Some China economy watchers around 2010 began quipping about the “Wen Jiabao put option”, a reference to how China and its then-premier had replaced the “Greenspan put”, named after the former US Federal Reserve chair, as the ultimate guarantor against market turmoil by enacting forceful stimulus at the first whiff of trouble.
Today, many investors are waiting for China to return to this familiar playbook and launch a fresh round of state-led investment in factories, railways, and ghost cities — providing a jolt of demand to the global economy after US stocks suffered their worst month since the financial crisis.
But Beijing shows no intention of riding to the rescue of global markets.