This is one reason why we believe the Renminbi will never be a serious contender as a reserve currency.   Full liberalization of the capital account results in a loss of independence and control and it’s hard to see the government allowing it anytime soon.  We’ll get more confident in the Renminbi’s role when we see more political reform in China.  The Wall Street Journal writes,

Internet censors also appeared Sunday to have deleted almost all of the comments posted beneath the few limited reports on the unrest—mostly from the state-run Xinhua news agency—that have been published on Chinese news sites in the past few days.

The strict online controls illustrate the party’s concern that the Internet is providing China’s citizens with a new means of information and organization that could challenge its monopoly on power, as has happened with other authoritarian governments in recent years.