China’s Ministry of Finance just sold 85 billion yuan (roughly $12 billion) worth of 30-year special treasury bonds at an average yield of 2.2%. That’s the lowest level for a 30-year Chinese government bond auction since November 2025.
What Beijing is actually doing
The auction was part of China’s ultra-long special treasury bond program for 2026, which targets total issuance of 1.3 trillion yuan, or about $190 billion. That figure matches the 2025 program, suggesting Beijing is comfortable maintaining this level of long-duration borrowing.
The MOF plans to keep issuing bonds with 20, 30, and 50-year maturities through mid-October. These aren’t ordinary government bonds. They’re “special” treasury bonds, a designation China reserves for specific strategic purposes like major infrastructure spending and economic stimulus initiatives.
As of early July, China’s 30-year bond yield hovered around 2.23-2.24%, showing remarkable stability after sitting near 2.27% in mid-April. The trajectory has been consistently downward, which means investors are increasingly willing to lock up capital for three decades at returns that barely keep pace with inflation.
