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China "Punishes" Hundreds For "Maliciously" Manipulating The Market
The deadly chemical blast in the Chinese port of Tianjin was a preventable catastrophe in which more than 100 people lost their lives thanks in part to what looks like the political connections of the warehouse’s owners and although an upfront, transparent investigation and honest assessment of the environmental impact is likely the only way to safeguard the public and ensure it doesn’t happen again, no one believes the Chinese government has the will to conduct such an investigation.
But whatever you do, do not say any of the above if you live in China.
Similarly, China’s stock market collapse was an entirely preventable financial catastrophe caused by the unchecked accumulation of margin debt and the encouragement of speculation, and the bursting of the equity bubble which began in June has been nothing short of a debacle that’s led to international condemnation and accusations that, even in a centrally planned world, Beijing’s particular brand of intervention is so egregious as to stray outside the bounds of manipulated market decorum.
But if you live in China, don’t say that either.
Over the last two months there were signs that Beijing would soon resort to outright, sweeping censorship as it relates to both the stock market and the Tianjin blast. For instance, in July, phrases like "rescue the market" were reportedly banned and in the wake of the Tianjin disaster, hundreds of social media accounts were shut down for spreading "blast rumors."
Now, ahead of a military parade that Xi Jinping will allegedly use to show the world that the Chinese lion "has woken up" (albeit with the amusing caveat that the lion is "peaceful, pleasant and civilized"), the Politburo apparently has seen just about enough criticism for its handling of the stock market collapse and the Tianjin blasts and as WSJ reports, more than 200 people have now been "punished" for their alleged role in "mislead[ing] society and the public, generat[ing] and spread[ing] fearful sentiment, and even us[ing] the opportunity to maliciously concoct rumors to attack [the] Party and national leaders." Here’s more:
The sweep targeted people who the government said spread false Internet rumors regarding events such as the stock-market turmoil and deadly explosions earlier this month in the port city of Tianjin, the Ministry of Public Security said Sunday.
The government is facing intense public scrutiny in China over its management of the slowing economy and turbulent markets, as well as public anger over the blasts at a hazardous-chemical warehouse in Tianjin.
In its statement, the public-security ministry didn’t identify most of the 197 alleged offenders, giving only surnames for some of them. The statement quoted four people, identified only by their surnames, as expressing regret for spreading false information. It didn’t elaborate further on individual offenses and punishment, except to note that 165 online websites and accounts were shut down.
Statements described by the ministry as false included rumors that a man jumped to his death in Beijing because of the stock market slump, claims that at least 1,300 people were killed in the Tianjin blasts, and inflammatory rumors related to China’s commemorations of the 70th anniversary of victory in World War II.
Sunday’s statement came just weeks after the Cyberspace Administration of China said it shut down 18 websites permanently and suspended another 32 websites for a month for allegedly publishing unverified information or letting users spread groundless gossip related to the Aug. 12 explosions in Tianjin, which killed at least 150 people and injured more than 700.
China has also officially confirmed what multiple news outlets reported late last week. Namely that a journalist at Caixin and a prominent investment banker had been detained in connection with spreading "rumors" and "illegal trading."From WSJ again:
In the case of Mr. Wang, the Caijing reporter, Xinhua said an alleged fabrication was a July 20 report saying the China Securities Regulatory Commission was studying a withdrawal of government funds used to stabilize the domestic stock market amid a broad-based slump.
Mr. Wang told investigators he wrote the report by combining market-related information with his own “subjective assessment.” More specifically, Wang says he “obtained the information [about the possible scaling back of CSF’s plunge protection buying] through the abnormal channel of gleaning, in private, information about the market. I shouldn’t have released a report with a major negative impact on the market at such a sensitive time. I shouldn’t do that just to catch attention which has caused the country and its investors such a big loss. I regret . . . [it and am] willing to confess my crime.”
So essentially, Wang’s criminal behavior amounted to reading publicly available information in "private" (which we presume means "at his desk"), drawing conclusions, and writing a story, which is of course contrary to the tried and true method of journalism in China wherein Beijing sends journalists a dispatch telling them what to say and then journalists just regurgitate it.
As for Xu Gang, the CITIC executive, he has now apparently given a detailed account of his misdeeds, as has CSRC official Liu Shufan who apparently "told investigators that he took bribes from an executive of a listed company to help that firm pass regulatory scrutiny, engaged in insider trading and made use of forged documentation to help a lover purchase an apartment in Shanghai."
Meanwhile, China has also brought in Li Yifei, chairwoman of Man Group’s China arm. From Bloomberg:
Chinese authorities took Li Yifei, chairwoman of Man Group Plc’s China unit, into custody to assist with a police probe into market volatility, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Li assisting with the investigation doesn’t mean she is facing charges or has done anything wrong. She has led Man Group in China since November 2011, according to her profile on LinkedIn. The person asked not to be identified because the probe isn’t public.
We suspect maybe this was the mistake:
In an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Stephen Engle in November, Li said investors and regulators in China were beginning to understand hedge funds.
"The Chinese investors and regulators are beginning to understand that actually hedge fund is about hedging."
Yes, "actually hedge fund is about hedging," which, as Citadel learned earlier this month, would "actually" be fine as long as by "hedging" Li means "buying" or any other activity which leads equities higher. Always higher. Never, ever lower.
In any event, the Politburo has now abandoned all prestense of capital market liberalization and/or providing for an environment that's conducive to any semblance of freedom of speech. This is of course predictable. It's rather easy to claim that reforms are being implemented at a rapid clip both in terms of financial markets and in terms of society when everything is going well. But free markets can be painful when the invisible hand purges misallocated capital and freedom of the press can be equally painful when journalists unconstrained by censorship purge bullshit.
Of course journalists face plenty of censorship even in the US, which is supposed to be the bastion of press freedom (just ask Pedro da Costa) and capital markets are everywhere and always manipulated by central planners.
And that is perhaps the lesson Xi Jinping has yet to learn. That is, we all exist in a censorsed and manipulated world; the Politburo just hasn't figured out how to be subtle about it yet.

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WSJ reports, more than 200 people have now been "punished" for their alleged role in "mislead[ing] society and the public
I hope Citadel is on the list of those who were punished. Perhaps, their new 7 figure employee who recommended shorting the Chinese market is on the list of offenders
Chinese Officials Flipping Out Over Bernanke Advice to Hedge Fund to Sell Short China
http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2015/08/chinese-officials-flipping-...
Seems kinda like Obamacare.
manipulating = selling
They need to be rounded up and taught to think correcty.....you koow....,politically.
Welcome to Capitalism
"The Chinese investors and regulators are beginning to understand that actually hedge fund is about hedging."
Looks like disinformation to me. no sarc.
That is 200 more than the US, and we had an 7 year head start!
Regards,
Cooter
everything is backwards in China! The US awards manipulators, scams and finanical criminals
round up the usual suspects [/captain renault]
Next up, start the show trials, the Honorable Judge Kangaru presiding...
Let freedom reign... market only go up, market go down-we cut off you pipi.
and feed it to the goats.
Funniest shit I seen here in a while !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If the Trans Pacific Partnership gets passed, the United States will officially have press censorship similar to China's when reporting bad corporate news. The only difference is that the TPP will enforce censorhip through the use of heavy civil fines. Of course, there will be no change in the current American policy on reporters having information linking Obama, Bush and Clinton to FBI death squads, massive CIA drug smuggling and treason. As always, reporters and their sources with such information will be found dead from suicide, car accidents or air crashes.
That's just a small part of it, read this:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/david-cameron-extremism-sp...
That's what the data logging of 100% Internet traffic is all about. Each of the five-eyes states are going to do what Cameron is saying there, starting in the next month or so. They have been planning and putting the parts and tech in place, for years now, and finally it's ready for global prime-time operation.
In the 1990s this concept was called, "Total Information Dominance".
That's what they've built.
These types of actions by China insure that they will NEVER be the world's reserve currency
There is a fair bit of debate over whether they even WANT to have Reserve Currency status.
They don't have to be. Any nation with reserve currency, just abuses the privilege anyway. Note China's trade balance with us? and many other nations? As long as we and others are sending them our wealth, why do you think reserve currency is such a special honor?
what exactly is china's trade balance with the USA and how did you arrive at those precise and uncorrupted figures ?? hummmm??
Circling the toilet, or light at the end of tunnel?
Posted on August 30, 2015 by The Doc
http://www.silverdoctors.com/circling-the-toilet-or-light-at-the-end-of-...
.
.."I am dead serious. I am not panicking or trying to fear-monger. But I can imagine that many of you will be downright pissed at me if I had NOT warned of the possibilities, even if only one third of this comes to pass. “Why didn’t you f-ing* say something!”
I’d rather you think me crazy if, somehow, this broken system manages to survive. According to Strauss & Howe, it would be a “first” in 400 years."
.... Submitted by Dr. Jerome, TFMetals Report:
now i know why jews stay outta china..bernake has made a mistake.
"now i know why jews stay outta china"???
HSBC... CITIC...
http://endzog.wordpress.com/2013/08/07/financial-collapse-post-western-destruction-china-the-coming-jewish-superpower/
turtle your tin foil hat is too tight,.however they are a crafty bunch..who knows?
HSBC was at one time a CIA proprietary. Money laundering for Hmong opium before Afghanistan got the trade.
whatever... yeah, no jews in China... no commies there either...
https://www.corbettreport.com/china-and-the-new-world-order-video/
We're being ping-ponged :-(
Fuck! Getting Colonospocpsy on Tuesday...just took two dulcolax..per instructions...why do I have the feeling I'm going to be fucked tomorrow and raped Tuesday?
You really haven't lived until you've have your first colonoscopy. Good luck. Normally I would say "have fun" but you won't. Trust me.
Prepare for liftoff!!!!
Sounds like the same tannoy announcement we've got playing here.
Hold! Hold! Hold!
(really meaning hold untill we abandon ship)
Obama and the other Marxist jump up and down " why can't we do that "
The Tianjin blast is caused by outright corruption, just how deep the chain is.
I suppose sabotage can be called outright corruption.
And this is yet another reason why China's currency is what it is. This is why they will not get a seat in the IMF, their currency will not be of any consequence, etc etc. Sorry, Dollar, Inc and the Boys have their foot on the throat of the world.
We'll see how Russia & Iran fare at $35 oil for the next four years.
Bill Holter has a theory that China had a failure to deliver phyz gold at the same time as
the SDR rejection.Would explain a lot of whats been happening for the last three weeks.
SGE figure suggest the same.
Were those the last words of the arrested ?
they made a mistake earlier when they allowed trading on margin
Usual suspects, round them up.
If you put the Brezhnevian picture on the face of China's boss get ready for an Afghan type military diversion!
Now DAT would please the HELL out of the US MIC : If ONLY CHINA is tempted to solve its economic woes by militarist sabre rattling and an adventurous stance! We are saved! Shades of Soviet Afghan!
Well if that happens we will know ONCE again History rhymes!
There is a fine line in an autocracy between fighting endemic regional corruption and becoming irretrievably corrupt oneself; the one inevitably leads to the other if autocratic power has no checks and balances.
Now I understand why a particular Tyler or two are particularly angry at China
"Statements described by the ministry as false included rumors that a man jumped to his death in Beijing because of the stock market slump, claims that at least 1,300 people were killed in the Tianjin blasts,"
To the degree QE stimulated any economy, it was China's. If Chinese intelligence have a moment, could they pick up Bernanke too?
I am convinced the Obama administration would do the same thing if/when the US markets drop like China's.
They think they are omnipotent.
Using my communism to democracy translator:
Malicious seller = evil speculators
Not a good time to be travelling to China on a passport from Mauritius.
I get a good laugh when I hear how successful China has been embracing capitalism...same when I hear about capitalism in the USSA
claims that at least 1,300 people were killed in the Tianjin blasts,
So it was double that?
Any reports of fatal accidents with a nail gun?
There is a big disconnect between Wall Street trading and China trading. The Chinese seem to want to be in control, while saving face. The Wall Street traders also want to be in control, while ripping your face OFF.
Somehow the Wall Street traders get to the core of "trading" and the embrace of chaos, more than the Chinese.
Somehow the 5 million new Chinese "traders" who signed up in 2015 will have to learn that markets are more the wild and wicked Wall Street type, than something that can be domesticated by use of heavy handed state propaganda.
I am not sure what was the additional information in this post, but good post though. If you are in China then be careful about conducting "subjective evaluation" of market data. In fact, it can land you in different sorts of trouble in any country.
How dare you sell!!!! You should only buy! - China
"China's Ministry of Public Security says the accused are very, very sorry for their actions, in which they "misled society and the public, generated and spread fearful sentiment, and even used the opportunity to maliciously concoct rumors to attack [Communist] Party and national leaders."
Can I laugh now????
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! They actually went publicly...hahahahahaha. Hilarious.
Manipulation with Chinese characterstics is just more scary than manipulation with American characterstics.
The first words in human history spoken by Neanderthal chief with big stick: "It is all your fault the tribe is hungry." WHACK!!!
Chief then goes into private cave where lots of buffalo steaks and hides abound.
They do the same thing here... folks just get to sound off about it... doesn't really change anything... provides some comedy for the criminal thugs who have usurped power.
Oh... and we have guns...
We have guns, as the police are starting to discover. And I am by no means codoning the killing of police, or anyone else. My point is that pushing people past their limits in a nation where there are more guns than civilians carries concomitant risks...
Bernanke telling people to short China is everything you need to know. Bernanke is not stupid. This shows that he completely understands the nature of the bubbles he helps create. Don't be shocked when he makes millions by shorting the S&P at some point.
Bunch of pikers. Our Orwellian nightmare is far better than their Orwellian nightmare.
Chinese markets drop, so does the queue for kidney transplants.
Don't know if they realize it or not - China's economy was built to service America's consumers. Now that the great American buying machine is dead in the water, there is no one left to buy their products.
Oh, the Chinese workers? Well, if they paid them sufficiently, maybe. From appearances, though, they can't buy all that stuff either, and certainly not in sufficient quantity to keep the greate engine of the Chinese economy running.
What is the Chinese word for
"Crash?"
Wonder if the communist leaders jailed the farmer who said "it is easier to make money in the stock market than the hard work in farming"...he caused millions to sign up for accounts in the Chinese stock market..his guilt...false advertising...wait ...don't they do that on wall street..suck you in and then "algo" you to death...
The top leadership of the Chinese Communist Party very cleverly boosted the Chinese Stock Markets Indices and then made the markets plunge while extracting over $1 Trillion from them to fund their overseas retirement plans. Everything surrounding their Plunge Protection Team schemes are window dressing designed to disguise and obfuscate how they ripped off their people who had invested their savings and margin account loans into the Chinese Stock Markets.
They are Con Markets whether they are on Wall Street on wherever the Chinese markets are headquartered.
According to Mish (Mike Shedlock), these are the banned words:
Slump
Spike
Collapse
Panic
Overvalued
Down Big
High PE
All they're doing is destroying what little credibility they have left even in the typically clueless mainstream financial media, thereby leading to more cash outflows. China credit crisis, EM problems causing FX contagion, worldwide recession making things much worse for China, all potential triggers for equity crashes due to a glimpse of economic reality overcoming hype.