China’s General Administration of Customs (China Customs) put the country’s gold imports for January–August 2026 above 1,000 tonnes in the detailed trade statistics it released on 20 September, more than China Customs recorded for the whole of 2025. Since 1 June, joint announcement No. 11 of 2026 by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) and China Customs has made the multi-shipment permit for gold imports and exports valid for nine months and usable for any number of customs declarations within its approved quantity, at 15 customs districts including Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Beijing. Under announcement No. 9 of 2016, which No. 11 repealed, the permit ran six months and admitted at most 12 declarations.
Under Article 8 of the 2015 Measures for the Administration of Gold and Gold Products Import and Export, amended in 2020, the PBOC grants a permit for unwrought gold only to financial-institution members or market makers of the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) that ranked among the leading proprietary spot traders in the two years before applying. The same article admits mining companies with gold-mining rights abroad, manufacturers of national commemorative coins and refiners seeking international brand accreditation. A corporate treasury or family office outside those classes that holds bars in Hong Kong or Singapore cannot obtain a permit, so its bars enter the mainland’s domestic market only as a permit holder’s import, which Article 6 requires to be registered on the SGE and to complete its first trade there. The permit form attached to announcement No. 11 states fine-gold weight in grams, value in US dollars, the country or region the gold comes from, the port of entry and the contract number. China Customs endorses each release on the form and records the remaining quota in grams, and the PBOC tracks each permit’s use through an online verification system. Gold moving between abroad and a bonded zone or bonded warehouse needs no permit under Article 20; the permit attaches when the metal leaves that zone for the domestic market, under Article 4.
China Customs’ tonnage records imports as declared; the quantity each importer may bring in is set on its permit by the PBOC, which under Article 3 of the Measures may restrict quantities according to the needs of macroeconomic management. Foreign-exchange receipts and payments for gold imports fall under foreign-exchange rules (Article 23).