In recent times, overseas institutions have generally been optimistic about my country's bond market and actively participated in RMB bond investment and financing business.

The First Financial reporter learned from the People's Bank of China that as of April 15, 2025, more than 1,160 overseas institutions have entered my country's bond market, covering sovereign institutions and commercial institutions in more than 70 countries and regions, with a total bond holding of 4.5 trillion yuan, an increase of more than 270 billion yuan from the holdings at the end of 2024. Overseas institutions have also actively come to China to issue panda bonds, with a cumulative issuance of more than 950 billion yuan.

In recent years, the People's Bank of China has worked with all parties to actively promote the opening up of the bond market, promote the interconnection between the mainland and the global bond market, promote RMB bonds to become qualified collateral for the offshore market, and continuously optimize the investment and financing environment of China's bond market, with remarkable results.

Since 2019, my country's bonds have been included in the three major international bond indexes of Bloomberg Barclays, JPMorgan Chase and FTSE Russell. In recent years, the weight has gradually increased: the weight of Chinese government bonds and policy-based financial bonds in the Bloomberg Global Comprehensive Index has reached 9.7%, an increase of 3.7 percentage points from four years ago, and surpassed Japan in November 2024 to rise to the third place in the world; the weight of Chinese government bonds in the JPMorgan Chase Global Emerging Market Government Bond Index is 10%, reaching the largest country-level weight; the weight of Chinese government bonds in the FTSE Russell Treasury Index has reached 10%, twice the initial estimate.

At present, the total scale of China's bond market has reached 183 trillion yuan, ranking second in the world.

Industry experts believe that from the perspective of actual yields, safe-haven attributes and other aspects, the Chinese bond market is very attractive. At present, my country's macroeconomic operation is recovering and improving overall. Correspondingly, the price of RMB bonds fluctuates slightly and the returns are stable. At the same time, RMB bonds have high decentralized and diversified investment value, and the risk aversion function is constantly being enhanced. According to Fidelity's estimates, the yield correlation between Chinese bonds and US bonds, European bonds and emerging market bonds in 2024 is close to 0.

In addition, there is still a lot of room for China's bond market to open up: currently, the proportion of debt holdings of overseas investors is only 2.4%, which is still at a relatively low level compared with developed economies and some emerging market economies (of which, overseas institutions hold about 2 trillion yuan of Chinese government bonds, accounting for 5.9% of the total custody volume of treasury bonds).

Since 2024, in accordance with the relevant decisions and deployments of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, the People's Bank of China has worked with relevant departments to actively promote the high-level opening up of the bond market, and the international influence and attractiveness of my country's bond market have been continuously improved.

Specifically, the central bank has promoted RMB bonds to become offshore qualified collateral, including inclusion of "Bond Connect" bonds on the list of qualified collateral for RMB liquidity funds arrangements by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, and supporting overseas institutions to use "Bond Connect" bonds to pay "Swap Connect" margin.

Optimize the investment process of overseas institutions entering the market and support central bank institutions to transfer non-transactions according to investment management needs. A series of optimization measures for "Bond Connect" and "Swap Connect" will be launched to further align with mainstream international trading products and continue the fee reduction and exemption arrangements.

The central bank also focuses on increasing publicity efforts for long-term investors, conducting discussions and exchanges with various institutions such as overseas investors, infrastructure, settlement agents, custody banks, industry associations, etc., and conducting promotion of my country's bond market for sovereign investors at home and abroad.

At the same time, the central bank has orderly promoted the connectivity and cooperation with the bond markets in the Middle East, Latin America, Europe, Africa and other regions. Coordinate openness and security, monitor cross-border bond trading behavior and capital flows in real time, and strengthen macro-prudential management of cross-border capital flows in the bond market.

Next, the central bank will continue to unswervingly promote the high-level opening up of China's bond market, deepen and expand the interconnection of domestic and foreign bond markets, continuously optimize the investment environment, and attract more overseas investors, especially long-term investors to invest in my country's bond market.