I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t store my gold in China.
London or New York is pretty safe, two countries with Western legal systems, but China?
That’s the same thought that the Chinese had.
I mean, that works in reverse too ... don't you think of London as having the world's biggest bullseye? But I agree that with China, once anything goes awry there in either a civil war or a Spratly war or whatever, good luck pulling out your gold or the equivalent.
ICBC is China's largest bank, (mostly) owned and certainly 100% controlled by the Chinese Gov't. They aren't looking to store your or my gold - they will store their own, and the gold of Chinese government and other Chinese state-run businesses, because they don't want to hold any more US dollars.