stop buying US bonds in the next few years and start to float their own securities as soon as the interest on the American debt becomes larger than what they can pay. If they start too soon they risk damaging their production which is the strongest thing they have going. Of course, this is all assuming that China has an interest in being the global superpower.
When the interest on American debt is more than they can pay and inevitably hyperinflation occurs the only possible outcome is a collapse or a consolidation with some other currency (e.g. the Euro). I agree with a lot of what you say though, an American collapse would hurt the entire world but the interest on the debt is what will force it to happen if it does. Most of what I know comes from my dad who trades millions internationally on a daily basis so I wouldn't say I'm completely uninformed.
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