For the mainland's financial markets, government intervention at every level continues to distort prices and hamper growth.
But in some sectors, such as the local-government debt market, intervention doesn't seem like such a bad idea.
After three decades of existence, local-government debt is showing every sign of spinning out of control. And it seems the central government has begun to fret over the chance that runaway local debt will eventually cripple its banking sector, with Beijing making an about-turn on a proposal to let local authorities sell bonds directly.
Lower-level governments were not allowed to issue bonds before 1979. Beijing coined the term 'regional government bonds' when it embarked on an opening-up and reform policy that year, giving the local authorities the go-ahead to issue debt and use the proceeds to fund infrastructure projects. This liberalisation move was a double-edged sword as it gave local governments the freedom to map out their own development plans and helped streamline the decision-making process.
In 1994, Beijing, in an apparent effort to better police local governments' debt sales, stipulated that bond offerings by regional governments must be conducted by the Ministry of Finance on their behalf, with full sovereign guarantee.
It was not until last year that Beijing began a trial scheme after a 17-year hiatus under which four local governments - Shanghai, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Shenzhen - were approved to directly sell bonds. That move followed a bond offering spree as the nation launched an infrastructure-focused stimulus package to tackle the global financial crisis.