Year after year of strong and steady growth has imbued China’s rulers with an aura of omnipotence. But maintaining such an aura comes at a cost. Three weeks after China intervened to stem a stock market slide, share prices have tumbled again, with the Shanghai Composite recording its worst day in eight years. Beijing now faces an unenviable choice: to sink even more into propping up the market, or let slip its mask of invulnerability.

This is a dilemma they should never have needed to face. China’s rulers had more than enough on their plate without responsibility for how the stock market performs. Its economy is midway through a transition from over-reliance on debt and property investment. Services industries and household spending need to carry more of the burden of driving demand.

It is possible to make a case for how surging equity prices play a part in this economic plan. State-owned enterprises need more equity and less debt, which a richly valued stock market can help them to raise. Those households lucky enough to own shares gain a boost to their wealth, which encourages them to spend. A share price boom can even advertise the “decisive role for the market”, the phrase President Xi Jinping used to signal the overdue transition from state-mandated prices.