If gold is 50mm a ton (wouldn't be of they had to liquidate that), rounding up, then they have at most 100 billion in Gold. Which sounds like a lot until you realize they have many trillions in USD reserves and debt.

China since 2016 has signed bilateral agreements with several oil-producing nations to receive payments in yuan backed by gold. This bypasses the need for the "petrodollar". This is the most likely reason for China's recent insatiable demand for gold.

My "naive" theory for China to do this is that it's working towards making Yuan an alternate currency for countries to peg their currencies to.

>Then why would it make sense for a country like say China to build up massive (largest ever) hoarse of good?

Why would it make sense for the people/countries that China is buying gold from to sell it, if it's "real money"?