Behind Russia's gold inflow into China, a new era of barter is unfolding

A set of data from 2025 is eye-opening: in terms of physical imports recorded by customs, Russia’s net gold imports reached 25.3 tons, an increase of up to 800% year-over-year. This set a new record in China-Russia gold trade history. A country under comprehensive sanctions, with hundreds of billions of dollars in assets frozen—why does it continue to export gold relentlessly? More deeply, what new barter model is hidden behind these gold flows?

Gold Breaking Through Sanctions Blockades via Underground Channels

The key is that while assets on paper are frozen, physical goods are still being moved out. Russia’s National Wealth Fund has about half of its assets frozen in Western financial institutions, but most of its gold reserves are stored in the Moscow Central Bank vaults and secret facilities in the Far East. These gold holdings do not rely on the SWIFT system and do not require dollar clearing. Their physical form inherently grants them “sanction-resistant properties.”

As early as after the Crimea events in 2014, Russia began strategic planning. From 2014 to 2022, Russia’s gold reserves increased by over 300%. Simultaneously, it established the domestic financial messaging system SPFS to replace SWIFT and promoted integration with China’s CIPS system, enabling direct settlement between the renminbi and gold. By 2022, when sanctions were fully implemented, these preparations were already in place.

China maintained a clear stance as a “neutral trading partner” throughout this process, neither participating in sanctions against Russia nor interfering with “normal economic and trade cooperation.” As long as transactions comply with Chinese customs and anti-money laundering regulations, importing Russian gold is legally feasible.

The Birth of a New Trade Closure Loop: An Upgraded Barter System

What does Russia exchange for the gold it imports? On the surface, it appears to be renminbi, but essentially it’s about securing the right to survive. Western technological blockades have left Russia facing shortages of “chips and machines”—high-end chips are unavailable, precision machine tools cannot be purchased, auto parts are scarce, and medical equipment is embargoed. These are strategic materials Russia cannot produce on its own.

With the dollar unusable and the euro under surveillance, what is the solution? Exchange gold for renminbi, then use the renminbi for large-scale procurement. Data shows Russia is importing a large volume of civilian industrial equipment through Chinese channels—especially auto bearings, precision machine tools, semiconductor raw materials, and other items listed as “bottleneck” materials under Western sanctions.

Thus, a new trade closure loop has been formed: Russia’s gold and oil are exchanged for renminbi, which are then used to buy industrial products. This is a modern upgrade of barter trade. No US dollar involvement, no SWIFT intermediary, and no US financial regulation interference—trade continues smoothly. The most powerful aspect of this loop is its replicability—other sanctioned or de-dollarizing countries can adopt this model.

The Global Central Bank Buying Frenzy: A True Reflection of De-dollarization

Looking beyond, you’ll see that China-Russia gold trade is just the tip of the “Great Gold Migration” worldwide. In 2025, Poland increased its gold holdings by 102 tons, becoming the world’s largest gold buyer for two consecutive years; Turkey and Kazakhstan added 27 and 57 tons respectively, setting new records. European central banks like Germany and Italy are promoting “local storage” of gold, with approximately 59% of central banks now holding their gold reserves domestically.

By the end of 2025, the global average growth rate of central bank gold reserves reached 8.3%. The deeper implication of these figures is that the total value of gold held by central banks outside the US has reached $3.92 trillion—surpassing the scale of their US debt holdings for the first time in 30 years since 1996.

What does this mean? The world’s confidence in the US dollar’s credit is gradually being eroded by gold. The trend of de-dollarization worldwide has evolved from a spark into an irreversible tide.

The New Order’s Core: The Formation of a Resource-Gold-Manufacturing Triangle

Over the past decades, the global economic cycle has been centered around the “oil-dollar” system. Now, this system is being reshaped, with a new “resource-gold-manufacturing” triangle taking shape. In this new global trade paradigm, gold has returned to the core of value storage and transaction medium, with China positioned at the center of this triangle.

The inflow of Russian gold into China, on the surface, reflects bilateral trade; but at a deeper level, it signals a profound adjustment in the global economic order. The oldest form of trade—barter—is gaining new life in the context of globalization, becoming a new option to circumvent a single-currency system and achieve mutual benefit.