China’s Gold Secret is Out

The squalls rushed at me off the Irish Sea, sideways rain driving toward me as though an angry sea creature, hidden somewhere behind the wall of fog, had stirred up a tempest to torment me.

I was not, however, tormented by the tempestuous sea.

I was smiling and calm. Relaxed. An almost Zen state… though definitively and increasingly wet in a light rain shell not built for the vigor of a proper Irish storm.

This was the Hooks Head Lighthouse, at the far tip of the Hook Peninsula in Ireland’s County Wexford, 2.5 hours south of Dublin. I’d driven here when I first landed in Europe in 2018 and was spending a month or so living and working in Ireland at International Living’s home office.

Thing is, I have an affinity for lighthouses—precisely because they tend to set off along lonely stretches of seafront land. That’s certainly the case with Hook Head—considered one of the three loneliest lighthouses in Ireland because of its remote location.

I think my affinity stems from the fact that there are moments in my life—a lot of them, actually—when I feel like a lighthouse, silently warning those who pay attention that rocky shoals are nearby.

Only a few care—the ones at sea and for whom my signal makes a lot of sense.

Most, I know, don’t care.

The message in the lantern means nothing other than the obvious: There’s a lighthouse over there.

Now, you might rightly be thinking, “What is El Jefe on about today? Lighthouses? Lonely? A rain shell inferior to Irish storms? Does his managing editor, Ben, need to stage an intervention?”

Alas, today’s dispatch is all Ben’s fault.

You see, late last week Ben sent me an email with the subject line, “Well well well.”

Upon inspection, it was a link to a recent story in London’s Financial Times. The headline:

China’s secretive gold purchases help fuel record rally

Now, if you’ve been a Field Notes reader for a while, you might recall the dispatches I’ve sent in which I assert that China has more gold than anyone—officially—assumes. Per the World Gold Council, China officially holds 2,304 tonnes of gold, as of October 2025.

Unofficially, China holds between 10,000 and 32,000 tonnes of gold.

And, per the story beneath the Financial Times headline, China’s monthly unreported purchases of gold may exceed officially reported purchases by a factor of 10 times, which would add hundreds of tonnes annually to what are essentially hidden stockpiles.

Truth is, my assertion that China owns more gold that the world assumes began more than a decade ago, back in about 2012, when I was writing for the now-defunct Sovereign Society. Myself and a colleague were working through the reams of import/export data that Hong Kong governmental agencies track with almost anal precision.

And we were scouring gold-production data from Chinese gold miners. And…

You know what? I’m not gonna rehash all of that.

The nut of it is simple: China’s gold imports and exports are easy to track. Basically, China exports no gold (or teensy amounts), but it imports boatloads of it, largely from Switzerland.

On top of that, China is a gold-mining behemoth. The country’s gold miners have led the world in gold production in 18 of the last 25 years.

Given those facts, the riddle then is this: Where is all that gold China produces and imports?

It’s magnitudes more than the 2,304 tonnes China officially owns. So it’s gotta be somewhere.

And where it is, is spread throughout the Chinese economy.

The Bank of China, the country’s central bank, assuredly holds wildly more gold than assumed.

Businesses and banks very likely hold literal tonnes of gold.

Consumers too.

From 1950 through 2004, Chinese citizens weren’t even allowed to own gold.

But that changed suddenly in 2004, when Chinese authorities began telling citizens to buy gold. By 2010, even China Central Television, the state-run broadcaster, was urging citizens to buy gold and silver as safe-haven assets.

From “you can’t own gold!” to “buy gold!!!”

Hmmm… I don’t think I’ve ever seen a public-service announcement in America where the government actively told Americans to buy safe-have assets such as gold and silver.

As a lighthouse, you’re always warning those in danger to steer clear of what lies ahead. And to this lighthouse, here’s the danger I suspect lies ahead: A global reset, possibly initiated by China, in which the US dollar’s role in the world changes.

When that happens, gold prices will reset to levels no one expects… though I am telling you now that gold $10,000 will arrive before we ever again see gold $1,000.

China, as I regularly point out, plans for three generations. It’s methodical. More than two thousand years of history gives you a certain perspective on how to preserve as a nation.

America, sadly, plans for Friday night.

More than $38 trillion in debt gives you little perspective on anything beyond the immediacy of your debt-servicing costs and the risks they represent to your ability to continue as a viable concern.

Many years ago, I read Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, and one of Sun’s observations seems apropos here: “Victory comes from finding opportunities in problems.”

China knows—and has known for many a year now—that America has a problem: Fiscal excess and an unshakable addiction to debt.

China’s opportunity is telling every part of Chinese society—citizens, business, the government—to prepare for victory by owning gold.

A lot of gold.

So much gold that the mainstream media is now catching on to what I said was happening a dozen years ago—that if you read the data that’s available, then it was clear that China was gobbling up tonnes and tonnes of gold, more gold than anyone suspected, because no one believed China was capable of that.

For years, I was the lighthouse shining a beacon on China’s hidden masses of gold.

Now… China is its own lighthouse.

If you’re wise, you’ll pay attention to China’s warning about the shoals ahead.