Why Beijing’s Grip on the Yuan Is Becoming Tenuous

Even a slight loss of currency control to markets is still not within Beijing’s reality. After spending a year trying to communicate with markets about its currency-management process, Beijing is resorting to what it knows best: clamping down. The battle will only get tougher.

Beijing is now finding that the influence of global financial markets within its own markets is bigger and harder to control than before. In a reverse déjà vu of sorts, China’s yuan traded freely offshore unexpectedly appreciated swiftly this week...