This paper applies a variety of short‐run and long‐run time series techniques to data on a broad group of Asia‐Pacific stock markets and the United States extending to 2010. Our empirical work confirms the importance of crises in affecting the persistence of equity returns in the Asia‐Pacific region and offers some support for contagion effects. Post‐Asian financial crisis quantile regressions yield substantial evidence of long‐run linkages between the Shanghai market, the US market and many regional exchanges. Cointegration is particularly prevalent at the higher end of the distribution. Our results suggest that the enormous growth of the Shanghai market in the new millennium has been accompanied by a meaningful level of integration with other regional and world markets in spite of ongoing capital controls.