The World Bank urged the Chinese government to reduce its sway in the financial system in a bi-annual report released Wednesday.

By Friday, that section was gone from its website.

According to the Wall Street Journal’s Mark Magnier, a World Bank spokesperson said staff in the Washington headquarters instructed that the references be deleted. The spokesperson did not know whether it was because Chinese officials took issue.

An earlier version of the ‘China Economic Update‘ said: “The state has formal ownership of 65 per cent of commercial bank assets and de facto control of 95 per cent of these assets, making it an outlier by international standards.”

The update had also warned about “wasteful investment, overindebtedness, and a weakly regulated shadow-banking system,” according to AFP.

In a story on the original version of the World Bank’s report, AFP noted that the bank’s comments were “unusually forthright.”

According to the Journal, Bert Hofman, the World Bank’s China country director, said the section was removed because its tone was inconsistent with its “standard of discourse with member governments.”

On Saturday, Chinese government officials took further steps to try and halt the plunge in stocks.

Nearly 30 IPOs have been halted, and China’s top 21 securities brokerages have vowed to invest 120 billion yuan ($US19.3 billion) in equities, after the Shanghai Composite Index crashed into a bear market on Monday.

Head over to the Wall Street Journal for the full story »

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