BEIJING (AP) – China’s top securities regulator Xiao Gang will step down following months of turmoil in Chinese stock markets that battered faith in Beijing’s economic management.
The departure of Xiao, 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.
The official Xinhua News Agency reported Saturday that Xiao would be replaced by Liu Shiyu, chairman of the Agricultural Bank of China and a former deputy governor of China’s central bank.
“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,” a Beijing-based veteran financial commentator Shi Shusi said. “His departure will not bring a clean era for China’s capital, but at most a belated consolation for investors who have been hurt.”
The capital market is where China’s rivaling political forces have come into most intense clashes, Shi said. The unusual intervention by the Ministry of Public Security and investigations against securities firms following market meltdowns are proof that covert political forces within the Chinese government had made waves, Shi said.