CITYPERC Seminar - Johannes Petry - China and Wall Street

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 this relationship that has been largely neglected in existing scholarship. This project argues that a closer examination of the Wall-Street China relationship reveals a more complex story of global economic transformation. 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?

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 the restructuring 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’ strain financial interdependence. Overall, the project provides a novel perspective on understanding the relationship between Wall Street, China and its impact on global capitalism.

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In person: City St George's University of London: Rhind Building, St John St, London EC1R 0JD; Room: D427 4th Floor

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