Even if they make Yuan digital it can’t still force other nation to use it, China is already digitalized and make most of their transactions cashless so this is not new to them. Well, I also heard about the news of Digital USD which can still compete with Yuan so this is not the end of the fight i think since big countries will also follow the growing technology. If bitcoin remains decentralized, then Yuan can’t still change the fact that more people now wants to control their own money and that’s what bitcoin provides to many.
Talking about money means talking about greasing the economy both for fiat money and digital money. Digital Yuan may be mighty in China but China is part of the global economy so it must follow the rules of the global world.
The fact is, China wants to lead the world. Some of you guys might not understand what China is doing right now, saying that there's no way it would replace USD or BTC ( I believe so, but it's not impossible.)
I consider this digital Yuan publishing as part of China's grand plan for the mastery of renewable energy sources as a support for technology in the future. China's move to publish digital Yuan will stimulate a global reaction to rival China. This massive reaction will accelerate China in achieving its national interest in energy self-sufficiency and create a global dependence on renewable energy sources created by China.
Is the timing is perfectly placed? Just yesterday I read an article regarding China on using Digital currency for international transactions. With this they can forcefully make a country digital just because they say so, for example this product "X" will only be available for digital currency transaction that means ones country must have deal with it. And in that way they will simply win the cryptocurrency race among several countries, not only that, they also easily sell it to you with their products. This is what I think would happen.