Sentiment has turned in the last three months. As recently as late November, China bears were a severely endangered species. Almost without exception international investors were overwhelmingly positive about China's prospects.
Heedless of any concerns about credit bubbles, rising inflation pressures, unsustainable investment or deteriorating asset quality, portfolio managers poured billions into Chinese equity markets as a play on the mainland's superior growth rate.
According to data from specialist fund flow research house EPFR Global, between the depths of the financial crisis in late 2008 and the end of last year mutual funds pumped almost HK$90 billion into Chinese stocks, mostly those listed in Hong Kong.
As ever, such universal bullishness was a danger signal, and since late last year the mood has changed.
The reversal can be attributed partly to US hedge fund manager James Chanos, who last month publicly denounced China's real estate market as a bubble equal to 'Dubai times 1,000 - or worse'.
Perceptions darkened further when the People's Bank of China twice raised banks' required reserve ratios in what was widely seen as a precursor to more aggressive monetary tightening.
