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[–]Tiwaking 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

China stockpile gold

One of the reasons that China is stockpiling gold (other than for the value of it) is to match America's supposed amount. America has 8133 Tonnes of gold
China has 1948 Tonnes of gold. China mines 368 tonnes of gold every year. It will take roughly 20 years for China's gold reserves to equal Americas.

[–]SoCo 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

The US does have a much larger reported gold stockpile. Yet, China has been increasing their stockpile steadily.

Buying your country's own mined gold may have many benefits, but isn't required. China imports a lot of gold, such as an estimated 1,158 tons in 2013, yet with a 1,066 ton yearly demand around the same time.(A detail included in {4}) While that provides additional opportunity, that's is just yearly liquidity use flow that is not going into stockpile coffers.

Yet, their stockpiles are growing. China reportedly doubled their stock pile by the year following the 2008 recession {1} and also has had a steady flow of reporting on notable stockpile increases regularly, since then. This has been widely reported as an indication of a long term strategic increase, many times referred to as hoarding gold, and frequently speculated as a long-term intention to challenge the US Dollar.{2}

China comes off a bit secretive of it's gold stockpile, only reporting its amounts publicly every few years. Many also suspect China has a much larger stockpile than it discloses, sometimes even questioned if it might secretly surpass that of the US.{3} This speculation of under-reporting their stockpile's size isn't new and has been speculated repeatedly in the last decade.{4}

Ultimately, I don't think they need to beat, or even match the US stockpile, especially with the cooperation of other countries, to break off into a concerning independent second world economy, leveraging gold.