A prolonged market decline
The CSI 300 Index ended Thursday, October 22, 2026, down 1.8%, putting it about 20% below its June high and in bear-market territory, according to Bloomberg data reported by CoinCodex. By late October, the index had recorded 10 consecutive weeks of losses, its longest weekly losing streak since its creation in 2005.
Technology stocks suffered steeper declines. CoinCodex reported that the SSE Star 50 Index, which is heavily weighted toward technology companies, fell nearly 40% over the six months to late October. Over that period, chipmakers MetaX Integrated Circuits Shanghai and Moore Threads Technology each lost roughly half their value. Memory-chip maker CXMT was down 27% from its post-listing peak.
The selloff came as weak domestic demand continued to worry investors, according to CoinCodex. China's economy grew 4.5% from a year earlier in the third quarter of 2026.
CoinCodex also reported efforts by state-backed investor Central Huijin to stabilize the market. It reportedly raised about $231 billion by selling exchange-traded funds in the first half of 2026 and reinvested roughly $43 billion beginning in July.
Webull messages and the committee's findings
The House Select Committee on China released a 2021 Microsoft Teams exchange involving Brendan Fuller, a manager at Webull's U.S. brokerage, and employee Zhenghan Wang, who used the nickname "Rock." According to CNBC, the committee says the exchange indicates that an employee based in China could access information about a U.S. customer's account.
The committee concluded that Wang was in China because the messages were timestamped during Beijing daytime hours and his software was configured to translate into simplified Chinese.
The disclosure followed the committee's October 7, 2026 report on Webull. That report described the platform, which has 28 million users, as "tied in structural ways" to China's government and a national security threat to American finance. CNBC reported that Webull's shares dropped more than 19% after the report.
Workforce and data-hosting ties to China
The committee pointed to Webull's staffing and research operations in China. At the end of 2025, its subsidiary Hunan Weibu had 863 employees, representing about 62% of the company's worldwide workforce. Webull's 2025 annual report identifies Changsha, China, as the location of its main research and development center, the committee said.
The committee also found that an affiliate, Webull Technologies Limited, had previously stored certain user data with China-based Tencent Cloud. Webull has not identified the data involved or said when the hosting arrangement ended.
Earlier regulatory penalties
In outlining its concerns, the committee cited several earlier regulatory actions. Massachusetts fined Webull $500,000 in 2023 for supplying inaccurate complaint figures and failing to maintain formal procedures for responding to regulators.
In 2024, the SEC imposed a $125,000 penalty for Webull's willful filing of deficient anti-money-laundering suspicious activity reports between October 2018 and December 2022. The committee also cited FINRA penalties, including $3 million for failures involving options approvals and complaint reporting.
