Since 2000, China has extracted approximately 6,830 tons of gold. More than half of China's gold production is state-owned; only the China National Gold Group Corporation represents 20%. And China keeps the gold it mines; domestic mining production is not allowed to export, but investors can still transfer IRA into gold. And finally, as a guarantee against a widespread fiat currency catastrophe, both Russia and China have accumulated physical ingots. Russia is known to have about 12,000 tons.
It mines 330 tons a year, which it now adds to its reserves. Having accumulated most of its treasure before allowing the Chinese public to buy gold, the Chinese state probably has more than 30,000 tons, of which only 1,776 tons are declared official reserves. Thus, the Russian and Chinese states have more than 40,000 tons, which is compared to the US reserves, which officially number at 8,133 tons. As nations, they are also the two largest gold miners by production.
While there is no official confirmation of gold storage agreements, it is believed that China's official gold reserves are held in Beijing, the capital of China, and may be under the protection of the Chinese military. In addition, anecdotal information from bullion banks and gold consultancies suggests that the PBoC buys gold from counterparties in international wholesale markets using Chinese commercial banks, such as the ICBC and the BoC, as purchasing agents (representatives). The president of the Shanghai Gold Exchange, which operates on an equal footing with China's ruling party, had already called for China to have more gold in reserve than the United States. Currently, the People's Republic of China ranks sixth among global central banks' gold holds, with about 1,949 metric tons of gold, according to the International Monetary Fund.
A London gold market source has indicated that China's official gold reserves are stored in vaults in Beijing. Therefore, a gold accumulation strategy by the Chinese government using a number of state entities would make information on PBoC gold reserves only one element of a broader state gold-buying strategy in the long term. Since monetary gold that crosses borders is exempt from disclosure, this approach would allow the PBoC to avoid reporting on gold movements, for example from London to Beijing, through customs channels, which would keep Chinese central banks' purchases of gold secret. This would also suggest that large gold ingots from Rand Refinery and Swiss ingot brands, such as PAMP, could be among the PBoC's gold reserves.
Whether imported, mined or recycled, most of the gold that enters China goes through the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE), including gold imported from Hong Kong. The PBoC discreetly buys gold on the international market and transports it back to China, where it is said to be stored in Beijing vaults, possibly under the protection of the Chinese military. Through its central bank, the People's Republic of China has the sixth largest central bank gold holding in the world, with more than 1800 tons of gold in its official reserves of the People's Bank of China. The following table, courtesy of the World Gold Council, shows the 19 main owners of gold, as well as their foreign exchange reserves and their percentage of allocation to gold.
As with most things in the central bank gold market, information on China's gold reserves is highly confidential and the PBoC does not disclose where its official gold reserves are stored. Similarly, a Bangkok-based newspaper speculates that China is “preparing to adopt a pending gold standard based on its recent gold accumulation campaign”. Countries and central banks have been accumulating gold for decades as a way to diversify their sovereign wealth holds, and the World Gold Council reports annually on each country's reserves. .
