The article discusses the possibility of the plans of China's State Council to transform Shanghai into an international financial center by 2020, as announced in the spring of 2009. Topics mentioned include the creation of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone (SFTZ) as an initial trial to experiment with the financial reforms the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is planning, why the pace of the reform has been observed to have become cautious, and the threat in regime legitimacy the planned reform poses.