The U.S. Department of the Treasury recorded $590.7 billion in Treasury securities under mainland China in August 2026, an annual decline that its custody-based figures cannot establish as Chinese sales.
The balance fell from $699.7 billion in August 2025 and $618 billion in July 2026. Across all foreign holders, the Treasury total rose to $9.3317 trillion from $9.2491 trillion a year earlier.
Those country totals do not necessarily identify the investors who own the securities. Treasury collects the monthly figures primarily through custodians, which hold securities on investors’ behalf. When an investor uses a custodian abroad, Treasury may record the holding under the custodian’s country. The decline in the China-attributed balance therefore does not show how much China sold, if any, or whether securities were moved to custodians elsewhere.
In a May 2026 analysis, Brad W. Setser, a Whitney Shepardson Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said Treasury holdings recorded in the United Kingdom, France, Luxembourg and Belgium had risen since about 2020. He suggested China might be using a wider range of custodians outside the United States, but cautioned that his estimate was uncertain.
Treasury’s August table lists $490.5 billion in holdings under Belgium, up from $451.1 billion a year earlier. It lists $464.6 billion under Canada, compared with $444 billion. Neither increase identifies China as the owner of the additional securities.
Setser said the practice of using Belgium’s Treasury balance as a proxy for Chinese holdings rested heavily on patterns from 2010 to 2016. He considered that approach outdated after holdings in other European financial centers rose. His separate discussion of Canadian custody focused on U.S. agency securities, which are distinct from Treasuries.
Treasury has scheduled its next release of Treasury International Capital data, covering September 2026, for Nov. 18.
