Chinese banks bid for Treasuries with dollar deposits they now pay 3% to attract

The carry does the explaining on the Chinese side, and it is not large. A 10-year at about 4.76 percent ^[8] against dollar deposits that the biggest state lenders now pay above 3 percent on for balances over $50,000 ^[9] leaves roughly 176 basis points gross ^[19], before hedging or capital charges, and the smaller and foreign banks quoting 4 percent since August ^[10] are working with about 76 ^[20]. Yields rose 30 basis points from the start of June to get there ^[8], so a move of the same size back takes most of the trade with it, and nothing has to be announced for that to happen. Paying up for deposits is the cost of entry. The cap was 2.8 percent from 2023 until June ^[9], so going above 3 surrenders about 20 basis points, which across the $1.18 trillion of foreign-currency deposits the People's Bank of China counted at the end of July would run to roughly $2.4 billion a year ^[22] if all of it repriced, and it will not (not all of that stock is dollars). Against a yuan up nearly 9 percent on the dollar this year and exporters absorbing the squeeze ^[12], $2.4 billion buys considerable restraint: 3 percent in dollars against roughly 0.95 percent on yuan deposits at the major state banks ^[11] is 205 basis points of reason not to convert ^[21]. Domestic government bonds pay very little, and regulators are wary of banks adding to a distressed home market ^[18]. The $80 billion Modern Diplomacy attaches to Norway's proposal ^[1] is about 12.6 percent of the $633.4 billion of Chinese holdings sitting with US custodians in June ^[23], which is the less useful comparison. The difference that matters is duration of intent: a benchmark weight, once cut, keeps not buying every month for as long as the mandate stands, while a spread position can be unwound in one quarter and rebuilt in the next. Foreign investors are the single largest source of Treasury financing ^[5], which is why the composition of that bid is worth the arithmetic. NBIM framed the move to the ministry as a pursuit of risk premium, casting it as unrelated to dollar flight, and argued that heavy government debt is now a general characteristic of developed economies rather than a few countries' trait ^[2]. That framing does not support reading the letter as Norway souring on US debt. It also asked for government bonds to be weighted by market value instead of GDP ^[6], a scheme that hands the heaviest issuers a larger weight than their economies would ^[24]. The reallocation goes into mortgage-backed, asset-backed and investment-grade corporate paper with more Japanese government debt ^[1], a shift in instrument that NBIM's letter frames around composition, not currency exposure. The 40 percent foreign ownership figure Brookings cites ^[17] deserves the same caution, because a ratio falls whenever outstanding debt grows faster than foreign holdings, so the drop of more than 10 points since the crisis ^[26] leaves open whether foreigners bought less, rather than settling it. Custody data is weaker still. Chinese banks book through Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands as well as the US ^[16], so the $633.4 billion low, the 13 percent annual decline ^[14] and the more than $1.27 trillion of 2013 ^[25] describe where paper is kept as much as who owns it. My read, and the flow data here does not settle it: exchanging an index-driven holder for a spread-driven one raises the price sensitivity of the marginal bid, which shows up in auction tails and in a long end that declines to follow the front end down. That read could reverse if Norway's ministry rejects or slow-walks the recommendation, leaving the indexed buyer where it is.