Actually, China's gold stockpile is like it is for many others, primarily a backstop if currencies tank - especially their own.

China would have to figure out a way to wipe their massive fiat debt and stay intact. Some of that gold they have stockpiled may actually be fake. Precious metals fakery in China is rampant. Their fakery has gotten very sophisticated and difficult to detect using the usual standard detection methods.

China's meteoric rise was nothing more than smoke and mirrors built on centralized political management, not market forces. A market driven economy is what they sold to the world to bring in investment. That foreign investment that helped build that rise has been bailing and it shows. It is insane. Some estimates have their real debt at several hundred percent of GDP. I have heard figures over 300%. Most of that debt is off book and not reflected in official stats - which pretty much everyone with half a brain knows that the CCP's numbers are not reliable.

The debt is all the way down the food chain. Local governments carry possibly more than the central government. They spent trillions on political directives ordered from the top. Poorly built infrastructure that is starting to crumble built with no real purpose or return just to boost GDP numbers. Real estate is a disaster. They built an illusion that the world and Chinese citizens bought.

The CCP's desperate for liquidity to keep the illusion going. The CCP's answer, private asset confiscation. The signals coming out of Beijing are alarming and point in that direction. The CCP has already done this in their past not long after they took power. The warning signs are there that they are planning something similar. They have been blocking the exits to stop capital flight which has been off the charts. Those that can get out of the country with their money have been doing just that over the last couple of years. Now it is more difficult. They started confiscating the passports of millions. Beijing this last year has really slammed those doors shut. They can't get their hands on that money if it's overseas. They are doing things like tax audits back 25 years with lots of fines and penalties. They have been arresting bosses and owners confiscating their assets. Arrests are not difficult considering that the entire Chinese system is corrupt. The CCP is systematically destroying the geese that lay the eggs. They are taxing everything they can to squeeze out what little is left.

The country is being eaten alive by their own debt, corruption, and mismanagement. All they can do to keep their heads above water is to keep pumping more RMB into the system and continue exporting their overcapacity overseas. Several of those companies are under water and operate at a loss. They are zombie companies that Beijing orders the banks to give more bad loan money just to keep it all from collapsing. Trump stopped them from sending all that overcapacity here. He sees what they are about and what they have been trying to do - even if others don't. Other places like the EU and Canada, to name a few, are too stupid to see and are falling into the CCP trap. Exports right now are the only thing keeping that economy somewhat functional to the detriment of those that insist on entangling themselves to the Chinese dream.

So the idea that the Chinese can manage something like a precious metals backed currency to me sounds ridiculous. They are communists and function like communists. Xi himself is Mao 2.0. The CCP and the Chinese citizens connected to them are corrupt as hell. It is systemic rather than isolated. Their entire system is built on sand and will never work in the long term - at least in a way that benefits anyone other than the Communist elites. It is crumbling. They will not be able to lead anyone much less themselves. At least not for long.

But, you are right that if they were to plan something like what you suggested, the US must counter it. I would not put something like that past the CCP. But, making the attempt and actually making it work don't go together where the CCP is concerned. Trump is doing his best to insulate us from whatever insanity the CCP tries to pull.