Gold drifting down -- but what will the Chinese do?

`` it is again China which may provide the key to precious metals price performance.  Some of the recent gold price weakness has been due to the perception that Chinese demand is waning and while the higher prices seen in February and early March in particular do seem to have put a dampener on demand, mainstream media reports seem to suggest that Chinese demand is collapsing -- which it isn't.  The media reports largely ignore the fact that demand in February, as represented by imports through Hong Kong, was the highest ever for that month and that for the first four months of the current year China imported MORE gold through Hong Kong than during the same period last year when the annual total was comfortably a new record.''