China has become one of the world's biggest buyers of gold, adding more than 100 tons of bullion to its coffers this year amid the trade war with the United States.

According to Alasdair Macleod of Goldmoney.com, China already pretty much controls the world’s physical gold market. He suggests that much of those holdings are not declared as monetary reserves.

Macleod says if America continues its attack, China could declare the proper level of its reserves which could stand at “as much as 20,000 tons.”

“If they announce just part of that I think that the dollar would be toast.”

Beijing would rather take the financial nuclear option in the trade war, Macleod says, noting that “US is backing it into the corner on that.”

China’s exports to the US “become less and less as Beijing realizes that the only hold that America has really got on her is China’s export market in America.”

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