There have been many casualties in the past few days of stunning share price declines and one of those could be the idea that the Chinese market operates in its own parallel universe.

Mainland shares had attracted a huge amount of overseas interest in recent months, not just because of the two-year surge in share prices but also because some investors hoped China’s relatively closed capital market could act as a hedge against more inter-linked global markets. When New York, London or Hong Kong went in one direction, Shanghai often seemed to go the other way.