Amid the escalating trade tensions between the US and China, economic experts within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) system are warning that CCP’s overseas assets are facing risks. There are concerns among the Chinese elite that their assets in the US, Japan, and Europe may be confiscated by the US in the future.
According to a report by the South China Morning Post on April 11, former CCP central bank advisor Yu Yongding stated that Beijing’s overseas assets could become another battleground in the US-China trade war.
Speaking at a forum in Beijing on Wednesday (April 9), Yu Yongding expressed concerns over the unprecedented tariff hikes by US President Trump, stating that these tariffs could escalate competition between the world’s two largest economies into the financial domain.
Yu Yongding, born in 1948, previously served as the director of the Institute of World Economics and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and was a member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the People’s Bank of China.
Yu Yongding warned, “As the trade war escalates, I am deeply concerned that the conflict could expand to China’s overseas assets.”
Yu Yongding has been advocating for China to reduce its holdings of US Treasury bonds and has advised Beijing to remain vigilant against any attempts to use foreign assets against China, particularly after the incident of Russian assets being seized following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
After the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, Western countries froze approximately $300 billion of Russia’s sovereign assets. Some assets of Russian oligarchs were also successfully frozen by Western nations.
The latest statistics from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange of China show that as of the end of March, China’s foreign exchange reserves stood at $3.24 trillion, with a significant portion believed to be denominated in US dollars. As of the end of 2024, China’s total overseas assets amounted to $10.2 trillion.
Even before the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, there were reports of China making preparations to protect its overseas assets. In early May 2022, the Financial Times reported that on April 22, the CCP convened financial officials and executives of dozens of local and international banks to discuss how to safeguard China’s overseas assets, especially its $3.2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves.
According to reports from Sina Finance, as of April 2025, China holds approximately $759 billion in US Treasury bonds, a decrease of about $557.7 billion from its historical peak. In January 2025, China held $760.8 billion in US debt. It reduced holdings by $9.6 billion in December 2024, with a total reduction of $57.3 billion for the year.
On May 19, 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported that a March internal notice issued by the CCP Central Organization Department required officials at the ministerial level and above, as well as their spouses and children, not to directly or indirectly hold any overseas real estate or shares in entities registered abroad in order to be promoted. Senior officials and their immediate relatives are also not allowed to open accounts at overseas financial institutions unless there are legitimate reasons such as study or work.
However, CCP high-ranking officials and elites typically hide their overseas assets without reporting them, unless they are implicated in corruption and fall from power.
From April 8 to 9 this year, senior CCP officials held the “Central Peripheral Work Conference” in Beijing to address the US tariff war. Independent commentator Cai Shenkun described the atmosphere at the conference in his self-media program as akin to a funeral, with almost everyone wearing somber black attire mourning.
Legal scholar Yuan Hongbing, who has sources within the CCP system and currently resides in Australia, recently told the Epoch Times that under the impact of the trade war, not only is the Chinese industrial sector suffering, but there is also a sense of despair within the CCP bureaucracy. Officials within the system, including retired ones, are concerned that if the US-China trade war escalates into a military conflict, their assets in the US, Japan, and Europe will also be confiscated by the US.
Earlier, the state of Missouri in the US accused the CCP of hoarding protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic, directly impacting the state’s medical response capability. On March 7, a federal judge ruled in favor of Missouri, ordering nine Chinese entities to pay over $24 billion. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey mentioned that the first step would be to confiscate farmlands and other assets owned by Chinese entities.