For the sixteenth consecutive month, China's central bank has chosen stillness over movement, holding its benchmark lending rates at 3.00 and 3.50 percent as the global monetary tide pulls in the opposite direction. The Federal Reserve's renewed tightening has raised the cost of divergence for Beijing, widening the yield gap between American and Chinese debt to near-record levels and making capital outflows a live concern. At home, the old engines of credit demand — property, local government borrowing — have quieted, and no new engine has yet risen to replace them. China's monetary pause is l