no_bear.....I was thinking the same re. the Chinese figure. I have a hunch that, with all the reserves of US dollars that they have, and that the've been wanting to unload them (common knowledge?), that they would be buying gold like crazy. They had even encouraged the buying of gold by their citizens, illlegal until just recently.

When they recently acknowleged the amount of gold that they had, I remember that it was news, as they had never done that before. That very well have been them declaring the gold they had had previously, so they could start to declare small changes, so people would believe them, while secetively buying much much more.

It just wouldn't make sense that they would sit on US dollars while it goes down, and gold goes up. If it's one thing we know about the Chinese, it's that they are very savey, and that they are positioning themselves to be a MAJOR player in the new Global monetary reserve.

IMO anyway.

P