China is the world's leading gold-producing country, so why does it need to import gold from Canada? Is it because China sees gold as the world's once and future money?
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By Steven Chase
The Globe and Mail, Toronto
Monday, August 18, 2025
Gold bullion from Canada makes up a far greater portion of Chinese gold imports than is generally understood outside of China, according to data from the Asian country's customs agency that has drawn little notice outside of professional circles here.
The total value of these imports, according to figures from China Customs, is more than 10 times higher than Canadian export statistics suggest -- a discrepancy that hints at the full extent of the role trade between the two countries plays in the global gold market. In China's eyes, gold is its No. 1 import from Canada by value, rather than the canola and coal shipments Canada records as its top exports.
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The difference is not a result of an accounting lapse on either country’s part. Instead, it arises from a difference in perspective. Canada is unable to track where its exports end up if they change hands multiple times on their way to their ultimate buyer. But China Customs can and does require importers to track where their products originate.
This means that when Canada sells gold to bullion markets in London and New York, those exports are counted here as sales to Britain and the United States. But when China buys that same Canadian gold from those same markets, it considers the imports to be from Canada.
As a result, Statistics Canada says direct exports of unwrought gold -- such as bars or bullion -- to China and Hong Kong in 2024 amounted to $1.9 billion.
But the figures from China Customs say that China imported dramatically more from Canada: $25 billion in that same category of goods.
Although the Chinese figures are public, they are not routinely scrutinized in Canada. The Royal Canadian Mint and the Mining Association of Canada were both unable to offer insight into China’s gold import statistics.
Unlike canola or petroleum or coal, gold isn't generally consumed or destroyed. Aside from some industrial applications, the world’s mined gold supply simply increases over time. According to the World Gold Council, a global industry association, the "above ground" stock of gold was 216,265 tonnes at the end of 2024.
China, however, has started amassing significant gold holdings, and gold investors appear to be unloading their supplies of Canadian bullion in response. The country's central bank holdings of gold hit 2,292 tonnes in the first quarter of 2025, up substantially from 1,800 tonnes in the same period in 2016. ...
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