# China's Official Treasury Holdings Hit an 18 Year Low, but Economists Say the Real Number Is Hidden in Canada and Belgium

> China's reported holdings of U.S. Treasury securities fell to $591 billion in August, the lowest in 18 years, but economists say a sharp rise in Treasury holdings routed through custodian banks in Canada and Belgium suggests Beijing is masking hundreds of billions of dollars in exposure rather than actually cutting it.

- Source: American Post News
- Canonical URL: https://americanpostnews.net/article/china-s-official-treasury-holdings-hit-an-18-year-low-but-economists-say-the-real-number-is-hidden-in-canada-and-belgium
- Author: staff
- Section: Economy
- Published: 2026-10-19T09:03:11.432Z
- Updated: 2026-10-19T09:03:11.432Z
- Tags: China, US Treasury, De-dollarization, National Debt

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On paper, China has been steadily retreating from U.S. government debt. Its reported holdings of Treasury securities have fallen from $1 trillion in April 2022 to $591 billion in August 2026, the lowest level in 18 years and down from $700 billion just a year earlier.

A number of economists say that official number does not tell the full story. Treasury holdings routed through custodian banks in Canada and Belgium have climbed sharply over the same stretch. Canada's reported holdings rose from $169 billion in August 2021 to $465 billion in August 2026, an increase of $296 billion, while Belgium's holdings rose from $228 billion to $490.5 billion over the same five years, up $262.5 billion.

Brad Setser, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former Treasury official, has pointed to the sudden jump in Canada's holdings as a sign that China is using foreign custodian banks to obscure its true exposure rather than actually divesting from U.S. debt. He estimates China's real Treasury holdings, once positions parked in Canada and other European custodians are accounted for, sit closer to 50% to 55% of its total reserve portfolio, with somewhere between $300 billion and $500 billion held through those outside custodians alone.

The shift comes as China's trade surplus with the rest of the world has ballooned, reaching a record $1.2 trillion in 2025 and already totaling $938 billion through the first nine months of 2026, leaving Beijing with a steady stream of dollars that has to be parked somewhere even as it publicly signals a move away from dollar denominated assets.

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Originally published by American Post News. Free to cite with attribution and a link to https://americanpostnews.net/article/china-s-official-treasury-holdings-hit-an-18-year-low-but-economists-say-the-real-number-is-hidden-in-canada-and-belgium.