Recently, international gold prices have soared, breaking through $5,500 per ounce (one gold ounce is approximately 31 grams, and $1 is roughly 7 yuan RMB at current exchange rates), and the upward momentum shows no signs of stopping. In fact, since the full outbreak of the global economic crisis in 2019, international gold prices have been on the rise. On January 2, 2019, the London International Financial Futures Exchange closed at $1,287.08 per ounce, and by December 31 of that year, the closing price had risen to $1,525.05 per ounce, an increase of 18.41%. From 2020 to 2023, international gold prices repeatedly broke through $2,000, and in 2025, they consecutively surpassed $3,000 and $4,000, approaching $5,000 by the end of the year. In the long term, this undoubtedly indicates that the recent rise in international gold prices is not a random fluctuation but an inevitable trend with profound reasons behind it.
The main reason for the rise in gold prices is that major imperialist countries are大量收购黄金 (massively acquiring gold) in preparation for upcoming imperialist wars. During wartime, due to economic sanctions and political struggles, capitalist countries often cannot use their own currencies for international settlements and must resort to gold, the world’s currency, as the final settlement method. Additionally, during wars, capitalist countries often issue大量纸币 (large amounts of paper money) to cope with increasing military expenses, leading to inflation. When the domestic government’s issued paper currency depreciates, gold can serve as a real currency to stabilize prices and act as a store of value both domestically and internationally, while also serving as the final settlement method for domestic transactions. Because of its crucial role during wartime, the crisis is most severe. The Russian Empire, which launched侵略战争 (aggressive wars) as early as the 2010s, began大量收购黄金 (massively acquiring gold) from 2014 when it annexed Crimea. From 2014 to 2020, the Russian Central Bank purchased over 40 million ounces of gold (about 1244.1 tons). Coincidentally, the 中修社会帝国主义 (Chinese Revisionist Social Imperialism), another major war instigator, is actively expanding its military and also strives to incorporate market gold into its reserves. Since Russia’s全面入侵乌克兰 (full invasion of Ukraine) in 2022, the Chinese Revisionist traitor group, sensing the war atmosphere, has been eager to seize opportunities and provoke invasions, leading to two rounds of gold acquisitions. From November 2022 to April 2024, China’s central bank continuously increased its gold holdings for 18 months, accumulating 10.16 million ounces (about 316 tons). From November 2024 to December 2025, it added another 1.35 million ounces (about 42 tons) over 14 months. Moreover, the Chinese Revisionist social imperialists, imitating Western imperialist countries, maliciously attempt to persuade third-world countries to store gold in China’s central bank, effectively increasing China’s gold reserves. According to Bloomberg, last November, the Cambodian central bank announced plans to deposit some of its newly purchased gold into China’s central bank, and other countries have shown similar “interests.” As a result, once war breaks out, this gold, originally belonging to other countries, can be used by China’s central bank for domestic and international transactions. Besides Russia and China, many European imperialist countries also claim to repatriate their gold holdings from US or UK banks to their own central banks. This means that gold, which during peacetime was a tradable commodity stored in New York and London to avoid risks and losses from long-distance transportation, has become an important strategic reserve material during wartime.
The rise in gold prices also reflects the further decline of the US-led dollar hegemony in the international capitalist world, deepening contradictions among imperialist powers, and the increasingly divided capitalist world into two camps: the Chinese Revisionist social imperialist bloc and the US imperialist bloc. Due to the Federal Reserve’s continuous interest rate cuts, attempting to exploit dollar hegemony to plunder other countries, other imperialist nations are buying gold with their dollar holdings to avoid devaluation. This consolidates gold’s status as a global currency while weakening dollar hegemony, making the dollar more and more a hot potato rather than a safe haven for value. The struggle over monetary and financial dominance between US imperialism and other imperialist countries, especially with the Chinese Revisionist social imperialists, has elevated gold’s importance, recently surpassing the euro to become the so-called “second largest global reserve asset.” This also signifies another victory of Marxist political economy over bourgeois vulgar economics, proving that Marxist monetary theory is an unshakable truth. In the face of sharp contradictions in capitalism, the so-called quantity theory of money, nominal theory of money, and marginal utility theory, fabricated by bourgeois vulgar economists, have all collapsed in reality. Countries’ bourgeoisie have had to acknowledge that only gold, which embodies human abstract labor, is true money.
Accompanying the rise in gold prices is the increasing clamor among imperialist countries about how reserve gold can “avoid geopolitical risks,” as the “ultimate safe asset,” and as the final settlement method in commodity exchange. This indicates that, with the intensification of fundamental contradictions in capitalism caused by economic crises, the world capitalist system is declining, and the struggle for spheres of influence among imperialist countries is becoming fiercer. The current world situation is increasingly heading toward a world war. The revolutionary leader Lenin summarized the historical role of gold and its future role after World War I as follows: “Because of gold, in the ‘Great Liberation’ wars of 1914–1918… 10 million people died prematurely, 30 million were disabled; and again, because of gold, whether in 1925 or 1928, in wars between Japan and the US or between Britain and the US, or similar wars, another 20 million will die prematurely, 60 million will be disabled.” History has undoubtedly confirmed Lenin’s wise judgment. Since the emergence of private ownership and commodity economy, gold, as the embodiment of currency and the representative of the general equivalent, has possessed a special magic—used to exchange for all other commodities, attracting all private owners. Today’s capitalist world is just like a hundred years ago, on the brink of a war over gold and the human wealth it represents, which will plunge billions into abyss.
However, this does not mean that the future of the world will be dark. When the bourgeoisie of various countries spend huge sums on buying gold and expanding their military preparations for their greed, they are actually planting the seeds of their own destruction. Imperialist wars are not only conflicts among imperialist countries but also a process that awakens the working-class consciousness of the people, making them realize that the ruling classes in their own countries are opposed to their interests. Such wars will tear apart all the lies about nationalism, patriotism, and illusions of wealth spread by the bourgeoisie, leading the people to a deeper understanding that “the enemy is within our own country!” The outcome of war is not, as bourgeois pacifists threaten, “the extinction of mankind,” nor is it, as the bourgeoisie expects, their own great profits. Instead, it is the awakening and revolutionary uprising of the people. War will either cause revolution or be stopped by revolution. If imperialism dares to wage war, the world’s people will unite and drive imperialism to its doom!