Attack on the dollar: China's drive to accumulate gold

China Takes Steps To Further Conceal Gold Holdings

April 24th, 2014

 1
share0

It has long been public knowledge that China has been secretly adding to its gold reserves.

Speculation abounds as to the quantity of gold that China holds, and even further speculation surrounds what they plan on doing with it.

Many precious metals experts believe that China is gearing up for the “end game” in which they will usher in a new global currency, a currency that will displace the US dollar and bring about a new age of prosperity for China.

Zhang Bingnan, market analyst for China Central Television and vice president of the China Gold Association, had intriguing things to say at a financial conference last year. As a result of his studies on gold's place in the modern economy, he concluded gold has an essential role in the current monetary system.

Shortly thereafter Tan Ya Ling, president of the China Foreign Exchange Investment Research Institute, spoke at a Beijing gold conference last May. She told delegates that gold is a currency - perhaps even the next world reserve currency - and therefore China has to dominate the world gold market.

Just incidental chatter from high placed Chinese officials?   Some Western ananlysts don't think so:

In an intereview this month with Bloomberg News, Lombard Street Research of London had this too say:  "The massive flow of gold into the country does make it seem plausible that they [China's authorities] could be moving in the direction of using gold in the effort to internationalize the currency and escape what is seen as a domineering dollar."

The truth of the matter is we don’t know.

Up until now, the only way investors could get any indication of how much gold China was accumulating was from the monthly release of export data from Hong Kong, which last year supplied $53 billion worth of gold to China last year.

All that is about to change.

China has announced that it will begin allowing gold imports directly through its capital, Beijing.

China would have no obligation to release or disclose its import numbers, thus making its accumulation of gold even more discreet.

The People’s Bank of China is likely to continue its trend of secrecy; they have made it well known that they intend to diversify out of US treasuries, much to the disappointment of the Federal Reserve.

The true gold holdings of China is a national secret.

 China’s last official report was released in 2009, with holdings standing at 1,054 tonnes.

Experts question even the validity of this number and suspect it was much higher.

Financial experts estimate that China’s holdings range between 3,000 and 5,000 tonnes.

Some estimates place this number even above the United States’ ”official” holdings of 8,000 tonnes.

Unfortunately, those of us who are interested in knowing the truth will have to wait.

China will release their true numbers one day, and the ramifications of that announcement could forever change the World and propel gold to staggering new heights.

Until then, enjoy the discount.