China, wary of stock market downturn, appoints new regulatory chief
- A veteran of China’s capital markets has been named head of the country’s securities regulator
- Wu Qing, previously deputy head of Shanghai, will oversee China’s US$8 trillion stock market as Beijing attempts to prevent downturn
China has appointed capital markets veteran Wu Qing to head the nation’s securities watchdog – a move that will place the nation’s US$8 trillion stock market under his supervision as one of several measures laid down by Beijing to blunt a downturn.
Wu, who ran the Shanghai Stock Exchange between 2016 and 2017, has been appointed chairman and party chief of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC). He succeeds Yi Huiman, who had been in the position since 2019, state media Xinhua reported on Wednesday.
Before this promotion, Wu – who holds a PhD in economics – was deputy party chief of the financial centre of Shanghai. He was entrusted to run the Shanghai Stock Exchange following a 2015 meltdown in China’s capital markets.
Before his stint in Shanghai and the city’s bourse, he had worked at the CSRC for years, overseeing fund and institutional supervision as well as risk disposal for securities companies.
It’s one of the mood-boosting measures
The appointment came after the regulator announced a set of policies to prevent a stock market rout and lift investor sentiment since last week, including fresh curbs on short selling and an intervention by state investment arm Central Huijin Investment to increase stock holdings in the market.