China’s overseas lending in renminbi is soaring, as Beijing steps up its efforts to expand the currency’s role in international finance and reduce the country’s exposure to the US dollar.

External renminbi loans, deposits and bond investments by Chinese banks quadrupled to more than Rmb3.4tn ($480bn) over the past five years, as policymakers more aggressively pursue their long-term goal of reducing the centrality of the dollar in global financial flows.

As part of this campaign, China is also opening more channels for foreign investors to buy renminbi-denominated bonds. But officials have focused their efforts on boosting the renminbi’s role in trade, partly as a defence against policies enacted in the US and elsewhere that weaponise the dollar — such as this week’s EU sanctions targeting Chinese banks accused of helping Russia to secure weapons parts overseas.