The PBOC announced on Dec. 11 that it had abandoned the Renminbi/US$ link

So why is everyone surprised? As of December 11th, the dollar went from 100% of the basket to 26.4%. (article below) The Yuan is behaving accordingly. Given the composition of the new basket, it would not be unreasonable to expect that the Chinese yuan would drop another 30%-40% against the dollar, ceteris paribus. The super-strong dollar is not beneficial to the US economy. I am inclined to believe that the US$ is in a speculative bubble.