Only last May, fresh back from a trip to Washington, Premier Zhu decided to stimulate the markets. He thought that China could repeat the synergy America had achieved between rising share prices and economic growth. The People's Daily gushed about the national economy and the wisdom of share investment. Brokers were told to buy, and up went the indexes. Three months later the market recovered its senses and prices fell.
Foreign bankers have reasons to be extrafrustrated.
But foreigners are limited to trading and underwriting 'B' shares. It was invented in 1992 to attract foreign capital. It is hard to imagine how it could have done worse. Such is the scale of dissatisfaction among foreign banks, that, in the first quarter of 2000, for the first time, not a single one of them was placed among the top-10 players on China's 'B' markets. And Now the Good News Foreign bankers may well be dissatisfied, but they are all still here.