Alasdair Macleod: China Ends Retail Paper Gold & Opens the Floodgates
Alasdair Macleod: China Ends Retail Paper Gold & Opens the Floodgates
Mining Network: 7-23-2026
Alasdair Macleod, economist and leading voice on sound money, returns to Mining Network to break down China’s rapidly accelerating gold strategy and what it means for Western paper markets, the dollar, and global monetary order.
Earlier this month Hong Kong launched its new gold central clearing and settlement system.
This week several major Chinese banks (including ICBC) will end retail paper gold trading on the Shanghai Gold Exchange.
At the same time, Beijing is easing long-standing restrictions on gold exports between the mainland and Hong Kong.
Macleod argues these moves are not isolated — they form part of a deliberate, decades-long plan to secure the yuan against the eventual failure of the Western fiat system.
0:00 – Introduction
0:15 – Hong Kong gold settlement system & Chinese banks ending retail paper gold
2:20 – China’s long-term gold accumulation strategy
8:14 – New gold vaults, yuan convertibility & replacing Western paper markets
14:03 – China, Japan and the problem of US Treasury demand
19:37 – Commodity stockpiling and dollar dumping
21:16 – Sponsor: Copper Giant (Mocoa project)
22:50 – Timeline for the collapse of Western paper gold markets
26:45 – The history of central bank gold leasing