China’s leaders are flailing as markets drop

In recent weeks, China’s economic policymaking has been not just inadequate but a little skittish. On January 23rd draft rules on video games disappeared from the regulator’s website a month after their appearance, as if they had never existed. The regulations, which would have sprinkled games with pop-up warnings against “irrational consumption behaviour”, had triggered a steep sell-off in the shares of tech companies like Tencent.