The offshore city,Chinese finance,and British capitalism: Geo-economic rebalancing under the Coalition government

Abstract

This article examines the embrace of Chinese finance under the United Kingdom’s 2010–2015 Coalition government. The article argues that the City of London’s centrality within British capitalism has been reinforced, not displaced, since the Global Financial Crisis. Geo-economic rebalancing towards China, not the Coalition’s professed spatial and sectoral ‘rebalancing’ ambitions, prevailed. To explain the City’s renewed pre-eminence in the wake of the crisis, the article draws upon a modified version of the ‘City–Bank–Treasury nexus’ theory of British capitalism. Breaking from structuralist approaches that underplay the City of London Corporation’s role within economic policy-making, the article illuminates the Corporation’s agency as a key parastate institution that reoriented the City–Bank–Treasury nexus towards Chinese finance under the Coalition.

Keywords

China City of London coalition offshore

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