Where's Zhou? Meeting With the IMF

The Standard: Mystery clouds financial industry powwo-w

The absence of almost all heads of mainland regulatory watchdogs from the financial industry's flagship forum in Shanghai's Lujiazui over the past two days has raised eyebrows.
For that is a radical departure from the past, with the heads of regulatory commissions in attendance since 2008. Except for the head of China Insurance Regulatory Commission, only deputy heads represented the watchdogs at the widely observed forum.

Even the new head of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, Liu Shiyu, who took over from Xiao Gang in February, was missed.

However, it was the absence of People's Bank of China governor Zhou Xiaochuan that made the mystery deepen a notch.

For it comes soon after he went missing in the recent US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue held on June 6.

The Chinese note he (央行行长周小川在忙什么大事) Zhou skipped out on the welcoming of Angela Merkel in the Great Hall of the People, but popped up to meet with IMF Deputy Managing Director Lipton on Monday: PBOC to Seek Close Communication With IMF, Governor Zhou Says.