Guess Which Country Has Been Working Overtime Reinforcing Its Gold Holdings

Not to be outdone by their Russian neighbors, who've been boosting their gold holdings at a breakneck pace, it looks like the Chinese have really stepped up their “grab all the gold” game.

China imported 90.8 tons of gold in Nov. 2012, double the amount imported in October (47 tons), bringing its annual total (excluding December) to 720 tons of gold. Yes, 720 tons of gold.

“If last year is any indication,” writes Zero Hedge, “the December total will be roughly the same amount, and will bring the total 2012 import amount to over 800 tons, double the 392.6 tons imported in 2011.”

Courtesy ZH

If Zero Hedge is correct, and the total amount imported come in at 800 tons of gold, there’s this to consider:

… in one year China, whose official reserve holdings are still a negligible 1054 (and realistically at least double, if not triple, this number), will have imported more gold than the official holdings of Japan, last pegged at 765.2 tons (and well more than the ECB's 502.1 tons).

Here's a list of the world's gold holdings:

Courtesy ZH

While China purchased roughly $39 billion worth of gold in 2012, as the Hedge points out, it only purchased $10 billion U.S. Treasurys.

“Finally, let's not forget that recently China surpassed South Africa as the world's biggest producer of gold with annual output in the hundreds of tons,” the report concludes.

“Add the net imports number to this total (which amounted to some 281 tons in 2012 according to Bloomberg) and one can get a sense of how big China's appetite for hard assets … has become," it adds.

Whatever, China.

Our yet-to-be-minted $1 trillion-dollar coin will take on your gold holdings any day.

USA! USA! USA!

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Fueautured image courtesy China.org.cn