China should buy strategic assets such as gold with foreign exchange reserves to avoid losses from a weakening dollar, Shao Fenggao, an official at China Construction Bank Corporation, the world's second-largest lender by market value, wrote in a commentary published  in the influential China Business News today. China's foreign-exchange reserves, the world's largest, surged by a record to a new record $2.65 trillion at the end of September.

Gold in Euros - 180 Day (Daily).

China now has some $2,400 billion in foreign exchange reserves and yet its gold holdings a percentage of reserves are one of the lowest in the world at just 1.7 percent. A Chinese Chamber of International Commerce researcher that China should "eventually boost its gold reserves to a level equal to that held by the United States" on Tuesday. China's reported gold reserves total 1054 tonnes, a fraction of the 8133 tonnes held by the US.

Chinese dominance of rare earth supplies and trade in the high-tech ores are likely to come up in US President Barack Obama's or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's upcoming meetings with Chinese leaders. President Obama and his advisers may also be concerned about the possibility that the Chinese will use their dollar reserves and increasing gold reserves as a geopolitical tool in order to further Chinese long term geopolitical and economic goals which include gradually positioning the Chinese yuan as the global reserve currency.

Iran has changed some 15 percent of its foreign-exchange reserves into gold and won't need to import the metal for the next 10 years, news agency Mehr reported Oct. 30, citing Central Bank Governor Mahmoud Bahmani.