Redéfinir la relation de l'Europe et de la Chine après 1945: les organisations économiques britanniques à la recherche d'échanges commerciaux "politiquement corrects" (1952-1963)

The picture of Mao’s China in the 1950s is that of an isolated country only diplomatically and commercially active with the Soviet Bloc. However, the multidisciplinary methodology employed in this paper shows that notwithstanding the complex procedures, foreign trade played a relevant role in keeping China tied to the world.Through an integrated analysis of government and business documents, the paper will document how the Chinese system of foreign relied upon a tightly knitted network whereby Chinese officials effectively collected information on industry and technology and aptly pursued commercial objectives.In particular, the paper will analyse the case of the British – China commercial intermediaries and business associations. The existing literature on British economic relations with the PRC has mainly highlighted the domestic political debates, which eventually led to the formulation of the UK’s new China policy in terms of ‘keeping a foot in the door’. Most works point at the inherent difficulties of British China-oriented businesses to survive after the expropriation of British businesses by the new Chinese government proved the short-sightedness of the Communists, which wanted to shape its new world order without having to compromise with foreign imperialist powers. However, the recent analysis of company papers suggests that a much more complex and articulated process of disentanglement from the foreign imperialist legacy was carried out on both UK and China sides.

Jaar van publicatie:2016