Finance & economics | Fanning the flames

China’s stockmarket nightmare is nowhere near over

The situation ought to worry Xi Jinping

Illustration of a paper fan that continues round into a downward arrow
Illustration: Álvaro Bernis
|Shanghai

Running China’s securities watchdog is a perilous job. A market rout can end your career, or worse. On February 7th, after weeks of stockmarket instability, Yi Huiman, the head of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), was suddenly fired and replaced. He is not the first official to fall after a period of plummeting stock prices. Liu Shiyu, his predecessor, was sacked in 2019, and later investigated for corruption. Xiao Gang, the boss before that, was treated as a scapegoat for the market crash in 2015.

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This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Fanning the flames”

Who is in control? Xi v the markets

From the February 10th 2024 edition

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