Zhu Ning, deputy dean and professor of finance at the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance, said this remains the main barrier to an open financial system.

"I am probably more pessimistic on this than I was three or four years ago. The short-term pent-up demand for outflow is getting stronger and stronger, which makes it harder to open the floodgates."

Jin, at the London School of Economics, believes it is possible to open up the financial sector without a fully open capital account.

"Opening up financial services inside China is different from the free movement of capital flow," she said.

Jin stressed that it is important not to be "absolutist" about what constitutes a fully open capital account.

"Capital account liberalization can take on many different shades and categories. It is possible to be very nuanced about the particular type of capital flows that can be controlled," she said.