Why single out China for market intervention?

There has been a lot of talk recently about the Chinese government becoming involved in the country's stock market: An odd charge to level at China, to say the least. Just look at what takes place around the world. Indeed, it is in the so-called developed economies that we see the most frequent and most aggressive market intervention by governments.

The Bank of Japan is buying Exchange Traded Funds and real estate stocks on a large scale. Over the past year and a half, the BoJ has aggressively purchased the Nikkei index. These are operations that Japan's central bank has done regularly since the market implosion in 1989.

Also, the Japanese government has frequently instructed the national pension fund, the national social security fund and the postal savings fund, as well as private sector funds - such as the large insurance companies and the city banks - to do the same. The buying of ETFs and real estate stocks is part of the BoJ's quantitative easing program.