china stock crash

A slump in Chinese shares has prompted stock markets across Asia, Europe and the US to fall sharply. Why is this so significant?

China’s fall was the latest in a series of jarring declines that have defied multibillion-dollar government efforts to stem a slide in prices following an explosive market boom.

The Greek stock market was shut down five weeks ago, as the nation spiraled into an economic and political crisis, facing its final debt showdown with European creditors. The market just concluded its first day of trading since the shutdown, and the outlook is grim: the market lost 16.2 percent of its value on the first day back in business.

The China Digital Times reports on some strict instructions from the Chinese communist government to media outlets on how to cover the Chinese stock market collapse. Among other things, reporters were instructed not to refer to it as a “collapse.”

Despite suspending trading in over 1300 of the 2800 stocks listed in China, the “Shanghai Stock Exchange B Share Index” of growth stocks suffered another 7 percent loss Tuesday and the neighboring Hong Kong ‘S&P Growth Enterprise Market Index’ plunged by 12 percent. With Chinese stock losses now over $3.5 trillion since June 12, contagious fear is sending every major stock exchange around the world tumbling.