Gareth Bale's £1-million-a-week move from Real Madrid collapsed but Chinese football has re-emerged as a force in the global transfer market despite measures to rein in spending.

Marko Arnautovic, Salomon Rondon and Stephan El Shaarawy all landed in the Chinese Super League (CSL) during China's summer transfer window, which closed on Wednesday.

There was a flurry of domestic transfers too, while Champions League-winning coach Rafael Benitez also arrived, taking over at Dalian Yifang.

Nearly 100 million euros was spent in transfer fees by CSL clubs, compared to the record 128 million euros splurged in the summer of 2016, said the respected Oriental Sports Daily.

The Austrian forward Arnautovic was the biggest mover, swapping West Ham United for CSL champions Shanghai SIPG for 25 million euros.

But it was Bale's proposed transfer to Jiangsu Suning which really made headlines and renewed fears about Chinese clubs distorting the transfer market with wages the rest cannot match.

The 30-year-old forward was all set to sign a handsomely paid three-year contract with Jiangsu, but Real pulled the plug at the last moment because of wrangling over the fee, a source told AFP.

Two years ago, after a series of record deals, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) slapped a 100 percent tax on the transfers of incoming foreign players.

The prohibitive move worked: in the summer of 2017 the highest-profile arrival was Anthony Modeste on loan from Cologne.

The CFA brought in more cooling measures at the start of this year, including a cap on the wages of Chinese players and a limit on bonuses.

Clubs were also told that their annual expenditure could not exceed 1.2 billion yuan (US$174 million) in 2019, which will decline to 900 million in 2021.

But in light of the latest transfer dealings, those measures were now "a pile of waste paper", said a commentary in the Oriental Sports Daily.

Harry Belford Spencer, co-founder of First Pick Group, a Shanghai-based sports advisory company, said that the swingeing tax slapped on in 2017 has deterred CSL clubs from shelling out huge transfer fees.

According to Chinese outlet Titan Sports, around €100 million ($110.32 million) in transfer fees was spent by 14 of the 16 Chinese Super League clubs from the opening of the window until its closure on Wednesday.

That represented a 60 percent rise, Titan claimed, on the sums spent in the corresponding summer transfer window 12 months ago, when clubs forked out €63.6 million.

Perhaps the biggest move of the window, though, came on the sidelines rather than on the pitch.

Beijing Guoan replaced coach Roger Schmidt with Frenchman Bruno Genesio, despite the club being in a strong position to challenge for their first Chinese Super League title in a decade.

Schmidt led Beijing to 13 wins in their first 14 games of the season, a run which saw them occupy pole position in the standings. But three losses in their last six games, coupled with exits from the Asian Champions League and the Chinese FA Cup saw the board wield the axe.

Genesio will look to reinvigorate the team when he takes charge of his first game on Friday evening as Beijing take on Hebei CFFC as they look to close the four-point gap on leaders Guangzhou Evergrande as the league enters its final 10-game stretch.

(With input from AFP, Reuters)