HONG KONG — One bank failed. A second and third were bailed out. Worried depositors of two more banks then rushed to pull out their savings for fear of losing them in a spectacular failure.

These stumbles, which have occurred in quick succession since May, would stir fears of a financial meltdown had they happened in the United States. But this is China, where the government is trying to suppress any potential panic while the country’s banking system goes through a painful but much needed cleanup.

The latest in China’s series of banking woes came this week when a city in the country’s northeast urged depositors in a local bank to “avoid unnecessary losses by withdrawing cash blindly,” according to a government statement.

More than a hundred police officers were dispatched to six bank branches, according to the local police. They arrested four people for what people described as “publicly spreading rumors on the internet.”