Mainland China’s stock markets should learn from Hong Kong: central bank adviser
But local CPPCC member says Hong Kong government only broadly intervened once, in an extreme case, in 1998-99
A prominent economist and former central bank adviser has urged Beijing to “learn from Hong Kong” to rectify its financial markets to prevent them endangering people’s livelihoods and hurting prospects for a consumption based economy.
Li Daokui, now a Tsinghua University professor, urged the government to reform the stock market with the same commitment it had shown fighting “tigers and flies” in its anticorruption campaign. He was speaking at yesterday’s meeting of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).
“The volatility of China’s financial markets have become a direct threat to China’s economic development, transformation and upgrading … and China must win this tough fight to stabilise the stock and currency markets,” Li said.
“I suggest setting up specialised securities procuratorates and financial courts, to strengthen law enforcement and avoid interference from local institutions of the listed companies,” he said.
Authorities have cracked down on market wrongdoing and arrested high-ranking officials, hedge fund managers and some big retail investors, after China’s stock market benchmark surged by 130 per cent in 9 months to its peak in mid-June before crashed by more than 40 per cent in the following two months.
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After the market rout in July and August, Yao Gang, the former deputy chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), and his subordinate Zhang Yujun, the former CSRC assistant chairman, were taken away by party discipline inspectors, but the results of their investigation remains unknown.
