>The US did the exact same thing with Lehmann - they found the bank that was more fucked than the rest, let them fail in a controlled manner, and it sent a signal to the market that "this is serious, equity will be wiped out, but it's not financial Armageddon". I expect China to send the same signals.

Which is a very good reason the Chinese probably shouldn't follow our lead. Letting Lehman fail was a huge disaster. It essentially seized the capital markets and sped up the collapse of a bunch of other banks. In my opinion, the solution is making the bailout so impalpable to the shareholders than it's really the last solution before bankruptcy. Or maybe even some special bank only bankruptcy that allow it to fully operate with government backing.