The most powerful person in China may not be its strongman president, Xi Jinping, but rather US Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen.
In the wake of January’s turmoil on China’s equity and currency markets, Beijing’s foreign exchange reserves were plummeting at a rate of $100bn a month, with no end in sight if the Fed raised interest rates in the spring. But Ms Yellen held fire, giving Beijing time to tighten capital controls and stabilise growth as global attention shifted to Brexit and the US presidential election.
That respite is now over. With renewed prospects of a US rate rise, the renminbi is steadily losing value against the dollar while capital outflows are again accelerating.