Locating state capitalism: Financial centres and the internationalisation of Chinese banks in London

Hall, Sarah

Abstract

This paper examines the internationalisation of Chinese state-owned commercial banks in London's financial centre from the 2010s onwards. These banks have transformed from primarily servicing Chinese state-owned enterprises to making up four of the largest banks globally by balance sheet and undertaking a range of operations including RMB clearing and cross border settlement and yet their future international trajectory remains uncertain. My analysis positions Chinese bank internationalisation within the wider project of RMB internationalisation, arguing that financial centres can serve as important methodological, empirical and conceptual entry points into understanding how state and market interests play out unevenly across time and space. By focusing on place-based policy experimentation in London, my analysis points to the entangled, multi layered and often contradictory formations of actually existing state capitalism.

Citation

Hall, S. (2023). Locating state capitalism: Financial centres and the internationalisation of Chinese banks in London. Environment and Planning A, 55(5), 1239-1254. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X221130080

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 19, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Nov 7, 2022
• Publication Date: 2023-08
• Deposit Date: Nov 4, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 7, 2022
• Journal: Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space
• Print ISSN: 0308-518X
• Electronic ISSN: 1472-3409
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 55
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 1239-1254
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X221130080
• Keywords: Environmental Science (miscellaneous); Geography, Planning and Development
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/13180808
• Publisher URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0308518X221130080