China's holdings of US Treasuries surge

Last week, Xi sought to reassure an audience at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference that China will grow far into the future, despite recent economic turbulence. He said the Chinese market has been supported by the country's modernization in agriculture and its rapid pace of industrialization and urbanization. "China's economy will go upward instead of downward for a long time," Xi said.

China's economy has grown by double digits over the past three decades, but GDP growth cooled last year to hit a 13-year low of 7.8 percent. Xi said China needs to improve the quality and efficiency of its economy as well as focus on developing its green and low-carbon industries to achieve economic sustainability.

The international capital report also comes on the heels of a report on Friday in which the US Treasury criticized China for resuming large-scale currency intervention to suppress the value of the yuan. The Treasury declined to name China a currency manipulator, a sensitive issue in diplomatic relations, in its semi-annual report on global exchange rates.

In the international capital report, the Treasury said the sum total in February of all net foreign acquisitions of long-term securities, short-term US securities and banking flows was a monthly net inflow of $53.6 billion. Of this, net foreign private inflows were $44.4 billion, and net foreign official inflows were $9.2 billion.

Foreign residents increased their holdings of long-term US securities during the month, making net purchases of $7.6 billion. Net purchases by private foreign investors were $9.1 billion, and net purchases by foreign official institutions were negative $1.5 billion. At the same time, US residents increased their holdings of long-term foreign securities, with net purchases of $25.4 billion.

Foreign residents increased their holdings of US Treasury bills by $14.0 billion.