If there were ever a sign that something is amiss, this may very well be it.

United Nations agricultural experts are reporting confusion, after figures show that China imported 2.6 million tons of rice in 2012, substantially more than a four-fold increase over the 575,000 tons imported in 2011.

The confusion stems from the fact that there is no obvious reason for vastly increased imports, since there has been no rice shortage in China. The speculation is that Chinese importers are taking advantage of low international prices, but all that means is that China’s own vast supplies of domestically grown rice are being stockpiled.

Why would China suddenly be stockpiling millions of tons of rice for no apparent reason? 

Perhaps it’s related to China’s aggressive military buildup and war preparations in the Pacific and in central Asia.

If a 400% year-over-year increase in rice stockpiles isn’t enough to convince you the Chinese are preparing for a significant near-term event, consider that in Australia the country’s two major baby formula distributors have reported they are unable to keep up with demand for their dry milk formula products. Grocery stores throughout the country have been left empty of the essential infant staple as a result of bulk exports by the Chinese.

A surge in sales of one of Australia’s most popular brands of infant formula has led to an unusual sight for this wealthy nation: barren shelves in the baby aisle and even rationing of baby food in some leading retail outlets.

We’d be more apt to believe the Chinese were panic-buying baby formula had the Chinese milk scandal occurred recently. The problem is that it happened four years ago. Are we to believe the Chinese are just now realizing their baby food may be tainted?

In addition to the apparent build-up in food stocks, the Chinese are further diversifying their cash assets (denominated in US Dollars) into physical goods. In fact, in just a single month in 2012, the Chinese imported and stockpiled more gold than the entirety of the gold stored in the vaults of the European Central Bank (and did we mention they did this in one month?).

Their precious metals stockpiles have grown so quickly in recent years that Chinese official holdings remain a complete mystery to Western governments and it’s rumored that the People’s Republic may now be the second largest gold hoarding nation in the world, behind the United States.

We won’t know for sure until the official disclosure which will come when China is ready and not a moment earlier, but at the current run-rate of accumulation which is just shy of 1,000 tons per year, it is certainly within the realm of possibilities that China is now the second largest holder of gold in the world, surpassing Germany’s 3,395 tons and second only to the US.

But the Chinese aren’t just buying precious metals. They’re rapidly acquiring industrial metals as well.

Spot iron prices are up to an almost 15-month high at $153.90 per tonne. The rally in prices, which started in December 2012, is mainly due to China’s rebuilding of its stockpiles as the Asian giant gears to boost its economy, which in turn, could improve steel demand.

The official explanation, that China is preparing stockpiles in anticipation of an economic recovery, is quite amusing considering that just 8 months ago Reuters reported that China had an oversupply, so much so that their storage facilities had run out of room to store all the inventory!

When metals warehouses in top consumer China are so full that workers start stockpiling iron ore in granaries and copper in car parks, you know the global economy could be in trouble.

At Qingdao Port, home to one of China’s largest iron ore terminals, hundreds of mounds of iron ore, each as tall as a three-storey building, spill over into an area signposted “grains storage” and almost to the street.

Further south, some bonded warehouses in Shanghai are using carparks to store swollen copper stockpiles – another unusual phenomenon that bodes ill for global metal prices and raises questions about China’s ability to sustain its economic growth as the rest of the world falters.

Now, why would China be stockpiling even more iron (and setting 15 month price highs in the process) if they had massive amounts of excess inventory just last year?

Something tells us this has nothing to do with an economic recovery, or even economic theory in terms of popular mainstream analysis.

Why does China need four times as  much rice year-over-year? Why purchase more iron when you already have a huge surplus? Why buy gold when, as Federal Reserve Chairmen Ben Bernanke suggests, it is not real money? Why build massive cities capable of housing a million or more people, and then keep them empty?

It doesn’t add up. None of it makes any sense.

Unless the Chinese know something we haven’t been made privy to.

Is it possible, in a world where hundreds of trillions of dollars are owed, where the United States indirectly controls most of the globe’s oil reserves, and where super powers have built tens of thousands of nuclear weapons and spent hundreds of billions on weapons of war (real ones, not those pesky semi-automatic assault rifles), that the Chinese expect things to take a turn for the worse in the near future?

The Chinese are buying physical assets – and not just representations of those assets in the form of paper receipts – but the actual physical commodities. And they are storing them in-country. Perhaps they’ve determined that U.S. and European debt are a losing proposition and it’s only a matter of time before the financial, economic and monetary systems of the West undergo a complete collapse.

At best, what these signs indicate is that the People’s Republic of China is expecting the value of currencies ( they have trillions in Western currency reserves) will deteriorate with respect to physical commodities. They are stocking up ahead of the carnage and buying what they can before their savings are hyper-inflated away.

At worst, they may very well be getting ready for what geopolitical analyst Joel Skousen warned of in his documentary Strategic Relocation, where he argued that some time in the next decade the Chinese and Russians may team up against the United States in a thermo-nuclear showdown.

Hard to believe? Maybe.

But consider that China is taking measures now, in addition to their stockpiling, that suggest we are already in the opening salvos of World War III. They have already taken steps to map our entire national grid – that includes water, power, refining, commerce and transportation infrastructure. They’re directly involved in hacking government and commercial networks and are responsible for what has been called the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of the world. Militarily, the PRC has been developing technology like EMP weapons systems, capable of disabling our military fleets and the electrical infrastructure of the country as a whole, and has been caught red-handed manufacturing fake computer chips used in U.S. Navy weapons systems.

If you still doubt China’s intentions and expectations, look to other governments, including our own, for signs that someone, somewhere is planning for horrific worst-case scenarios:

• The Russians have scheduled 5,000 underground bunkers for completion this year.
• Europe rapidly designed, built and stocked the so-called Doomsday Seed Vault in Svalbard, Norway, which contains tens of thousands of varieties of seeds and is supposed to preserve them in the event of Armageddon style events like asteroid impacts or nuclear war.
• The United States government has been stockpiling tens of millions of emergency meals and other supplies and regionalizing their emergency distribution centers across the country (curiously, those supplies never made it to Hurricane Sandy victims)
• The government has purchased nearly 2 billion rounds of ammunition in the last few years.
• The Pentagon has been Actively War Gaming ‘Large Scale Economic Breakdown’ and ‘Civil Unrest’
• China recently made a call, through their Xinhua news agency, for the complete disarmament of the American population (Behind every blade of grass…)

Perhaps there’s a reason why former Congressman Roscoe Bartlett has warned, “those who can, should move their families out of the city.”

As Kyle Bass noted in a recent speech, “it’s just a question of when will this unravel and how will it unravel.”

Given how similar events have played out in history, we think you know how this ends.

It ends through war.

Governments around the world are stockpiling food, supplies, precious metals and arms, suggesting that there is foreknowledge of an impending event.

Should we be doing the same?

SHTFPlan.com

15 Comments on "China Is Massively Boosting Stockpiles of Rice, Iron Ore, Precious Metals, Dry Milk"

BillT on Fri, 11th Jan 2013 3:15 am 



Well, this is not news to those who are paying attention to world events. China is doing this to prepare for the collapse and to get rid of their Charmin dollars in trade for things of real value. ditto other countries that are smart. The Us cannot do this as they have to borrow from China and China has shut the door on the beggar country.

I would suggest that anyone with the means do the same. Prepare for the collapse of the whole global system and the hard times ahead. The Mormon Church has been urging their members to have at least one years supply of everything they need, including cash. That is something everyone used to do as a normal thing. It is still a great idea.

LT on Fri, 11th Jan 2013 3:47 am 



I am not surprised of this at all!

1. What is china’s goal?

Of course, china’s dream is to be the #1 super power, meaning surpassing the present super power which is the US.

But they do know this is too much of a dream, meaning beyond their reach in a few decades.

So, they turn to more “realistic”, more “achievable” goal (china leaders think) is: Be STRONG both in economic and military THAT the US will feel discouraged to stay and GIVE UP her presence and influence in Asia and in the Western Pacific region stretching from arctic ocean all the way down to Antarctica continent.

In other word, China’s main goal is to kick the US out of Asia continent. That is China’s MAIN goal in this and the next century.

That’s why china is gradually grasping Vietnam, Lao, and Cambodia to have full control of south china sea. Then Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh.

They know the US has superior weapons than their own. Therefore, their military planners resort to the old tactics that we saw in the Korean war and Vietnam war: Huge Quantity against (enemy’s weapons) quality (Massive artillery bombardment to support massive human wave attacks in almost every battles.)

Huge Quantity means massive human wave attack together with massive artillery, missiles, air bombings. The goal is to exhaust her enemy’s ammunition/resource so that her enemy will give up the fight or surrender.

To achieve that main goal, what china has been doing is to stockpile as much as she can on everything, especially important stuffs such as long and short ranges nuclear and none nuclear missiles, fighter/bomber jests, petroleum, metal ores, grains, dried foods, etc…

The bottom line is: communist china’s mentality is: they will readily sacrifice even 1 billion people and 9/10 of their territory to wipe the US and India off the map, if they see a chance. All they care is the survival of the Chinese communist party, nothing else. Chinese blood is cheap to them. Let alone people in neighboring nations.

GregT on Fri, 11th Jan 2013 4:01 am 



LT,

“What is China’s goal”

Please see what BillT wrote above. Nothing new here, this has been all over the news media for a couple of years now. Oh, and in case you haven’t been paying attention, the next century is not looking too good for the human race any more.

GregT on Fri, 11th Jan 2013 4:23 am 



And one more thing, China is not an empirical nation. They have sat back and watched for over 400 years while the western powers have repeatedly waged war on other sovereign nations.

LT on Fri, 11th Jan 2013 5:01 am 



Mr.GregT,

What Mr.BillT said is NOT china’s goal. China just take the advantage of the moment that EU and US are in hard-times to
carry out their long term plan. Another word, the current moment is a good opportunity to fool the world into thinking that china goes out and buy all this because they fear the dollar will crash very soon.

But for me, I personally do not think that the US will collapse that easy. I personally think if the US dollar ever collapse, it is NOT because of its fate, but rather it is because of men’s intention. In other words, it is a planned event to scrap the old system and install a new one. I don’t know if the new system will be better or worse.

Global warming, peak oil, pollution, dollars crash, etc…whatever is going to happen, china’s leaders are only interested in their own survival at the expense of the rest of others, and make plans to suite this mentality.

Remember: Currency is just a mean for trading. It is not a disease that can kill million people over night. The US went through 1929-1930 financial collapse before. She had experience and know how to deal with it. I am not worry if the dollar collapse tomorrow. Actually I like to see this event happen so that I can see how china react to it.
It would be once in a life time experience to learn.

BillT on Fri, 11th Jan 2013 7:08 am 



LT, you must hate China. Your mind seems so twisted that you see only what you want to see.

And yes, a currency collapse in today’s world CAN kill a billion people in a very short time if it cuts off food and energy trade for any length of time.

China, in her 5,000 years has not expanded out of her central territory. China does not want to dominate anyone but China. Certainly not today when they are trying to keep it going as a country. But China will defend China and that is what I see happening. Defensive preparations, not offensive.

ohanian on Fri, 11th Jan 2013 8:40 am 



At best, what these signs indicate is that the People’s Republic of China is expecting the value of currencies ( they have trillions in Western currency reserves) will deteriorate with respect to physical commodities. They are stocking up ahead of the carnage and buying what they can before their savings are hyper-inflated away.

It’s all a game of musical chairs.

When the music stops, you better hope that you are sitting on a big pile of iron ore and other physicals goods that are valuable.

Arthur on Fri, 11th Jan 2013 8:59 am 



China is busy exchanging its surplus dollar currency reserves for commodities: food, gold, oil and other raw materials. Nothing sinister about this move, not a sign of immanent war.

LT on Fri, 11th Jan 2013 9:34 am 



Who hate who? Whose mind get twisted? Let look at evidence/facts:

Let’s look at Asia map: Where is Tibet today? Tibet is not China. But china’s communists claim that it belong to china.

Lets look at the so called “Inner Mongolia” region. Inner Mongolia and outer Mongolia used to be in one nation. Since 1949, communist china claims that it is hers contradicting with China history that says that the great wall is the border between China and Mongolia.

Lets look at the so called “xinjiang” autonomous region. It used to be East Turkestan. How come china claim it is also hers?

Let look at Scarborough islands, it is only 200km from Phillipine main shoreline, and has been a part of the Phillippine since antiquity. Now, in the past few years, all of a sudden, communist china claim that it is hers, too.

Now look at the Paracel Islands and the Spratley Islands, these territories have been under Vietnam controls since 17th century. When the French took control of
vietnam in the 19th century, the French knew clearly what belonged to Vietnam and what not belong to China. When the French left in 1954, the American came in until 1973. During this time, the US Navy were in the South china sea many times, if not always. The US Navy must know which region of the sea belongs to Vietnam (both North and South Vietnam) and which region belong to communist China. Then, all of a sudden, when American troop pulled out of VN in 1973, Communist china attacked and invaded the Paracel Island of South Vietnam.

And in the past few years, communist china drew a new map indicating almost entire south china sea as its territory.

But when neighboring countries asked china to go to the United Nation to resolve it, she refused, insisting to deal with each neighboring country separately.

Now, let looks at Senkaku Islands. It has been Japan’s territory. And even when Mao Zedong was still alive, no one mentioned of it. Now, all of a sudden, communist china claims that it is hers.

So, who should hate who? Whose mind get twisted in all cases mentioned above?

Ask the Filipinos, ask the Japanese, ask the Tibetan, ask the Indian in India, ask the people in Xinjiang (east Turkestan), ask the Mongolian people, ask the Vietnamese people, ask the Malaysia people…to find out who get really twisted in all these case?

Readers should ask around to see if communist china is really nice or really nasty.

Lies are not nice, right!

Captain Nemo on Fri, 11th Jan 2013 2:34 pm 



LT: The new map you refer to “communist china drew a new map indicating almost entire south china sea as its territory” is called the 9 dotted line. I’ve read China has gone so far as to print an image of it on their passports. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/9695732/Chinas-neighbours-protest-its-passport-map-grab.html

Should we be glad it’s no longer called the 11 dotted line? Forget cash I’m stocking up on toilet paper.

BillT on Fri, 11th Jan 2013 2:37 pm 



Wow! And I guess you think that the US is a nice country full of democracy and good intentions for the world. BS! The US is the world’s largest terrorist organization bar none. China is a little player on the sidelines, getting ready for the big collapse coming to the whole world soon. Tibet is between China and India. So? Mongolia is also between Russia and China. So? Who has over 1,000 military bases around the world in over 100 countries? China? No. The Empire.

I live in the Philippines. I know what they think as I read it in the papers every day. And I also know that there will be some agreement worked out eventually. The Philippines does not have the money to develop the oil and natural gas off shore. China is just making sure that the area is contested so a Us corporation does not feel secure investing there. It’s only good business. As for Japan and the contest there. Again, it keeps other from trying to develop it first.

Asia will be controlled by the largest, strongest country in the region and that is China. If the other countries don’t like it. Too bad. They can be exploited by American Corporations or Chinese Corporations. But they will be exploited as no country in the area can stand up to China alone and the US is not able to do anything about it except make false threats it cannot back up.

The Western world is playing checkers while China is playing chess. It always has. And it always will. A country does not survive thousands of years by being stupid.

Arthur on Fri, 11th Jan 2013 4:47 pm 



We are living in a world where one entity eats another: China eats Tibet, US and USSR eat Europe in 1945, General Motors eats Opel and you will eat your chicken tonight. Every little fish dreams about ruling the world until he is reminded the hard way about his limits when situated in the stomach of a bigger fish. It is called darwinism.

The interesting question will be: how big is the hunger of China? Answer: it depends. I do not think they have plans to rule the world, there is only one group who dreams of that and they live in Washington and NYC. That does not mean that China at some point can not become dangerous, with Australia and Russia being the prime candidates of being eaten. Cause for possible adventurism could be the same as that of the Japanese in 1941: resource scarcity and resulting desperation. In 1941 the US had an economy ten times that of Japan, so attacking the US, or rather its fleet (a significant distinction) was an act of desperation and the only way for the Japanese to circumvent a Washington imposed oilembargo and get its oil in the Dutch East-Indies. When the Chinese population and its needs becomes a greater threat to continued rule of the Chinese elite than the outside world, the Chinese will act and get their resources elsewhere, with Australia (no nukes and small population) as a first choice.

Jack on Fri, 11th Jan 2013 5:15 pm 



The japanese Navy will CRUSH them…

LT on Fri, 11th Jan 2013 9:46 pm 



Although the US is not a paradise nor a perfect contry, it is still many, many times better than communist countries such as communist china, communist vietnam, communist north korea. It is even a lot better than Mexico, her south neighbor. Hundreds of people try to cross the US-Mexico border to enter the US illegally everyday. Why is that?

Except for scandinavian countries and germany, who else can deny a life, a citizenship in the US, especially if he/she is just a blue collar worker? Even the rich chineses from communist china have been trying very hard to run away from their own homeland, and to find a shelter in the US, canada, australia nowaday. This is a fact. Why is that?

There are many refugees who have fled their communist countries and now living in the US. One just ask them to find out how life was/is under communism, and ask them how life is in America. They will tell you. There is no point to pretend.

If the US is so “bad”, then how come Cubans in cuba still dare to risk their lives trying to get to Florida’s shore?

In short, I believe readers of this website are smart enough to recognize who is bullying who, what make more sense than what.

He who lost temper lost the debate.

LT on Fri, 11th Jan 2013 11:57 pm 



Mr. Captain Nemo:

Thank you for reminding me of that article. I heard that India, Vietnam, Philippines border/port officials did not put their stamps on those Chinese passports. Instead, they stamped on a separate pieces of paper as a temporary permits for entry.