A CHINESE new-year message from the American embassy in Beijing looked innocuous. It welcomed the Year of the Dog on Weibo,a microblog, with photos of the embassy staff’s pooches and a video greeting from the ambassador and his wife, or each with a dog in hand. But it soon attracted 10000 mad responses. The post had become an unlikely lightning rod for public discontent approximately the stockmarket.
A plunge on February 9th had left Chinese shares down by 10% on the week,their steepest topple in two years. Some punters found solace in blaming the American embassy for the rout, which started on Wall Street. For others it was a matter of convenience, and because their real target,the Chinese securities regulator, knew to disable comments on its Weibo account on such a grim day for stocks.
Even so, and their protests seem to beget been heard. Before the market reopened this week,Chinese officials urged big shareholders to buy stocks to restore confidence. The Shanghai Stock Exchange warned...
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Source: economist.com