British Foreign Economic Policy Towards China 1949-60

Part I will study British foreign economic policy-making on three issues: British investments in China; controls on British exports to China; and controls on imports into Britain from China. The first two issues have been well covered by historians so are treated more briefly; the last one is given more space as it is based on new archival research. All three show how British governments reversed a policy, which sought, despite the emergence of a Communist China, to develop Sino-British economic relations. Part II will compare these policies with those towards Hong Kong. There is not the space here to discuss the policy-making process with regards to Hong Kong but I need to discuss the outcomes of policy-making towards the colony because they influenced policy-making towards China. Moreover, as foreign economic policies towards Hong Kong differed from those towards China, the Hong Kong example will allow me to speculate on the factors influencing policy-making at a more general level. Part III will assess how helpful the Cain and Hopkins thesis is for explaining British foreign economic policy-making towards China.