China shifts US bond holdings offshore, potentially beyond the reach of any future currency sanctions, report says

According to a report from Nikkei Asia, China has reduced its holdings of US government debt this year and moved some of them to offshore tax havens to be protected from future sanctions.

In July, Beijing's holdings of US Treasury bonds hit $970 billion. The overall trend has been going down since June, when it was the lowest in more than two years. China's Treasurys have fallen 9% so far this year.

China's Treasury holdings in the Cayman Islands andBermuda increased by over 40 billion dollars.

The kind of sanctions that froze Russia's foreign currency reserves could be a reason to shift them offshore.

More than $300 billion in Russian assets were frozen because of Russia's invasion ofUkraine.

According to a Chinese government source, the freeze of Russia's assets dealt a bigger blow than the removal of Moscow from the global payments system. Beijing's foreign-currency reserves are at risk if Taiwan is reunified with mainland China.

China's gold imports more than doubled in August year over year to $10.36 billion.