'Capitalist tools in socialist hands'? China Mobile in global financial networks

The paper analyses the evolution of China Mobile – one of China's pioneer 'national champions', and one of the world's largest telecom companies – through the lens of global financial networks, focusing on the role of advanced business services, financial centres and offshore jur...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Transactions - Institute of British Geographers (1965) 2015-10, Vol.40 (4), p.464-478
Main Authors: Wójcik, Dariusz, Camilleri, James
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
advanced business services
Capital markets
Capitalist economy
China
Economic geography
financial centres
global financial networks
global production networks
Globalization
International finance
offshore finance
Socialist societies
Telecommunications industry
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Summary:The paper analyses the evolution of China Mobile – one of China's pioneer 'national champions', and one of the world's largest telecom companies – through the lens of global financial networks, focusing on the role of advanced business services, financial centres and offshore jurisdictions in economic development. It demonstrates that despite being a domestic company, China Mobile is plugged firmly into the global financial networks, with incorporation in Hong Kong, cross-listing in Hong Kong and New York, and opaque offshore companies registered in the British Virgin Islands. Global advanced business services firms, with Goldman Sachs in the lead, have been instrumental in the very conception of China Mobile in 1997 and its subsequent expansion, thus helping the Chinese government consolidate and modernise the whole telecom sector. The study highlights the position of Hong Kong as an onshore-offshore financial centre intermediating between global financial markets and mainland China, and underwriting the reputation of China's 'national champions'. The analysis also points to the advantages of Beijing over Shanghai as a command centre of state-owned and controlled enterprises, acting as a magnet for advanced business services. The relevance of global financial networks to China, a latecomer on the stage of financial globalisation, highlights the scope for applying the concept to the rest of the world, and its potential contribution to economic geography.
ISSN:0020-2754
1475-5661
DOI:10.1111/tran.12089