Residents in San Francisco, the sister city of Paris, lit candles outside the French consulate on Kearny Street to honor the memory victims in Friday's coordinated terrorist attacks on Paris. Lia Zhu / China Daily

The bloody terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday in which at least 120 people were killed and hundreds injured was carefully planned. And this "act of war", as French President Francois Hollande described it, overshadowed something else that was carefully planned on Friday.

This was the statement by Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, that she endorsed her staff's suggestion that renminbi is qualified to be included in the special drawing rights basket of currencies. The 24 directors of the IMF executive board will vote to decide at the end of this month.

If the terrorist attacks had not seized the media's attention, Lagarde's statement would certainly have made headlines. It is fairly likely that China's currency will be given the same status as the US dollar, the British pound, Japanese yen and the euro, if United States does not abuse its veto power.

The terrorist attacks in the French capital are now expected to dominate the G20 summit, shifting the focus away from its planned economic agenda, with the G20 leaders collectively condemning the attacks.

Zhu Guangyao, vice-minister of China's Finance Ministry, called a media briefing before President Xi Jinping arrived in Turkey on Saturday, in which he strongly condemned the terrorists.