At the China-Singapore Partnership Forum in Shanghai at the end of last week, the China Securities Regulatory Commission's vice-chairperson Laura Cha said market players were increasingly falling in line with the commission's fight to improve corporate governance at listed companies and level the playing field for the private sector. The latter, she said, now made up 20% of the market's total capitalization.
But there have been complaints from some quarters that the CRSC's tough approach last year exacerbated markets hurt by the government's desire to sell off non-tradable state shares. However, Cha argued that, listed companies welcome the opportunity to disentangle their assets from the controlling shareholder, who often appropriates much of...