Playing China's Bubble

Editor's note: This the first part of a two-part series.

David Semple, who runs one of the best-performing emerging-markets funds in America, was in Beijing recently for an investment conference. Like most such conferences in China these days, it was mobbed with professional investors looking for the next hot stock.

Semple crowded into a side room with 35 other managers to hear the pitch from one local company trying to raise its investment profile. ...