Drawing on his book “Necessary Fictions”, John Yasuda provides an alternative lens to consider the consequences of financial liberalization in East Asia by shifting our focus from how regulation changes under liberalization to who the state envisions it regulates. In contrast to the Anglosphere, where a hypothetical “rational investor” dominates regulatory decision making, Yasuda highlights how, in China, stock market regulators assume an “irrational investor.” This regulatory construct operates as an anchor on the equities market’s development in terms of listings management, trading and product innovation. Drawing on over 90 elite interviews of senior regulators, stock exchange officers and market practitioners conducted from 2015 – 2019, the essay provides additional evidence of the non-convergence of the post-developmental state on the liberal market economy.