Or is China just manipulating precious metal markets to buy additional inventory?
The current real estate/mortgage/credit bust is a deflationary cycle that will last for years, and, is a major negative for gold.
Any gold manipulation is short term in nature and doesn’t alter the big picture cycles in a meaningful way. Gold has risen about 2% in 16 months, from May 11, 2006 until Friday 9-21-07. That’s NOT a bull market move.