Beijing urged to be transparent with its financial decisions in light of market turmoil
Turmoil after yuan devaluation shows that with China's new economic might, Beijing's opaque approach to communication is no longer viable
When Premier Li Keqiang takes to the podium to address some 1,700 global business leaders and financial officials at the World Economic Forum in the northern port city of Dalian today, his message will be closely scrutinised by investors hungry for insight into the thinking of Chinese leaders.
For an economy second in size only to the United States, and whose health affects the farthest reaches of the globe, China can be frustratingly enigmatic and immature when it comes to communicating major financial decisions to the rest of the world.
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After the shock move to devalue the yuan, three weeks passed before central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan publicly defended the policy, telling a G20 meeting last weekend that the yuan was stable and not set for a long-term devaluation.
Many commentators blame the lack of communication by officials for making the market turmoil that followed the devaluation even worse.
China devalued the yuan by 1.9 per cent against the US dollar on August 11 - the largest devaluation in two decades. In the absence of a clear statement from authorities, rumours and speculation went viral, with many analysts speculating the mainlandplanned to enter a "currency war". In the next two days, the yuan fell a further one per cent.