China's Market Rout Is a Double Threat

``Skeptical investors have so far shrugged off each step the government has taken to keep share prices aloft: an interest rate cut, threats to punish rumormongers, allowing the national pension fund to buy stocks and even plans to investigate short-sellers who have placed bets that the market will fall. The faltering of these measures has put an embarrassing dent in the halo of unruffled supremacy built up around Mr. Xi's administration, and this weekend his government doubled down again, betting that it could beat bearish market sentiment into submission. ''