Re: Sensational
The Chinese stock market is down to China not having read their history of the Wall Street Crash in 1929. Apparently 90% of their stocks are owned by individual investors - and loads of them have borrowed money to buy the stocks, which is why the Shanghai index has doubled in price over the last 18 months. So of course when the price drops, you have to sell before the value of the shares you own goes below the value of the debt you took out to pay for them. When half the other people on the market are in the same boat, things go wrong very quickly.
Margin trading is scary. Don't do it kids!
One big difference is that China's government can do whatever the hell they like. So they've suspended trading in half the market, they can make the banks write-off the loans, or just abolish the stock market.
The Chinese banking sector is in some ways quite well regulated. They have reasonably high interest rates and very high capital requirements. A lot of their bad loans are also to local government, so the national government will probably have to bail them out. On the other hand the shadow banking industry is huge, and barely regulated. Possibly they were too cautious with the banks, so people went elsewhere? And that mess will be painful to clean up.