For you stock-market buffs, here's a blast from the past: “Plunge Protection Team.”

You remember those guys? That's the catchy nickname for a presidential group of officially sanctioned market manipulators who sprung out of Wall Street's 1987 crash, and who have been pulling strings and pushing levers behind the scenes ever since to keep the markets from collapsing.

Well, I'm not sure how to say “plunge protection team” in Chinese, but last week's news makes it clear China has one.

China released its latest data on the amount of gold its central bank is holding. The number was a shocking lie. And what seems clear in this lie is that China only released the data for one reason: to stanch the bloodshed in its stock market.

I will tell you right now that if there's one investment you make this year, it should be gold.

Physical gold. At just over $1,100 per ounce as I write this, gold prices are at the lowest levels since 2010.

The latest move down stems from China's Big Golden Lie. The country announced last Friday that its official gold holdings now stand at 1,658 tons. That's just 600 tons more than the country supposedly owned in 2009. It's a lie as big as the country itself.

China now mines more gold than any other country. It has mined more than 2,000 tons of gold since 2009. Much — if not all — of that gold ends up in the People's Bank of China.

And depending on the month, the country is also the No. 1 or No. 2 gold importer. It has imported well over 3,300 tons of gold through Hong Kong. China has also imported nearly 700 tons from Switzerland since January 2012.

And yet the country's official gold holdings increase by just 600 tons? The math seems askew…

And Then There's This Little Tidbit

Just last month, at the London Bullion Market Forum 2014, the chairman and secretary-general of the China Gold Association announced what should have been shocking news. It proves everything I've been saying for last few years about the massive size of China's gold hoard.