The longer term plan here might be drive up prices, the west responds by building their own processing infrastructure (which is the missing bit, where China has the monopoly), lots of investment there, then China can use their stockpile to crash the market, ruining the investment, and really messing with things. But also, check this out, the west totally pulls the same stuff, on itself: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43931226/ns/business-us_business/t/goldmans-new-money-machine-warehouses/#.Tp9ZrXLwAY5