China has cut its US Treasury holdings to the lowest level since 2008, while simultaneously stacking gold at a pace that has now stretched into more than 17 consecutive months of buying.
By March 2026, China’s official Treasury position had dropped to around $652B, following a $41B single-month sale. That figure represents roughly half of what Beijing held at its 2013 peak of over $1.3T. A slight recovery to $659.3B by May suggests a pause rather than a reversal.
A very deliberate kind of selling
Since early 2025, China’s US debt portfolio has shrunk by approximately $109B, a drop of around 14% in just over a year. Zoom out further and the long-term trend is even starker: roughly 50% gone from the peak.
Chinese regulators have reportedly encouraged domestic banks to limit their exposure to US Treasuries, citing concentration risk.
