Hundreds arrested as Beijing launches stock market crackdown

CNN Money ^ | 31 Aug 15 | CNN staff

[SkyPilot]

Chinese authorities have arrested nearly 200 people for alleged online rumor-mongering about China's stock market turmoil and a recent, deadly chemical factory explosion in Tianjin.

Among the arrested is Wang Xiaolu, a journalist for financial publication Caijing Magazine, "who has been placed under 'criminal compulsory measures' for suspected violations of colluding with others and fabricating and spreading fake information on securities and futures market," according to Chinese state media.

Government officials have also been placed under arrest, including Liu Shufan, an official with the China Securities Regulatory Commission, who has been accused of bribery, fraud and completing under-the-table deals. At least four senior executives from Citic Securities, a top Chinese investment bank, were arrested on insider trading charges.

Roughly 165 online accounts have been shut down over related violations, according to state media.

Wang, Liu and the Citic executives have confessed to the accusations, according to state media. Suspects are sometimes coerced or forced into signing confessions in China.

[SkyPilot]

I am sure that when news of the tyrannical Chinese thugs "cracking down" on all these Thought Criminals reaches Wall Street, our own Central Bank Teat Suckers will have another incredible "Rally!"

We have been artifically manipulating our markets for years, with QE pumping of fake money and incredibly low interest rates. The markets have reacted with "growth" n the face of bald faced lies about unemployment, manufactuing, imports, exports, and inventory.

They can keep up the charade only so long.......and when this finally does burst, there will be blood on the walls.

[Gen.Blather]

This is essentially the same as Obama arresting somebody for posting a YouTube video about Muhammed. The idea is to stop anybody else from doing the politically incorrect thing; discussion, reporting, etic.

[eartick]

Suspects are sometimes coerced or forced into signing confessions in China.

---

Did not know that and probably would never happen here /s

[nathanbedford]

If the ruling junta has shifted from stimulus to repression it means they are running out of the wherewithal with which to stimulate. That seems unlikely if as the report states they have only put in $200 billion, but assuming it is true, it means that there is real desperation motivating the elite.

The whole idea in a top-down run country in sustaining the stock market is to keep the contagion from spreading throughout the whole country but I think the problem is that the stock market is merely reflecting what is going on throughout the whole country. In other words, throughout the country the corruption, fraud and cronyism is so ubiquitous that it is finally bringing down the system.

If both these headlines in combination are true (no more market support, crackdown on pessimists) they imply that the repression top-down will have to be ubiquitous and terrible or there will be a real upheaval.

[TigerLikesRooster]

From their point of view, it is cheaper to arrest hundreds of 'criminals' than to pour in billions of dollars to the stock market in a futile exercise to prop up the market.

Now we are in thought control mode: "Everybody, calm down. The market is fine. Don't panic, and everything will be alright." This talking point will be repeated ad nauseam from state media, with an added last clause, "No badmouthing, or we will get you."

[Old Sarge]

The title says it all...

[Oldeconomybuyer]

This find of fascist dictatorship gives Marxists like Obama wet dreams.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

The government here needs to track down some individuals gaming the markets here.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

In other words, throughout the country the corruption, fraud and cronyism is so ubiquitous that it is finally bringing down the system.

Exactly. However, many simply do not want to read/hear what should happen to those involved in that.

[demshateGod]

You’re talking about China?

[demshateGod]

[nathanbedford]

What should happen to them?

Is the morality really all that clear? If the government is an institutionalized mafia, is it immoral to fail to pay that government protection money which of course is labeled "taxes?" If cronyism is the method of apportioning opportunity by the elite in power, is cronyism in the provinces immoral or merely self-defense? If shortages are caused, for example in Venezuela, by the corruption and incompetence of the Mafia in control, is black market operation then profiteering or providing a service?

If one wants to declare that illegal activity is immoral, must we also have as a condition precedent a rule of law which is not corrupt and as moral as man can make it? In other words, is the violation of an immoral and corruptly made law itself immoral?

We point to our own civil disobedience in the civil rights era but two things are to be noted: 1. Violators of those immoral laws were prepared to submit to the judicial system and pay the price; 2. The system which it created those immoral laws was nevertheless moral in the sense that it was open to those laws being changed.

Do we have 2 in China today? Is China a Hobbesian jungle made such by history and by the perfidy of the ruling elite? If we have a Hobbesian jungle, how does that affect our notions of morality? It clearly affected the thinking of the founding fathers and Jefferson tried to characterize in the Declaration of Independence the breaking away from Great Britain as a moral act by cataloging the immoral acts of George III. The thinking of the Enlightenment was that a revolution in such circumstances leading to the installation of a new and moral government was a moral act. But is such a revolution a realistic option for a startup entrepreneur in the provinces of China? Is he practically reduced to fighting his revolution only by resort to being corrupt himself? If he is corrupt and his corruption enriches him at the cost of his exploited labor, is he immoral? To what degree?

I confess the answers are not easy but I would say that we should be very grateful that we are the inheritors of a Judeo/Christian heritage which found expression in the Enlightenment which made answers for our forefathers much easier.

[Kartographer]

"From their point of view, it is cheaper to arrest hundreds of 'criminals' than to pour in billions of dollars to the stock market in a futile exercise to prop up the market."

Sooner or later they will figure this out here in the States as well.

[nathanbedford]

As I was writing the subsequent reply #13 the same thought crossed my mind.

[SkyPilot]

A very well thought out and rational response, as always from your posts.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

No answer.