While it is already common knowledge that China has thrown virtually everything at the market in order to halt the ongoing market crash, including arresting "malicious sellers", journalists, and suspicious hedge fund managers, blaming HFTs for daring to sell in addition to buy, and even making trading index futures practically impossible, perhaps the most interesting revelation showcasing China's desperation came from CNBC today which reported that the government recently invited none other than Mr. ETF himself, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink to "discuss the market situation there", or said otherwise: how to manipulate the market more effectively. CNBC adds that, as expected, Fink "accepted the offer and traveled to China in the last part of August to meet with officials" and conveniently, if redundantly, reminds us that "the request for Fink's expertise comes amid a prolonged slide in the Chinese stock market that has sent shivers through the U.S. and Europe as well. Many of the Chinese government's efforts to prop up the falling market have been seen as ineffective." What is not said in the above, but what is abundantly clear, now that the cat of Chinese market manipulation is out of the bag, is that with every other attempt to manipulate the market higher, China felt it incumbent to invite Larry Fink for his expertise. But expertise in what? Because if the answer is "market manipulation" then it has far more profound consequences not so much for China, where the market is now a global farce (not to mention a tragedy to all those who are hopelessly underwater on their investments having listened to the government's urges, and buying stocks - with margin - on the way up, only to lose everything and more on the way down) but for the US. Why? Because if Larry Fink has somehow become such a world-renowned authority on "market manipulation" that China feels compelled to ask for his advice, then it has huge implications for the US stock market where his BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, is by far the most dominant presence thanks to its pervasive ETF products (products, whose fragility was revealed on the August 24 flash crash). If so, one wonders are ETFs nothing more than "market manipulation" vehicles? And more to the point, what exactly did Larry Fink tell China is the best way to manipulate its stock market higher, and the immediate follow up to that: how much of whatever it is that Larry told China to do, is BlackRock already doing in the US? We ask because BlackRock's Rick Rieder, the company's Chief Investment Officer and Co-Head of Americas Fixed Income, just happens to be a member of the New York Fed's Investor Advisory Committee on Financial Markets, also known as the advisors to the NY Fed's Plunge Protection Team. Which just happens to tie it all together: if BlackRock is advising China how to manipulate markets, it only makes sense that the same company will give comparable advice to the world's biggest hedge fund: the NY Fed. So, we wonder, just how easy is it to FOIA the transcripts (not doctored minutes) of the last severael years of IACFM meetings where people such as these... ... were present, and discussing how to "boost" the US sttock market? Finally, since the Fed has made its mission to boost the wealth effect for everyone through the stock market "portfolio channel" shouldn't the Fed just disclose already precisely how the market is being manipulated so that everyone can profit from a rigged stock "market" without risk, instead of just a select few, most-connected hedge managers and billionaires.