South China Morning Post/Karen Yeung/9-4-2020
“Xi Junyang, a professor at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, was quoted as saying by the Global Times that China will ‘gradually decrease its holdings of US debt to about US$800 billion under normal circumstances. But of course, China might sell all of its US bonds in an extreme case, like a military conflict.'”
USAGOLD note: That gradual decrease in U.S. Treasury holdings tells only part of the story. The rest of the story is that China is no longer a buyer of U.S. Treasuries when once it was one of the largest – and at times the largest. Many analysts believe that China has quietly built its gold reserves over the past several years. If so, that holding would act as an incentive for accelerating sales of U.S. Treasuries – particularly with the price of gold running at record levels.
