China’s top securities regulator steps down

China’s beleaguered top securities regulator is stepping down, Chinese officials with direct knowledge of the matter said.

The move comes as Beijing seeks to restore confidence in its ability to manage the economy and after the China Securities Regulatory Commission received a large part of the blame for market volatility.

China’s stock market is down about 45% from its June peak and 19% so far this year.

China’s stock market has given investors whiplash since June.

Xiao, 57, took over as chairman of the CSRC in March 2013.

He was in charge of overseeing the market in the middle of previous year when the benchmark Shanghai index plummeted by nearly a third, wiping off trillions of United States dollars and jolting global markets. “Xiao Gang’s ability is poor and he is incompetent”. Liu served as the deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China from 2006 to 2016. “Why does China always let the fools make decisions?”.

Mr Xiao’s replacement, Mr Liu, has spent most of his career in banking.

The departure of Xiao Gang, a legal expert with decades of experience in the finance industry, may help assuage public anger at the dramatic boom and bust, but doesn’t address the market’s underlying problems.

In December the bank’s president resigned for “personal reasons” amid reports that he had been questioned in connection with a corruption investigation. On Monday, the market closed at 2,860. “Xiao Gang is worth no pity but he is destined to be a tragic figure caught between pro-government and pro-market factions and left to take care of a mess from an unhealthy system”, financial commentator Shi Shusi told the Associated Press.