Where is China's Central Bank?

I was somewhat shocked over the summer when I learned preparing for a presentation in my International Relations class that China did not have a central banking system. It wouldn't have occurred to me that any industrialized nation would go without one, much less a state in the economic boom China finds itself. With a growth rate pushing now 10% annually, I wondered how the government managed inflation, controlled currency supply, and engaged any of the monetary functions states around the world use to maintain healthy economies. How could, I asked my professor, a state achieve the worlds fourth largest GDP without such mechanisms?

I have yet to receive a definitive answer. One scholar suggested to me a possibility that could explain it. China, in their opinion, runs on corruption. A central banking system would impede such activities, and is thus, by many undesirable. In the mean time, inflation in a rapidly growing economy is kept in check by the government's artificial valuing of currency, arguably negating a central banks' primary purpose.

I am very interested to hear other perspectives on both why China doesn't have a central bank, and what the future holds for them should they not create one.