Wall Street in China

In recent decades, the relationship between Wall Street and China has become one of the most consequential yet understudied forces in the global political economy. Today, China and global finance are inextricably intertwined. Yet, the relationship represents a paradox: the deep entanglement of two economic systems built on fundamentally different institutional logics—one grounded in liberal principles of free, open markets, the other a state‑capitalist model that subordinates markets to political control and developmental goals. These systems are often portrayed as incompatible, yet their financial interdependence has not only persisted but intensified.

Understanding this paradox requires examining three relationships. The first is between Wall Street and global capitalism: long viewed as a paragon of liberal capitalism, Wall Street has been central to promoting liberal norms of open markets, private authority, and US financial hegemony since the end of Bretton Woods. The second is between China and global capitalism: China’s rise as a vast, non‑liberal economy deeply integrated into global markets has reshaped global production, trade, and power constellations, spreading non‑liberal economic practices as well as prompting interventionist responses from incumbent powers, like the US. The third is between Wall Street and China—a relationship that has been largely neglected in existing scholarship.

This book investigates argues that a closer examination of this relationship reveals a more complex story of global economic transformation. It examines a Faustian bargain between Wall Street and China, investigating the role of global financial firms in China’s financial system over the past three decades as a central yet underexplored story in the transformation of global capitalism. It interrogates the mutually constitutive relationship between Western financial capital and the Chinese party-state, tracing how global finance both shaped and was shaped by China’s political economy. Rather than a paragon of liberal capitalism, the paper demonstrates that Wall Street has significantly adapted its practices in its search for profit in China.

It explores whether global financial firms have adapted to Chinese institutional logic and played a decisive, under‑recognised role in both China’s financial development and its broader economic transformation. The central research question that informs this project is: How has the evolving relationship between Wall Street and China shaped both China’s financial and economic rise?

This overarching question breaks down into three lines of inquiry:

Operating in China: How and why have leading global financial firms accommodated China’s state‑capitalist model?
Financial development: How has Wall Street contributed to the growth, sophistication, and internationalisation of China’s financial system?
Economic transformation: How has Wall Street facilitated China’s broader economic ascent?

The project develops the first comprehensive historical account of Wall Street’s role in China (1990–2025) by analysing the three sectors that each correspond to a distinct phase in China’s financial and economic development: commercial banking and therestructuring of domestic lenders as well as facilitating inbound FDI in the 1990s and 2000s; investment banking and the listing and global expansion of Chinese firms in the 2000s and 2010s; and asset management in building domestic capital markets in the 2010s and beyond. The project also examines the post-2020 geopolitical conjuncture, where US–China rivalry, sanctions, and ‘de risking’ increasingly strain financial interdependence.

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