REUTERS: "China’s Potemkin market"

Trade halts add to China’s Potemkin market problem

Trading halts add to China’s Potemkin market problem. Boom, bust and bailout are already making it hard for outsiders to take Chinese stocks seriously. An extraordinary slew of trading halts, trapping investors in hundreds of stocks, makes things worse. Bosses and bourses are buying temporary respite at the cost of their own credibility. ...... As of July 8, Reuters reckons some 1,300 Shanghai and Shenzhen-listed firms, worth $2.4 trillion, had halted trading. It’s hard to think of any other market where this has happened on such a scale.... this sends a terrible signal. What is a market if you can’t set prices or trade? Firms look like they have something to hide. And valuations were pretty frothy, so the moment of reckoning is probably just delayed. ... ... The message from executives and politicians alike is: everything is fine, just don’t look too closely. Such a Potemkin Village view of markets should worry investors.

CHINA CANNOT KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH THIS  BECAUSE WHAT CANNOT GO ON FOREVER WON'T...