I wouldn't say China switched to "gold is power" from "production is power." It's more subtle than that, as China tends to be. China uses gold to allow CNY to buy marginal ton of commodities to avoid a CNY currency crisis. US & much of world uses USD to buy marginal ton This sets up an arb b/t USD & CNY thru commodities and b/c gold is how China is doing this, it means China is using western manipulation of gold (via unallocated paper in London) to get cheaper commodities in CNY than the west. This forces the US & west to either let gold rise (end USD reserve status as structured post-1971) or let China continue to get cheaper commodities than everyone else in the world (thru gold.) Symptoms of this: 1) Top chart below = gold/USD & gold/commodity ratios rises over time (gold was $1200 & Gold/commodity ratio was 4x when China & Russia reopened the gold window in September 2014 (SGEI + CNY oil)) 2) Bottom chart below = China gets secular deflation & lower yields while US gets inflation & higher yields - which when both US & China are overlevered, means either US does YCC (& takes the hit to the USD) or... 3) US tries to use chokepoints as @TheMichaelEvery correctly said would happen...the problem is that the longer they run without choking out China, the more they blowback on the US (see Tuesday's midterms), & the more the world learns the US cannot fight a war without China & sells bonds & buys gold & commodities, supporting the Chinese side of the above (this is now understood, & is happening.)