The crisis that erupted on China’s stock markets over the past month destroyed $3tn in market capitalisation before an unprecedented rescue programme appeared to calm investor nerves on July 9 and 10.
But regardless of whether the Chinese government’s “unconventional measures” succeed or fail, they now threaten to derail the renminbi’s slow but steady transformation into a freely tradeable international reserve currency.
In the two years since President Xi Jinping assumed power, liberalisation of China’s once hermetically sealed capital account has made real progress. Indeed, it is arguably the only plank in Mr Xi’s bold reform programme that the government can claim to have held solid.