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Is 'disappearance' of top female hedge fund manager another sign Beijing is tightening its grip on volatile market?

Speculation rife as top businesswoman Li Yifei attends 'special meeting on recent events

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Li Yifei, country chairwoman of Man Group. Photo: Imaginechina

Beijing has tightened its grip on a financial market plagued by irregularities and left reeling from turbulence.

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The latest effort involves the famous Chinese hedge fund manager Li Yifei, whose disappearance from public view in the past two days has prompted much speculation. Li is the chairwoman of the China unit of the Man Group, one of the world's largest hedge funds.

Bloomberg on Monday quoted a source as saying Li had been taken into custody by police to assist a probe into market volatility and her mobile phone had been switched off.

Read more: Nearly 200 people punished in China for 'spreading online rumours' including inflating Tianjin disaster death toll

Li's husband, businessman Wang Chaoyong, denied the report. But he admitted his wife had been called to a special meeting with "relevant industry authorities" because of "the recent market volatility", mainland website Thepaper.cn reported.
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"Foreign funds need to give information [to the authorities]. Because of the sensitivity of the meeting, all the participants must turn off their mobile phones and are not to contact the outside [without permission]," he told the website. The same day, Wang told another mainland news outlet, Caixin, that Li was at "a meeting in London".

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