The United States has had a hard time in recent years.
Not only is China pushing for the internationalization of the renminbi, but France and Germany are also loyal brothers who want to bring back the gold deposited in the United States.
After all, no one thought that the world would change, and that God's chosen people would not be able to speak, and that it would no longer be safe to put gold in the United States. However, nearly 1,000 tons of gold on the mainland have been deposited in US vaults! Aren't you afraid that this money will never be returned?
World Gold Trading Center
Before the defeat of Germany, the United States made a lot of money as the general logistics base of the world war, and a huge amount of gold flowed into the United States in exchange for war materials. There are also countries like the United Kingdom that feel that they are almost unable to bear it, and ship the gold to the United States in advance to be stored.
During this period, three-quarters of the world's official reserves flowed into the United States. Wait until the United States has earned enough gold coins, and then wave eastward to wipe out the fascist clowns in one fell swoop. Money and fame were given.
In Pretton Woods, the price of dollars and gold was fixed. The United States, which stores a large amount of gold, naturally has the largest gold trading volume in the world.
Everyone knows that gold is too eye-catching, and it is very risky to store and transport it at ordinary times. If every time gold is traded between countries, people have to be arranged to transport it back and forth, then what kind of money trucks do the robbers rob again, and it is not more efficient to directly rob the vehicles that transport gold.
In addition, at that time, the United States was busy competing with the Soviet Union, and there was a boss, at least it was not as shameless as it is now. Everyone still believes in the United States, so they all deposit gold in the United States, and when there is a transaction, they sign each other to change the ownership.
It's the same as stock trading, and no one really has to take the trading partner home.
Of course, the United States is willing to do this, but it is also worried that too much gold will be robbed. After all, the United States does not ban guns! No one knows what the Yankees, who are bursting with military value, will do.
The United States then built a solid vault under the Federal Reserve Bank. The gate to the vault is guarded all year round, followed by a gate weighing 140 tons. Not to mention security, this gate of more than 100 tons can make people desperate.
The entire vault is also equipped with an automatic alarm system, which will automatically close all external channels 25 seconds after the system alarm.
Nearly a million gold bricks from nearly 90 countries and organizations around the world are stored in it.
Each of these gold bricks weighs a standard 13 kilograms. They are stored separately in rooms rented by their countries or institutions.
When the gold transaction is made, the gold bricks are transferred to the buyer's room according to the content of the transaction. As for the balance, don't worry, the staff will use equipment to cut the gold precisely. Its weighing tool is said to have an accuracy of 0.28 grams.
As for whether China has gold in the United States, it is certainly not before. You must know that before the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States, the two countries were still antagonistic, and they would definitely not put gold in the United States.
After economic development, China's gold reserves gradually increased, and by 2000 they were about 400 tons. Moreover, at that time, the state implemented a compulsory foreign exchange settlement system. By the end of 2023, the mainland has 2,235.41 tonnes of gold reserves.
It wasn't until 2005 that the mainland bought gold through the New York Gold Exchange, which may have been stored in the United States. The reason why it is stored in the United States, rather than being shipped back to China, is mainly to facilitate later transactions.
Gold "Comes Home"
With the development of the economy, the absolute strength of the United States has declined, and the United States has gradually begun to become shameless, and people have gradually begun to worry about the safety of gold stored in the US treasury.
The first to act on this concern was Charles de Gaulle of France, who, when he was president, directly arranged for the repatriation of all French gold deposited in the United States.
But this concern was somewhat groundless at the time, after all, the United States has not really done anything to embezzle other countries' gold.
Since the beginning of the new century, the United States, whose national strength has declined, has become more and more unscrupulous, and it has broken through the bottom line by finding a random reason.
For example, after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the United States took measures to freeze about 300 billion of Russia's gold and foreign exchange reserves, including gold stored in the US treasury.
It is said that now the United States is still discussing taking out the money that originally belonged to Russia and using it for the construction of Ukraine.
Earlier, the United States had frozen $7 billion in assets in Afghanistan.
Although it is cool for the Western world to follow the United States to freeze Russian assets, they are also worried that if they offend the United States one day, their assets will also be frozen. So they tried to find a way to transport the gold stored in the United States back to their hometowns.
Germany, for example, has launched the "Gold Homecoming" campaign. Germany spent nearly 7 million euros to bring back more than 3,000 tons of gold deposited in the United States, France and the United Kingdom.
As for China, everyone is also worried about this issue. After all, when we finally decide to cross the strait, US sanctions against us will almost certainly come.
In fact, the big brothers of the North provide us with a good example to learn from, and we must not overestimate the moral level of the United States. In that case, why don't we ship the gold we bought in the United States back to China in advance?
Actually, it's not necessary at all. On the one hand, the trade war between the two countries is inseparable, and on the other hand, neither of them has delayed business. Transporting gold back to China when nothing has happened is embarrassing for us and for those anti-China congressional men in the United States.
When that day comes, the United States may not dare to embezzle our gold, let alone have the courage to launch large-scale sanctions against us.
China is not Russia, our economy is there, and we still have more than $4 trillion in foreign exchange reserves and more than a trillion US national debt. Before the United States imposes sanctions on us, we need to think clearly about the consequences it may pay.
After all, it is okay for us Chinese to endure hardships, and if American voters have a hard time, the government will have to fall.
What's more, if it really wants to tear its face, the United States will freeze the mainland's overseas assets. The mainland will not need to be taboo and can freeze US assets in China.
We now attract more than $100 billion in US capital every year, including automobiles, chemicals, energy, new materials, and so on, and the assets of any industry are more than tens of billions.
Of course, this is hurting each other, and no one wants to really go this far.
epilogue
With the rapid development of the mainland economy, our overseas assets are increasing, and the proportion of RMB in international transactions is also increasing, and our gold reserves will definitely need to continue to rise.
The current rise in gold prices is due to both the general concerns of the international community about the future and the continued large purchases by China.
Resources:
[1] China Gold News, "The Golden Heritage of Bretton Woods", 2019 --07-30
[2] Cross Century (Shiwen Expo), The World's Largest Vault, 2008.02 (p.56)