Chinese industrial statistics had suggested some minor (relatively speaking) weakness at the start of the year before rebounding throughout the spring in what is now, in the third consecutive year of it, a familiar pattern. The drop into the heat of August was a complete surprise for the more confident extrapolations that 2014 China would be right back on track, or at least moving appreciably close to it. As the Wall Street Journal reported at the time:

Economists said the sharp deceleration in industrial output, along with weaker fixed-asset investment, retail and real estate sales data, is likely to rattle regional stock markets Monday as Beijing struggles to reach its annual 7.5% economic-growth target in a nation where hitting benchmarks remains important.

"This figure is a bit shocking," said ANZ economist Liu Li-Gang. "If we have another month of low IP growth, the third-quarter GDP figure could be at most 7%."

Thus, the narrative of the "soft landing" in China was born over the next few months where economic statistics weren't nearly as bad as August, but also didn't indicate Chinese resurgence. Since the mainstream is programmed to view the Chinese economy as if it were almost totally command and control, the sudden and "shocking" slowdown must have been a communist directive.