China's crackdowns, policy shifts leave bulls and bears weary

Singapore

THE potential of emerging China, the world's most populous nation and second-largest economy, was a no-brainer investment theme for global investors not too long ago.

Its relentless growth in Internet users (now 1 billion or three times that in the United States), the massive market, the sheer number of wealthy and rapidly-growing middle class - all this made it a compelling stock market where alpha can be derived.