CSRC aims to be tough regulator but investors still need convincing

IT will soon be the Year of the Dragon in China, but many investors stung by losses in 2011 are wondering if it will be another year of the bear.

The Shanghai Composite Index dropped 22 percent in 2011. A recent survey conducted by Sina.com said 89 percent of investors lost money in stocks.

Market regulators have been quick to reassure the public that there's nothing to fear from investing in shares.

"I'm confident about the stock market," Guo Shuqing, who took over as chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission in November, said on December 30.

He didn't offer any reason why China was the second worst-performing major market in the world, after India, when the Chinese economy grew at an expected 9.1 percent to 9.3 percent last year.

Many investors, particularly smaller, individual investors, are licking their wounds over 2011 losses and will need more reassurance that the market is a level playing field for all and not just a lucrative piggybank for a favored few.