China appoints 'Broker Butcher' Wu Qing as new chairman of securities regulator

• Nicknamed the "Broker Butcher," Wu Qing was previously the acting vice mayor of China's major financial hub Shanghai and served nearly two years as chairman of the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
• His predecessor Yi Huiman took the mantle of the CSRC in 2019, tasked to undertake a spate of sweeping capital markets reforms.

China's Cabinet on Wednesday appointed markets veteran Wu Qing as chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, state media Xinhua said, replacing Yi Huiman to navigate Beijing through the turbulent waters of a market downturn.

Nicknamed the "Broker Butcher" for his crackdown on traders, Wu was previously the acting vice mayor of China's major financial hub Shanghai and served nearly two years as chairman of the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

His predecessor, Yi, took the mantle of the CSRC in 2019, tasked to undertake a spate of sweeping capital markets reforms.

Wu's appointment comes on the footsteps of the CSRC over the past two weeks announcing new supportive policies to stabilize and revitalize China's stricken stock market, which has become a casualty of volatility in the property sector and widespread investor pessimism over the outlook for the world's second-largest economy.

The measures came as the CSRC earlier this week pledged a new spartan "zero-tolerance" policy against malicious short selling — betting that a certain asset or assets will fall in price — warning potential offenders that they will "lose their shirts and rot in jail," according to Reuters.

"The CSRC will crack down on the use of securities lending transactions to implement improper arbitrage and other illegal activities in accordance with the law to ensure the smooth operation of the securities lending business," a commission