The change at the top of China's securities watchdog has made a stir in the market. Xiao Gang, the former head of Bank of China, has replaced Guo Shuqing as chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, and great hopes have been pinned on Xiao being able to push through further reform to transform the country's controversial stock market.

His predecessor was widely deemed a reformist. During his short tenure of about one and a half years, Guo made or revised 68 rules to improve the systematic framework of the 22-year-old market. For pragmatic and often impatient individual investors, however, such reforms were not enough, as they didn't result in an instant surge in the stock index. In fact during Guo's tenure the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index dropped by nearly 200 points, and it hit a three-year low of 1,949 in early December.

Guo is certainly not to blame for this. As head of the CSRC he would have disrupted normal market order if he introduced policies targeting short-term movements. Instead he prioritized building a comprehensive system that will better serve the long-term viability of China's stock market.