Financialization with Chinese characteristics? Exchanges, control & capital markets in authoritarian capitalism

Abstract

A growing body of research has analyzed the variegation of financialization processes and the role of states as important actors therein. Contributing to this literature, this paper argues that more than important actors facilitating financialization, states can also (partially) exert control over, actively manage and shape financialization. In the context of China’s variegated financialization process, this paper analyzes the crucial role of securities exchanges in the development of China’s capital markets since the global financial crisis 2007–09. These state-owned exchanges act as intermediaries between the Chinese state, society and finance by shaping the infrastructural arrangements of capital markets. Thereby, they facilitate the authorities’ ability to control markets and direct their outcomes towards state policies. Financialization is thereby decoupled from a neoliberal policy paradigm, and rather than a break with China’s authoritarian capitalism, exchanges facilitate state control within and through financialization.