They finally caught onto the wealth transfer scam and have become paranoid.
They even think that their stockmarket is controlled.
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB124414565463186247Meanwhile, the regulatory commission, along with the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges, has targeted share manipulation, corporate embezzlement, insider trading and pyramid schemes as it works to combat a widespread perception among individual or "retail" investors that the market is rigged. After gyrations in China's stock markets hammered investors' portfolios and battered their confidence in the past few years, few have been willing to invest for the long term.
The chinese believe their housing market is also rigged as well. The government basically promises a certain rise in house prices. It's implicit. Ask some of your chinese friends.
Alternatively, it could be that some huge chinese billionaire has finished transferring Yuan to a basket of currencies, CAD, AUD, USD, RUB. Thus there is no market for the coins anymore and the downward pressure is from the billionaire selling back out. Who knows... We can only make up stories, but yeah the chinese are a paranoid bunch when it comes to money. I don't see them speculating again in the long term.