

Hong Kong Banking System Outlook Cut by Moody’s on China Risks  - lignuist
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-24/hong-kong-banking-system-outlook-cut-by-moody-s-on-china-risks.html

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kybernetyk
I'm sure this has nothing to do with Snowden.

~~~
hga
Try this search, china credit four winds, e.g.
[https://www.google.com/search?q=china+credit+four+winds](https://www.google.com/search?q=china+credit+four+winds),
to learn about what appears to be a Maoist style top down credit crunch. E.g.
from the U.K. _Financial Times_
([http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/1c2f126c-d982-11e2-bab1-00144...](http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/1c2f126c-d982-11e2-bab1-00144feab7de.html)):

" _Echoes of Mao in China cash crunch

By Simon Rabinovitch in Shanghai

©AFP

As China’s credit crunch takes a turn for the worse, the question of why the
central bank has permitted market conditions to deteriorate so suddenly and so
sharply looms ever larger.

[ Details on the credit crunch and possible causes. ]

But in the midst of the extreme market stress, a statement issued late
Wednesday by the central bank raised the possibility that politics are also
playing an important role.

[...] the People’s Bank of China ordered a thorough implementation of the new_
“mass line education” _campaign launched this week by President Xi Jinping – a
campaign that in its propaganda-style and potential scope carries echoes of
the Mao era.

The Communist party cadres that run the central bank were told to attack the
_"four winds" _of_ “formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism and extravagance”, _as
demanded by Mr Xi...._ "

It appears the purge of Bo Xilai and company did not signal this sort of thing
would stay in the past.

ADDED: Mass Line according to Wikipedia
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_line](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_line)):

"The Mass Line (from the Chinese _qunzhong luxian_ ) is the political,
organizational and leadership method developed by Mao Zedong and the Chinese
Communist Party (CCP) during the Chinese revolution. As described in a
Revolutionary Communist Party USA pamphlet, it is the "concentrate[d] ..
correct ideas that the masses gain in everyday life", as gathered and
published by the party. Mao developed it into a coherent organizing
methodology that encompasses philosophy, strategy, tactics, leadership and
organizational theory that has been applied by many Communists subsequent to
the Chinese revolution. Chinese communist leaders generally attribute their
conquest of power to the faithful pursuit of effective "mass line" tactics,
and a "correct" mass line is supposed to be the essential prerequisite for the
full consolidation of power.

According to Frederick Teiwes, Emeritus Professor at the University of Sydney,
the "mass line" was related to the CCP's mass organizations. "Fundamentally,
for all the CCP rhetoric concerning the 'mass line,' the unions and other mass
organizations functioned more as Stalinist "transmission belts" in laying down
the party line and extending the reach of the state," he wrote."

New leaders, new party line ... we'll see.

~~~
adventured
The four winds is being invoked because China allowed their economy to get too
juiced on leverage, and imbalanced from uneven stimulus measures. It's little
more than a useful prop for the party to try to squeeze froth out of the
system before it ends in an even worse crash.

~~~
hga
Errr, as I may have made clearer in a closing sentence I added after you
posted your reply, I'm focusing on the style of this; that the bubble needs to
be popped is not something I question.

Hmmm, thinking about it, if the new leadership has a clue, they are
recognizing that the inevitable crash is going to be very painful, so I wonder
if they aren't also planning on a return to old style repression to manage the
social fallout. I may indeed be reading too much into the campaign and slogan
(I don't follow the PRC all that closely), I guess we'll find out soon enough.

