China’s ruling Communist Party has been a strong proponent of getting the public invested into its ballooning stock market. State-controlled media has been encouraging anyone and everyone to keep buying stocks in good times and bad. The result is that millions per week have been signing up to ride the nation’s volatile stock markets, and not just the financially savvy either.
But as Bloomberg points out, the relentless push to get the Chinese public invested in stocks now means that there are more stock market traders in the country than even Communist Party members:
Last year, the Party grew by 1.1 million members to 87.8 million. This year, three times that number signed up to start trading stocks in a single week.