China should celebrate the collapse of its stock market. That was not the instinct of officials last summer when the Shanghai Composite index lost close to one-third of its value in four short weeks.

Back then, Beijing launched investigations into what it called “malicious short selling” and spent $200bn to prop up falling equity prices. But give the Communist party its due. When one trick stops working, officials are not shy to admit it.

The Shanghai Composite fell 7 per cent yesterday; further falls are likely. Yet we are unlikely to see more of the heavy handed intervention to which officials resorted in 2015. This is not because Beijing does not have the means to prop up the index, but rather because officials have come to believe it desirable for high stock market valuations to be unwound. Large sections of the public are beginning to agree with them.