As the world has sat transfixed as an army of retail traders triggered a spasm of volatility by putting the blowtorch to Wall Street hedge funds, deep inside the byzantine plumbing of China’s financial system the proverbial has also been hitting the fan.

The spike in China’s overnight rate to a five-year high may lack the magnetic David versus Goliath narrative of Main Street bros versus Wall Street pros, but the dash for cash in the world’s second-largest economy underscores a story that is orders of magnitude more important than Wall Street’s latest pissing contest.