What began at the weekend as a behind-the-scenes effort by China’s undergunned markets regulator to reassure skittish investors, has become an all-out push by the Communist party to safeguard its 25-year experiment with capital markets reform.
But many financial industry insiders and analysts say the China Securities Regulatory Commission and Xiao Gang, its chairman and a veteran banker, are on the hook if it does not succeed.
So far, CSRC’s gambit does not appear to be working. Fred Hu at Primavera Capital says: “The policy makers face a dilemma. They are trying to do everything at their disposal to stabilise the market, but it has left the impression that they have overreacted.”