China e Rotchields

FILOZOFICKÁ FAKULTA
The Rothschilds and the PRC:
Banking, Financial and Other Interactions
between the Red Shield Dynasty and the Red China
Magisterská diplomová práce
DAVID GARDÁŠ
Vedoucí práce: Mgr. Michal Fliegel, Ph.D.
Seminář čínských studií

Obor Kulturní studia Číny
Brno 2021
THE ROTHSCHILDS AND THE PRC: BANKING, FINANCIAL AND OTHER INTERACTIONS
BETWEEN THE RED SHIELD DYNASTY AND THE RED CHINA
Bibliografický záznam
Autor: David Gardáš

Filozofická fakulta
Masarykova univerzita
Seminář čínských studií
Název práce: Rothschildové a ČLR: bankovní, finanční a další interakce mezi
dynastií Rudého štítu a Rudou Čínou
Studijní program: FF N-MS Mezinárodní teritoriální studia
Studijní obor: Kulturní studia Číny
Vedoucí práce: Mgr. Michal Fliegel, Ph.D.
Rok: 2021
Počet stran: 153
Klíčová slova: Rothschildové, Čínská lidová republika, bankovnictví, finanční
poradenství, teorie racionální volby, konspirační teorie
2
Bibliographic record
Author: David Gardáš

Faculty of Arts
Masaryk University
Department of Chinese Studies
Title of Thesis: The Rothschilds and the PRC: Banking, Financial and Other
Interactions between the Red Shield Dynasty and the Red
China
Degree Programme: FF N-MS International Territorial Studies
Field of Study: FF KSC Culture Studies of China
Supervisor: Mgr. Michal Fliegel, Ph.D.
Year: 2021
Number of Pages: 153
Keywords: Rothschilds, People’s Republic of China, banking, financial
advisory, rational choice theory, conspiracy theories
3
Anotace
Diplomová práce se zaměřuje na bankovní, finanční a další interakce mezi dynastií Ro-
thschildů a rozličnými aktéry z Čínské lidové republiky. Potenciální vzájemný nesoulad
kapitalistické a komunistické ideologie je nahlížen prizmatem teorie racionální volby.
Výzkum prokázal, že mnohé interakce byly unikátní a průkopnické pro obě zúčastněné
strany, přičemž tyto aktivity viditelně posílily konkurenceschopnost ČLR na meziná-
rodní scéně. Práce navíc odhalila, že veřejný narativ o Rothschildech je v ČLR značně
formován informacemi, které jsou na západě odmítány jako konspirační teorie.
4
Abstract
The thesis focuses on banking, finance and other interactions between the Rothschild
dynasty and various actors from the People's Republic of China. The potential discrep-
ancy between capitalist and communist ideology is observed through the rational
choice theory. The research has shown that many interactions have been unique and
ground-breaking for both sides, and these activities visibly strengthened the PRC's in-
ternational competitiveness. In addition, the public narrative about the Rothschilds in
the PRC is largely shaped by information that is rejected in the West as conspiracy the-
ories.
5
Declaration
I hereby declare that this thesis with title The Rothschilds and the PRC: Banking,
Financial and Other Interactions between the Red Shield Dynasty and the Red
China I submit for assessment is entirely my own work and has not been taken from
the work of others, save to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged
within the text of my thesis.
Brno June 13, 2021 .......................................

David Gardáš
7
Transcription of Chinese Characters
The thesis uses Hanyu Pinyin transcription scheme (ISO 7098:1991) for transcribing
Chinese characters into Latin letters. In people’s names their surname will precede
given name. The transcriptions can be illustrated on the name: Xi Jinping.
Šablona DP 3.2.2-ARTS-dipl-obor-anglicky (2021-04-29) © 2014, 2016, 2018–2021 Masarykova univerzita 9

Acknowledgements
First and foremost, I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere grati-
tude and thanks to my thesis supervisor, Mgr. Michal Fliegel, Ph.D., for his guidance
and patience throughout the whole process of writing the thesis. He consistently al-
lowed this paper to be my own work, but steered me in the right direction whenever
he thought I needed it. Without his continuous assistance and dedicated involvement,
this paper would have never been accomplished.
I would also like to show appreciation to my supportive family, attentive friends, and
my loving partner Tereza. To all of you I am deeply grateful for the support and en-
couragement throughout my years of study and through the process of researching
and writing this thesis. This accomplishment would not have been possible without
them. Thank you.
10
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents
List of Figures 14
Glossary 15
1. Introduction 17
2. Theoretical Framework and Methodology 20

2.1. The Rational Choice Theory .......................................................................................... 20
2.2. Methodology ....................................................................................................................... 22
2.2.1 Case Selection ........................................................................................................... 22
2.2.2 Research Timeframe .............................................................................................. 23
2.2.3 Research Design ...................................................................................................... 24
2.2.4 Research Limitations ............................................................................................. 25
3. Introduction to the Family Background 27

3.1. The Roots of the Dynasty ............................................................................................... 27
3.2. Establishing the Five Houses ........................................................................................ 29
3.2.1. The Frankfurt House.............................................................................................. 30
3.2.2. The London House.................................................................................................. 31
3.2.3. The Paris House ....................................................................................................... 31
3.2.4. The Vienna House ................................................................................................... 32
3.2.5. The Naples house .................................................................................................... 32
3.2.6. The Rothschilds and the Napoleonic Wars ................................................... 33
3.2.7. The Rothschilds’ Wider Network of Agents.................................................. 34
3.3. Rothschilds in the 20th Century.................................................................................. 35
3.4. Rothschilds in the 21st century .................................................................................... 39
4. China’s Political and Economic Framework 42

4.1. The Political and Economic Framework of the PRC ............................................ 43
4.2. Relevant Institutions in the PRC’s Banking and Financial Sector .................. 47
5. Interactions between the Rothschilds and China 52

5.1. Interactions between the Rothschilds and China prior to 1949 ..................... 52
11
TABLE OF CONTENTS
5.2. Rothschilds & Republic of China post-1949 ...........................................................55

5.3. Interactions with the PRC before its Accession to the WTO ............................56
5.4. Interactions with the PRC after its Accession to the WTO ................................60
5.4.1. Banking Activities ...................................................................................................60
5.4.1.1. Jardine Matheson ....................................................................................................... 60
5.4.1.2. The Blackstone Group .............................................................................................. 61
5.4.1.3. Bank of China ............................................................................................................... 62
5.4.1.4. Bank of Qingdao.......................................................................................................... 63
5.4.1.5. Quercus Ventures ....................................................................................................... 64
5.4.1.6. Creat Group................................................................................................................... 65
5.4.1.7. CIIC ................................................................................................................................... 66
5.4.1.8. CEFC China Energy .................................................................................................... 72
5.4.1.9. Edmond de Rothschild Group ............................................................................... 74
5.4.1.10. Auster Capital .............................................................................................................. 76
5.4.2. Financial Advisory ..................................................................................................77
5.4.2.1. CNOOC ............................................................................................................................ 77
5.4.2.2. China Netcom ............................................................................................................... 78
5.4.2.3. Volvo................................................................................................................................ 79
5.4.2.4. Pirelli ............................................................................................................................... 80
5.4.2.5. Technology companies ............................................................................................ 81
5.4.2.6. China Chengtong Holdings Group ....................................................................... 82
5.4.2.7. Alibaba Group .............................................................................................................. 82
5.4.2.8. Tanzanian Railway .................................................................................................... 85
5.4.3. Other activities .........................................................................................................85
5.4.3.1. Weather Central.......................................................................................................... 85
5.4.3.2. Vallar and Vallares ..................................................................................................... 86
5.4.3.3. Volex ................................................................................................................................ 87
5.4.3.4. Rothschild’s Wine in China .................................................................................... 87
5.4.3.5. Chinese Participation in the Inclusive Capitalism Initiative .................... 90
5.4.4. Political connections ..............................................................................................92
6. Narratives on Rothschilds and the PRC 98
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
6.1. Portrayal of China in the Economist .......................................................................... 98

6.2. Portrayal of the Rothschild Family in Chinese Public Space and State-Owned
Media .................................................................................................................................. 101
6.2.1. “Currency Wars” ................................................................................................... 102
6.2.2. Media Coverage of “Fake” Rothschild in China......................................... 104
6.3. Conspiracy Theories Surrounding the Rothschilds and the PRC ................ 105
6.3.1. Rothschilds and Mao Zedong .......................................................................... 106
6.3.2. Rothschilds and Bo Xilai .................................................................................... 109
6.3.3. Rothschilds and the PRC in the Context of the New World Order .... 111
7. Conclusion 115
References 120
Appendix A The Rothschild Family Tree 153
13
LIST OF FIGURES
List of Figures
Figure 1 The coat of arms of the Rothschild family. ..................................................................29

Figure 2 The logo of the former China Banking Regulatory Commission, coincidentally
depicting the Red Shield. ......................................................................................................................48
Figure 3 Structure of the PRC’s financial system. .......................................................................49
Figure 4 Structure of political and financial institutions in the PRC. ..................................50
Figure 5 Chinese Sycee c.1903, labelled 'Superintendency of Hupeh 5th month of the
32nd year of Kuang Hsu official bank', given to Charles Rothschild (1877-1923) as a
gift, and displayed in the Bank. ..........................................................................................................53
Figure 6 Meeting of the „International Investment Fund“ under CIIC. From the left: Yu
Liping, Marc-Olivier Laurent, Dr. Wang Tianyi, and one of the fund’s managers. .........68
Figure 7 David Rothschild (seated, right) signs a cooperation deal with Dr. Wang
Tianyi (seated, left). Overseeing the deal are General Secretary Xi Jinping and
President Francois Hollande. .............................................................................................................70
Figure 8 A meeting of CIIC, Rothschild, and Chinese state representatives, April 7,
2016. Fourth from the left is Neil Bush, Co-Chairman of the CIIC and member of the
Bush family. ...............................................................................................................................................70
Figure 9 CIIC chairman Dr. Wang Tianyi (right) poses for a photo with former German
Chancellor and later senior external consultant for Rothschild & Co, Gerhard
Schroeder ...................................................................................................................................................71
Figure 10 CIIC chairman Dr. Wang Tianyi (right) with then Chairman of Rothschild &
Co, David de Rothschild. .......................................................................................................................71
Figure 11 Ye Jianming, chairman of CEFC China Energy, meets with delegates from
Rothschild & Co on May 10, 2017. Note Yu Liping’s visibly blurred face, similarly to
the photo from CIIC meeting (figure 6). .........................................................................................73
Figure 12 Baron Eric de Rothschild (in the middle) and Miss Saskia (first from the
right), Chairwoman of the Lafite Rothschild Group, at the unveiling of Penglai winery.
........................................................................................................................................................................89
Figure 13 Attendees of China-US Economists Symposium between the China Finance
40 Forum (CF40) and the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE).
Seated, on the very right, is Sir Evelyn de Rothschild. ..............................................................94
Figure 14 On April 26, 2012, Lord Jacob Rothschild (left), Chairman of the British
Rothschild Investment Trust, met with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan (right) in
Zhongnanhai, Beijing. ............................................................................................................................95
Figure 15 Lord Jacob Rothschild (upper row, in the middle) with representatives of
the China Enterpreneurs Club, London, 2012. ............................................................................96
14
GLOSSARY
Glossary
AIIB – Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

BOC – Bank of China
BOQ – Bank of Qingdao
CBIRC – China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission
CBRC – China Banking Regulatory Commission
CCP – Chinese Communist Party
CSRC – China Securities Regulatory Commission
DBR – Domaines Barons de Rothschild
EPIC – Embankment Project for Inclusive Capitalism
LCFR – La Compagnie Financière Edmond de Rothschild
PBOC – People’s Bank of China
PRC – People’s Republic of China
QDII – Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor
RIT – Rothschild Investment Trust
US – United States
WTO – World Trade Organization
15
INTRODUCTION
1. Introduction
The thesis analyses interactions between the Rothschild dynasty and the People’s Re-
public of China in its various shapes and forms. By doing so, it brings together one of
the most distinguished and wealthiest families in the world on one side, and diverse
group of state and non-state actors from the Communist party-state matrix on the
other. As the principal activities of the Rothschild dynasty since its founding have been
their financial and banking activities, these will also serve as the central theme of the
research. However, the work aims to provide a multifactor view of the researched sub-
ject and therefore is not limited to interactions of this type. Other interrelated topics
included in the research are, for example, their political connections, mutual narratives
of both parties, as well as conspiracy theories focusing on the examined entities.
For the purposes of study, the author first got acquainted with the existing litera-
ture related to the topic. Regarding the family history up to the beginning of the 21st
century, books of Nial Ferguson (The House of Rothschild: Money's Prophets, 1798-
1848; The House of Rothschild: The World's Banker 1849-1999, both published 1999)
and Frederick Morton (The Rothschilds: A Family Portrait, published 1962) served as
foundation stones for further research. Another vital source of information is the offi-
cial Rothschilds' digital archive (www.rothschildsarchive.org), which provides vast
amounts of texts, documents, biographies, photographs, and other materials related to
the family. Additionally, literature on banking and financial framework in China, par-
ticularly the PRC, was involved in the preliminary reading. According to the author's
knowledge, there has been no academic research focusing solely on the topic of Roth-
schild's interaction with China, both before and after establishing the PRC. Therefore,
the thesis can be regarded as a pioneering work of a sort.
In the terms of ideology, the Jewish banking family obviously gained its success and
prominence within the capitalist system and at times even shaped it. Take as an exam-
ple the issuing of government bonds for international markets or contribution to the
streamlining the flow of financial intelligence. At present, the family leads the Coalition
17
INTRODUCTION
for Inclusive Capitalism, which connects leaders across private, public, and civic sec-
tors, with the goal “to make capitalism inclusive and its benefits more widely and equi-
tably shared.” (Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism, 2021) Furthermore, as one of the
main financial powerbrokers behind the Great Britain in the 19th century, the Roth-
schilds were involved, though rather indirectly, in the state’s imperialist operations
and profited from the exploitation of foreign countries, including China.
On the other side is the People’s Republic of China, since its founding in 1949 run
by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The constitution states following: “The Peo-
ple’s Republic of China is a socialist state governed by a people’s democratic dictator-
ship that is led by the working class and based on an alliance of workers and peasants.
The socialist system is the fundamental system of the People’s Republic of China.
Leadership by the Communist Party of China is the defining feature of socialism with
Chinese characteristics. It is prohibited for any organization or individual to damage
the socialist system.” (The National People's Congress, 2007) In reality, the CCP de
facto acts as a single-party government in charge of various functions of the state. Its
economic system is based on the Marxist ideology, which have historically stressed the
importance of class struggle through the act of taking the power from the exploiting
bourgeois group and giving it back to the common people. In this regard, the constitu-
tion’s preamble states that in 1949, under the leadership of Mao Zedong and the CCP,
the Chinese people “overthrew the rule of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capi-
talism, won a great victory in the New Democratic Revolution, and founded the People’s
Republic of China. The Chinese people thus secured power and became masters of their
own country.” (The National People's Congress, 2007)
It is self-evident that the ideologies behind both sides of the relationship come from
diametrically opposing worldviews. The relationship between such two different enti-
ties can be studied using rational choice theory, which the author chose as an approach
to the research of their interactions. This theory, introduced in detail in the next chap-
ter, proposes that two sides of a transaction (whether economic or other) examine
18
INTRODUCTION
their options and evaluate the subsequent steps without being overly confined by ide-
ological or other parameters. The thesis will therefore try to answer the question:
What are the interactions between one of the wealthiest capitalist families in the world
and the Chinese socialist state’s various actors? The argument is that given the im-
portance and international reputation of the family, it is expected to have a non-negli-
gible trace in the PRC’s banking and financial sphere. The objective is to determine the
main characteristics of the studied interactions, how they have evolved over time and
how they fit in the broader context of the PRC’s economic reforms and opening-up.
Furthermore, because the Rothschilds’ activities have been historically surrounded
with a cloud of mystery and were closely entwined with numerous conspiracy theories,
the additional research question is: What are the mutual narratives related to the re-
searched entities and what role do their interactions play in the so-called conspiracy the-
ories?
The goal is to synthetise all aggregated data to provide a comprehensive picture of

the Red Shield dynasty and the Red China relationship. For this goal, the thesis is di-
vided into 6 parts: general introduction; theoretical framework and methodology; in-
troduction to the family historical and current background; China’s political and eco-
nomic framework; interactions between the family and the PRC (subdivided into bank-
ing, financial advisory and other interactions, as well as their political connections);
and finally, an analysis of mutual and external narratives surrounding the two sides,
with the latter focusing on the so-called conspiracy theories. The text then culminates
in a conclusion which presents the main findings of the research.
19
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY
2. Theoretical Framework and Methodology
2.1. The Rational Choice Theory
The introductory chapter showed that the two parties examined —the Rothschild dyn-
asty and various actors from the PRC—, come from very contrasting ideological back-
grounds. In principle, this discrepancy should be an obstacle to their mutual interac-
tions. Hence, if they have no common ground in this regard, on what basis do their
mutual interactions stand? The answer to this question is provided by the rational
choice theory, which the author chose as the most suitable prism for studying the re-
searched subject.
Britannica provides following definition of the rational choice theory: “Rational

choice theory, also called rational action theory or choice theory, [is a] school of thought
based on the assumption that individuals choose a course of action that is most in line
with their personal preferences.” (Britannica, 2015) Jonathan Levin and Paul Milgrom
state in their 2004 paper that: “In the standard view, rational choice is defined to mean
the process of determining what options are available and then choosing the most pre-
ferred one according to some consistent criterion.” (Levin & Milgrom, 2004) According
to another definition of theory, “individuals use rational calculations to make rational
choices and achieve outcomes that are aligned with their own personal objectives. These
results are also associated with maximizing an individual's self-interest. Using rational
choice theory is expected to result in outcomes that provide people with the greatest ben-
efit and satisfaction, given the limited option they have available.” The same article also
states that: “States, intergovernmental organizations, nongovernmental organizations,
and multinational corporations are all made up of human beings. In order to understand
the actions of these entities, we must understand the behavior of the humans running
them. Rational choice theory helps to explain how leaders and other important decision-
makers of organizations and institutions make decisions. Rational choice theory can also
attempt to predict the future actions of these actors.” (Ganti, 2021)
20
Furthermore, most classical economic theories are based on the assumptions of ra-
tional choice theory, meaning that individuals make choices that result in the optimal
level of benefit or utility for them. In other words, people would rather take actions
that benefit them versus actions that are neutral or harm them. Although criticisms of
rational choice theory argue that people are emotional and easily distracted out of the
rational thinking, or that they lack perfect access to the information needed for the
most rational decision, nevertheless the theory is “still widely applied across different
academic disciplines and fields of study.” (Ganti, 2021)
According to Scott, “[i]n rational choice theories individuals are seen as motivated by
the wants or goals that express their 'preferences'. They act within specific, given con-
straints and on the basis of the information that they have about the conditions under
which they are acting. At its simplest, the relationship between preferences and con-
straints can be seen in the purely technical terms of the relationship of a means to an end.
As it is not possible for individuals to achieve all of the various things that they want, they
must also make choices in relation to both their goals and the means for attaining these
goals. Rational choice theories hold that individuals must anticipate the outcomes of al-
ternative courses of action and calculate that which will be best for them. Rational indi-
viduals choose the alternative that is likely to give them the greatest satisfaction.” (Scott,
2000) The rational choice theory is further connected to the concept of win-win coop-
eration, an approach promoted and emphasised within the Chinese foreign policy. One
of the definitions of win-win cooperation states, that the term “usually means that the
two or more parties involved in a transaction or task can get common benefit by taking
a reciprocal approach.” And further adds that “China’s new generation of leadership with
Xi Jinping as its core has repeatedly expounded win–win cooperation on major interna-
tional occasions.” (Yang, 2019)
The reason for using rational choice theory as a prism for this research is actually
twofold. Firstly, it helps to illustrate that even two entities coming from a completely
different background with contrasting worldviews (i.e., representants of capitalist and
21
communist/socialist ideologies) may find common ground when both sides recognise
the potential benefits of such cooperation. Even though the Rothschild family and var-
ious entities in the PRC would most likely both prefer a different partner in an ideal
world, they consider factual circumstances and then act in accord with them. The sec-
ond and even more important point is that ideology and ideals are overshadowed by
practical approaches when necessary. Therefore, even though the renowned capitalist
family might disagree with the communist presuppositions of class struggle and fight
against the bourgeoisie, they will still be willing to profit from business with a country
based on such ideals. Similarly, the PRC's leadership can criticise Western economic
institutions (especially when they were historically connected to China's exploitation,
directly or indirectly), but as long as these institutions can serve as a means to an end,
it does not matter. As Deng Xiaoping once famously put it: "It doesn't matter whether a
cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice." Both sides have to make choices with a
potential positive or negative outcome, and if they aim to maximise the gains from
these choices, they have to rationally consider even the less probable partner for co-
operation.
2.2. Methodology
The thesis research falls into the case study category. This means that it focuses on a
specific subject within the broader framework of a selected issue and examines it in
depth. In this case, the researched problem is analysed with emphasis on its develop-
ment over time and on the interconnectedness of its individual aspects. The aim is to
provide a detailed insight into the studied topic and at the same time reflect it in a
broader perspective of its field.
2.2.1 Case Selection
The choice of this particular topic is based primarily on two reasons. First, the author
has long been interested in global financial, economic, and power mechanisms. In this
22
context, one cannot neglect the pivotal role that the Rothschild family has historically
played in this matter. At the same time, however, it is believed that the influence of this
family has declined significantly, and its enterprises currently rank among the second
or third-tier institutions. The goal is to analyse whether that is the case in its relations
to the activities with PRC. The second point is related to the global position of the PRC,
which has grown dramatically in importance in recent decades and is an aspiring
global leader at the time of writing. Thus, the research focuses on two crucial entities,
each of which has a privileged position in the economic sphere on its own, and tries to
examine how relevant their mutual interactions are for each other. Furthermore, the
Rothschild family has been in the epicentre of so-called conspiracy theories for centu-
ries. Therefore, the thesis juxtaposes confirmed and publicly available information on
one side with numerous speculatory and often unfounded narratives surrounding the
family and their activities in China on the other side.
2.2.2 Research Timeframe
Timeframe of the wider research follows roughly seven decades of the PRC’s existence
between 1949 and the present moment (2021). This choice allows to map and analyse
the development under different Chinese leaders and the changing circumstances of
the two sides’ interactions. Previous relations which date back to the 1830s are also
briefly mentioned, as they offer valuable insight into the roots from which subsequent
dealings have stemmed. The work thus conveys a certain idea of Rothschilds relations
with China during the Qing dynasty and right after its fall. For a period from around
the 1920s until the establishment of the PRC, direct interactions between the Roth-
schilds and the Chinese entities are not documented, with a few exceptions.
Subsequently, interactions after 1949 follow. Nevertheless, available records for in-
teractions during Mao’s era are extremely scarce, and a major turning point occurred
only after Deng Xiaoping came to power and economic reforms began in the late 1970s.
The analysed interactions then become more comprehensive in the 1980s and 1990s,
23
both in terms of their quantity and the importance of individual interactions in selected
strategic fields. By far, the majority of documented interactions took place in the 21st
century, which was primarily caused by two reasons. Firstly, the global banking and
financial system got more transparent, and in the age of the Internet, more publicly
available data exists for the past few decades. More importantly, since the PRC joined
the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, the country has established deep con-
nections with many foreign entities in banking, finance, commerce, and other fields.
Among these individuals and institutions, some had a unique position and represented
ground-breaking cooperation between China and the rest of the world, which is also
one of the reasons for this case study.
2.2.3 Research Design
The research will consist of planning, gathering, interpreting, and concluding the data
related to the selected topic and its research objectives. The thesis follows a multifac-
torial perspective in its research approach, analysing the defined entities through re-
lated academic papers, international press, financial reports, media appearances, gov-
ernment statements and documents, blogs, et cetera. Search for these materials shall
be mainly in English and Chinese terms, using a variety of phrases combining primary
keywords such as: "Rothschild", "China", "PRC"; with more detailed family entities:
"NM Rothschild & Sons", "Edmond de Rothschild", "RIT", "Rothschild & Co"; particular
people: "Jacob Rothschild", "Evelyn de Rothschild", "David de Rothschild", "Lynn For-
rester de Rothschild"; with a possible specification: "investment", "gold", "advisory",
"Bank of Qingdao", "Alibaba", "CIIC", and many more. The similar process will be real-
ised for Chinese sources with the prime search terms being: "罗斯柴尔德"，"洛希尔",
"中国"，"投资"，"黄金"，"银行"，"并购"，"阿里巴巴"，"俞丽萍"，"货币战争" and
many more. The search for English materials is primarily conducted through
Google.com, with Baidu.com being the alternative for Chinese sources, representing
the dominant search engines for their respective languages.
24
The sources used include literature mentioned in the introduction, namely books
from two authors, Nial Ferguson and Frederick Morton. An additional official source of
information is the Rothschilds' digital archive (www.rothschildsarchive.org). How-
ever, access to its business records is limited, with only documents up to the date of
1945 available for public consultation. Still, the family's timeline and additional articles
on the website provide some information on affairs related to the years 1949-2021 (i.e.
the existence of the PRC), though these are relatively low in quantity. Accordingly, ex-
tensive research needs to be planned and realised in order to find relevant and reliable
data. The media coverage related to the researched topic mostly come from established
and reputed news organisations and financial magazines, with English sources such as
Reuters, Financial Times, and Forbes, to name a few. Regarding the Chinese sources,
these were mainly 第一财经 (www.yicai.com) and 新浪财经 (www.fi-
nance.sina.com.cn). Because a majority of the analysed interactions are between the
family members and Chinese state-related entities (e.g. representatives of state-owned
enterprises, government officials, politicians, et cetera), some of the most important
sources of data are those under the domain ".gov.cn", representing sites with a Chinese
government connection.
Vast amounts of aggregated data will then be filtered by relevance to the research
objectives and collected information further chronologically and thematically sorted.
This way, the data can be properly analysed to see how the relationship between the
two sides has evolved, and to meet other research objectives mentioned above.
2.2.4 Research Limitations
The fundamental research limitation comes from the fact that the family prefers to
maintain privacy and avoid unnecessary publicity, as some of its members openly
acknowledged. (Fenghuang Weishi, 2013) In this regard, it was proven only after a long
time through a number of leaked documents that the family is heavily involved in off-
shore funds operations and deliberately makes their (and their clients') fortune hard
25
to probe into. This is related to the fact that one of the pillars of Rothschilds businesses
has been traditionally private banking, in which the public has no chance to find out
the details of contracts if clients do not desire to. For these reasons, the research will
predominantly include companies officially and undoubtedly connected to the family
and those which bear "Rothschild" in their name. Therefore, firms with the highest
coverage include Rothschild & Co, Edmond de Rothschild Group, NM Rothschild &
Sons, or RIT, to name a few. Still, the work also presents some companies where prov-
ing definite ownership is somewhat complicated but where reasonable indications ex-
ist that the family is involved. Similarly, the PRC government and state organs may not
be interested in making some of its interactions with Western institutions publicly
available, partly or wholly, for various reasons. That is especially the case in the first
decades of the state's existence. At that time, the country was isolated from the West
and pushed numerous campaigns against capitalist and bourgeois elements, which
Rothschilds undoubtedly represent.
The author is also aware that after centuries of existence the family is now consid-
erably diverse, and its individual branches might not always act as a single, monolithic
entity. As Lord Jacob Rothschild put it in his interview on October 28, 2012: “Let’s say
that we [Rothschilds] are all very close, but also that we all compete with each other. For
example, Chateau Lafite is a competitor of Chateau Mouton, which belongs to another
branch of the family. And my cousin Benjamin’s banks compete with those of the French
Rothschilds, and so it goes on.” (Elkann, 2012) Still, the members are united by the
prominent surname, blood ties of their common ancestry, and in most cases, also
through their business interests. Furthermore, for external observers Rothschilds pre-
sent a phenomenon that can take on many forms, but its existence is unavoidably
deemed as unique and distinct from anything and anyone else.
26
INTRODUCTION TO THE FAMILY BACKGROUND
3. Introduction to the Family Background

For more than two centuries, the Rothschilds have ranked amongst the world's most
famous, distinguished, and wealthiest families. It is not an overstatement to say that
the family members were the richest people ever to live, as Nial Ferguson confirms in
the family's official biography. (Ferguson, 1998) Although their position has suppos-
edly declined compared to the apex of their influence in the 19th century, Rothschild
still represents a highly respected name in the modern global banking and financial
ecosystem. Even those who care less about banking and finances probably came across
the family at least once in their lives. More than two hundred animals and tens of plants
bear the family name (e.g. Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi, or flame lily Gloriosa roth-
schildiana), as well as numerous towns and streets in Israel, the world's most luxurious
wine brands, and there is even a Rothschild Island in the Antarctic. (Ferguson, 1998)
Another source of knowledge comes from anecdotes and conspiracy theories, which
portray the family in a not so romantic way. Still, the main activities the dynasty is
known for remain in the banking and financial sphere, which also represents the focal
point of the thesis. Firstly, however, we need to understand the origins of the Roth-
schild phenomenon and the context which allowed them to enjoy unprecedented
growth.
3.1. The Roots of the Dynasty
The roots of the dynasty as we know it can be traced to the 18th century’s Judengasse
(Jew’s Lane) in Frankfurt am Main, present Germany. There, in 1744, Mayer Amschel
Bauer was born to the descendants of Jewish merchants. As his ancestors had previ-
ously lived1 in the house called “zum rothen Schild”, which translates to “with the red
shield”, they adopted the symbol as a family surname. Mayer Amschel was originally
1 In 1785, Rothschilds moved to the larger semi-detached House of the Green Shield, managing the
family business from there. (The Rothschild Archive, n.d.-a).
27
involved in trading rare coins, medals, and antiques, having learnt the rudiments of the
business in the Hanover house of Oppenheim, another prominent Jewish banking fam-
ily. He then moved on to serve as an agent at the court of prince William from the Ger-
man state of Hesse-Kassel. Over the years, the portion of his income gradually turned
in favor of banking business. As Fergusson states: “At the beginning of the 1790s Mayer
Amschel Rothschild was no more than a prosperous antique-dealer. By 1797 he was one
of the richest Jews in Frankfurt, and a central part of his business was unmistakably bank-
ing.” (Ferguson, 1998)
Together with his wife, Guttle Schnaper2, they had 19 children, out of which five
sons and five daughters lived to reach adulthood: Schönhe (b. 1771), Amschel Mayer
(b. 1773), Salomon Mayer (b. 1774), Nathan Mayer (b. 1777), Isabella or Betty (b.
1781), Breunle or Babette (b. 1784), Kalman or Carl (b. 1788), Gotton or Julie (b. 1790),
Jettchen or Henrietta (b. 1791) and Jakob or James (b. 1792). (Ferguson, 1998) These
descendants formed the first tier of what later became the renowned Rothschild dyn-
asty.
2 Guttle survived her husband by 37 years and lived to an admirable age of 96 years. (Morton, 1962)
28
Figure 1 The coat of arms of the Rothschild family.
Source: Pinterest. Available from: https://www.pinterest.cl/pin/710372541193512107/
3.2. Establishing the Five Houses
Soon Mayer Amschel realised that in order to grow the family profits further, they need
to expand operations into other markets and establish new offices there. A true break-
through of the family network thus came when the brothers were sent to important
European cities. Nathan moved to London, Solomon to the Austro-Hungarian centre in
Vienna, Carl set out to Naples, James settled in Paris, and Amschel continued the busi-
ness in the hometown of Frankfurt. By creating this interconnected web and lines of
communication3, they could help each other in times of crisis and share profits in their
3 It is worth mentioning that exchange of the early letters between family members was conducted in a
sophisticated and secretive way, as Morton illustrates: “Before long this correspondence was conveyed in
29
heyday. This unique structure made the family operations much more durable and able
to react swiftly to the actual needs of the rest of the brothers. Ferguson frames its im-
portance with the following words: “If there was a single “secret” of Rothschild success
it was the system of co-operation between the five houses which made then, when consid-
ered as a whole, the largest bank in the world, while at the same time dispersing their
financial influence in five major financial centers spread across Europe.” (Ferguson,
1998)
3.2.1. The Frankfurt House
As a result of his business, Mayer Amschel amassed an immense fortune. In 1810, he

established a partnership with the four sons still in Frankfurt and renamed his firm M
A Rothschild und Söhne. When he died on 19 September 1812, his oldest son, Amschel
Mayer, assumed control over the firm. As Frederic Morton claims: "Amschel was the
first of the Rothschilds. It was his chore to apply for honors and consulships on his broth-
ers' behalf; to condole or congratulate emperors and kings; to be spokesman for the Great
Five." (Morton, 1962) He followed his father's footsteps and kept a close connection to
the Royal house of Hesse as well as numerous other elite personas of the German Con-
federation. However, because Amschel died sonless, management of the House was
first passed on his two nephews, descendants of Carl and James, and later in 1901, the
House was closed with the remaining business to be transferred to the Disconto Ge-
sellschaft of Berlin. (The Rothschild Archive, n.d.-b) Whole 88 years later, in 1989, the
London and Paris Rothschilds announced the opening of a Frankfurt subsidiary, Roth-
schild GmbH, which marked the return of a Rothschild bank to the city from where the
family business had originated. (The Rothschild Archive, n.d.-a)
the private Rothschild coach. The coach had a false bottom, and the letters a secret language consisting of
a jumble of Hebrew, Yiddish and German and a code system of pseudonyms. English investments were called
"stockfish." Old Rothschild turned into "Arnoldi," as if he were the hero of an Italian romance; whereas His
Serene Highness, Prince William, was Judaized into "Herr Goldstein."” (Morton, 1962)
30
3.2.2. The London House
On the eve of the 19th century, Mayer Amschel sent his third son Nathan to England's
Manchester to seize the business opportunity in textile manufacturing and cloth
wholesale, which emerged from the industrial revolution. He relied on "high turnover
and modest profits", taking advantage of bypassing the middlemen and purchasing tex-
tiles direct from the manufacturers. (The Rothschild Archive, n.d.-a) In 1806, Nathan
married a daughter of a wealthy London merchant and, upon settling in the capital's
New Court, St Swithin's Lane (where the family offices remain as of May 2021), estab-
lished the London banking house – N M Rothschild. The firm then left wholesale busi-
ness and engaged in bullion and foreign exchange, issued loans, and provided banking
facilities to its clients. Its follow-up company, N M Rothschild & Sons, established itself
as the flagship of the family business and "was to become one of the most renowned
banks in the world". (The Rothschild Archive, n.d.-d)
Already in the second and third decade of 19th century, Rothschild's wealth
reached an unprecedented level and catapulted the family to a dominant force of the
London economy, which by then established itself as the capital of global imperial
power. Regarding this era, Morton states that "Rothschild was now banker to empires
and continents – to all the principal European countries, to Eurasian Russia, to the Amer-
icas, to the Indies. ... Upon the Rothschild vaults converged the credit of the Western
World." (Morton, 1961) Or as Nathan put it in his own evidence to the Bank Committee
in 1832, which Ferguson quotes: "This country in general is the Bank for the whole
world… all transactions in India, in China, in Germany, in the whole world, are guided
here, and settled through this country." (Ferguson, 1998)
3.2.3. The Paris House
In the first decade of the 19th century, Amschel's youngest son, James Mayer, set out
to France, with his first steps leading to a small port of Gravelines in Northern France.
There he acted as a counterpart for the cross-channel business with his brother Nathan
31
in London, circumventing the Continental blockade set by Napoleon. In 1817, James

established a permanent business in Paris under the corporate name of de Rothschild
Frères with his brothers as partners. Shortly after, in 1823, the Paris House was al-
ready acting as a banker to the French government. At the edge of the 20th century,
the family's French business - de Rothschild Frères - ranked amongst the biggest banks
in the country, and later by developing substantial interests in Russian oil fields. The
bank formed the Caspian and Black Sea Petroleum Company, which quickly became
the region's second-largest oil producer. (The Rothschild Archive, n.d.-e)
3.2.4. The Vienna House
Family’s business and banking connections to Vienna were already established by the
end of the 18th century. However, when prince Metternich entered negotiations with
Rothschilds for a large loan in 1820, the complex arrangements required the presence
of a family member on-site. Salomon Mayer thus moved to the city and established a
bank there. Operations in the Austrian Empire included investments in the immense
coal and ironworks of Witkowice (Vítkovice) in Silesia, founding the United Coal Mines
of Vítkovice and Austro-Hungarian Blast Furnace Company, creating one of the biggest
European industrial hubs of iron and steel production. (The Rothschild Archive, n.d.-f)
By financing the construction of railways from the vaults of Viennese and Parisian
branches, the Rothschilds also brought the locomotive to Europe and subsequently
other continents. By the 1860s, the project expanded to almost a pan-European railway
network, extending northwards from France to Belgium, southwards to Spain and
eastwards to Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Italy, later adding Brazil, India, or the
USA. (Ferguson, 1998)
3.2.5. The Naples house
In 1821, Kalmann (Carl) Mayer headed to Naples, Italy, to establish the fifth and last
Rothschild House. Similarly to the other firms, business in Naples operated in the field
of acceptance and exchange, and traded in commodities such as copper, silver, oil, corn
32
and tobacco. The firm's success attracted the attention of the Holy See, and Carl was
able to establish a close business connection with the Vatican and Pope Gregory XVI.
(Morton, 1962) However, the last family House to open was the first one to close. Ac-
cording to the Archive, Carl's son Adolphe was bought out of the partnership by his
cousins after meeting in Paris in September 1863, and the Naples house was subse-
quently terminated. (The Rothschild Archive, n.d.-g)
3.2.6. The Rothschilds and the Napoleonic Wars
Following the eruption of the Napoleonic wars, Rothschilds' wealth reached an unprec-
edented level. The family owed some of its success to hiding prince William's immense
fortune from Napoleon's army traversing Europe. Nathan built another pipeline for
profit by smuggling goods, foodstuffs, and colonial wares declared contraband by Na-
poleon's Channel blockade. This scheme also helped with providing funds to Welling-
ton's armies. Third and by far the most significant success came in June 1815, right
after Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo. Then, thanks to the unrivalled use of secret routes
and fast couriers employed by the family, Nathan was probably the first person on the
British Isles to know the result of the battle. After informing the representatives of the
British government, he proceeded to the Stock Exchange, where he played the market
as so other financiers think Napoleon had won the battle and England's existence might
be in grave danger. Morton explains: "Another man in his position would have sunk his
worth into consols4. But this was Nathan Rothschild. He leaned against "his" pillar. He did
not invest. He sold. He dumped consols. ... Consols dived, consols plummeted until, a split
second before it was too late, Nathan suddenly bought a giant parcel for a song. Moments
afterwards the great news broke, to send consols soaring." (Morton, 1962)
4 Consol is a contraction for "Consolidated Annuities". These were a form of British government
stock that originated in 1751 and had no maturity date, meaning that the interest payments would
continue indefinitely. (Britannica, 2017a)
33
3.2.7. The Rothschilds’ Wider Network of Agents
Though government finance was the most important and profitable part of the family
activities, they were also involved in numerous connected activities. These ranged
from merchant banking based on the acceptance of commercial bills or bills of ex-
change, price arbitrage on the international market, gold and silver bullion production
and selling, commodity trade, and insurance. Due to the vastness and diversification
of the Rothschild network, it is understandable that this ever-increasing volume of ac-
tivities exceeded the capacities of five brothers. Especially the long-term foreign oper-
ations and commodity trade conducted in the new key markets (namely New York,
New Orleans, Havana, St Petersburg and Madrid) called for a stable and reliable repre-
sentation there. For this reason, Ferguson states, “… it was necessary not only to expand
the number of partners by initiating the new generation into the management of the five
houses, but also to increase the number of clerks in the five offices and to establish a select
group of salaried agents employed to take care of the bank’s interests in such new mar-
kets.” (Ferguson, 1998)
According to Ferguson, probably the most important Rothschild agent in the 1830s
was Daniel Weisweiller, who had been sent to Madrid. It was in Spain where in 1835
Rothschilds acquired Almadén company, specializing in quicksilver production and
gold refinement. This enterprise was extremely significant in upcoming decades, be-
cause in 1852, the London House was granted a lease on the Royal Mint Refinery and
basically created a monopoly in gold bullion production. Gold as a raw material was an
object of interest in the Californian gold rush, where Rothschilds seized the oppor-
tunity and placed several of their agents. Furthermore, between 1834 and 1843, N M
Rothschild acted as Banker to the US Government in Europe. (The Rothschild Archive,
n.d.-c) Their success on the American soil5 was partially made thanks to the East coast
5 Interestingly enough, banking and financial activities in the USA also brought tremendous wealth to
the Schiff family, which occupied the other half of the Rothschild’s semi-detached house in Frankfurt.
(Ferguson, 1998) Jacob H. Schiff (1847-1920) for a short time followed his father Moses’ vocation
34
operation led by August Belmont (born Schönberg), quoted to be “one of the richest
Americans of his day” and “a fixture of New York’s high society”. Belmont later became
directly involved in politics and raised to the chairmanship of the Democratic National
Committee. (Britannica, 2020a)
3.3. Rothschilds in the 20th Century
Compared to its rivals, the Rothschilds’ banking enterprise was supposedly less prof-
itable and grew less rapidly years prior to the Great War, however N. M. Rothschild
alone still represented “not only the biggest private bank in London, but one of the
biggest banks of any kind in the world.” (Ferguson, 1999) On 12 September 1919, just
a few months after the Treaty of Versailles ended the Great War, Rothschilds reached
another financial milestone. On that day, the first-ever Gold Fixing took place at Lon-
don’s New Court, in the offices of N M Rothschild & Sons. The London House was joined
by 4 other major bullion firms - Mocatta & Goldsmid, Pixley & Abell, Samuel Montagu
& Co. and Sharps Wilkins. For the rest of the 20th century, up to 2004, gold price on
the global markets would be set under the Rothschilds’ supervision. Growing anti-Se-
mitic tensions and discriminating policies of Nazi Germany in 1930s posed a severe
threat to the Rothschilds’ European imperium. Following the Anschluss of Austria,
Louis von Rothschild (1882-1955), the head of Viennese branch, was held prisoner un-
der the house arrest for a year, and even was personally visited by Heinrich Himmler
at that time. (Morton, 1961) Only after lengthy negotiations and paying some $21
as a Rothschilds’ broker and subsequently moved to the United States. There, by 1875, he gained
partnership and soon leadership in one of the leading investment banks Kuhn, Loeb & Co. (Jewish
Encyclopedia, n.d.-a) Later, Kuhn, Loeb & Co. became the principal financial backer of John D. Rock-
efeller, Sr., particularly his railroad empire, as well as participation in loans to the Imperial Japanese
government in 1904-1905 and for the Chinese government in 1911. (Chernow, 2004) At the verge
of the 20th century, Jacob H. Schiff was a prominent New York financier, philanthropist, and pro-
moter of establishing the US central bank, Federal Reserve, in 1913. (Cohen, 1999)
35
million to Nazi regime was Louis set free, left the country and later moved to the US.
(Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 1955)
In the decade following the second world war Rothschilds continued to expand
their activities across numerous countries and all continents. 6 For this purpose the
family established, merged, renamed, or even closed several banking and financial en-
tities of which some are relevant for the thesis’ practical part. For example, 1963 saw
the birth of La Compagnie Financière Edmond de Rothschild (LCF), founded by Ed-
mond de Rothschild (1926-1997). This Swiss-based firm began as a venture capital
house and later developed into a full-fledged investment bank and asset management
company, with a range of affiliates. (The Rothschild Archive, n.d.-a) Another set of fi-
nancial entities was founded by Jacob, 4th Lord Rothschild (born 1936), who originally
joined N M Rothschild & Sons in 1963 but subsequently left in 1980 to pursue inde-
pendent business interests. Those included but were not limited to Rothschild Invest-
ment Trust (now RIT Capital Partners plc) and J. Rothschild Assurance Group (now St.
James's Place plc). Since 1976 the chairmanship of the London House was held by his
cousin Sir Evelyn de Rothschild (born 1931), who besides this position concurrently
acted as Chairman of the Economist (1972-1989), Director of Charter Consolidated
(1973), Chairman of British Merchant Banking & Securities House Association (1985–
1989), Deputy Chairman of the Milton Keynes Development Corporation (1971–1984),
Director of De Beers Consolidated Mines (1977–1994), and Director of IBM United
Kingdom Holdings Limited (1972–1995). He maintained the chairmanship of N M
Rothschild & Sons until 2003, when he oversaw the merger of the family's French and
6 As already mentioned in the opening chapter, there is even Rothschild Island in the Antarctic. The
island was discovered in 1905 by a French polar expedition and was named after the Édouard Al-
phonse James de Rothschild, a prominent figure in the French banking family. (Alison, 2021) Exactly
a century later, in 2004/05, the ski expedition co-hosted by David de Rothschild (born 1978) made
a 1 650km long traverse of Antarctica via the South Pole. (International Polar Foundation, n.d.)
36
UK houses together with his cousin Baron David de Rothschild. The latter then became
Chairman of the newly established Rothschild & Co. (The Rothschild Archive, n.d.-i)
In 1961, Victor, 3rd Lord Rothschild7 (1910-1990) began work for Shell Research
Ltd., of which he was chairman from 1963 until his retirement in 1970. From 1971 to
1974, he was the first Director-General of the Central Policy Review Staff (or simply
"think tank") in the United Kingdom. From 1975 to 1976, Victor chaired N M Rothschild
and Sons Limited and remained active in the firm until he died in 1990. The main family
business was driven by Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, who first became a Partner in N M
Rothschild & Sons in 1959 and a Chairman in 1976. Besides that, he chaired the Roth-
schilds Continuation Holdings AG, which acted as a coordinating company for the mer-
chant banking group. (The Rothschild Archive, n.d.-a)
In 1996, N M Rothschild & Sons Limited formed an equity capital markets joint ven-
ture with ABN AMRO, naming the new venture ABN AMRO Rothschild. The family ar-
chive elucidates on this: "The joint venture combined Rothschilds' extensive capital mar-
kets advisory experience with ABN AMRO's global, research, distribution and trading ca-
pabilities to provide a full advisory and execution service to governments and corpora-
tions worldwide in the field of privatizations, international equity offerings, equity capital
raisings and private placements." (The Rothschild Archive, n.d.-a) The family further
commented on their role in privatization in an archived statement from Rothschild &
Co website: "The 1980s gave birth to the international phenomenon of privatisation.
Rothschild was involved from the beginning and developed a pioneering role which
spread out to more than 30 countries worldwide." (Rothschild, 2011)
When Ferguson published his book in 1999, he stated that the structure of the
group was as follows: “At the top of the “pyramid” is Rothschilds Continuation Holdings
7 Victor, a descendant of the British family branch, scientist, and acclaimed intelligence officer, had
proven connections to the Cambridge network (also known as "Cambridge Four" or "Cambridge
Five"), which has reportedly "gone down in history as one of Soviet secret service's most successful
penetrations". (Hackard, 2018)
37
AG, a Zurich-based holding company, the principal investments of which are the following
nineteen firms, here grouped geographically:
• N. M. Rothschild & Sons Ltd, Rothschilds Continuation Ltd, N. M. Rothschild Corporate
Finance Ltd and Rothschild Asset Management Ltd (UK)
• N. M. Rothschild & Sons (CI) Ltd and Rothschild Asset Management (CI) Ltd (Channel
Islands)
• Rothschild & Cie Banque and Rothschild & Cie (France)
• Rothschild Bank AG (Switzerland)
• Rothschild Europe BV and Rothschild Asset Management International Holdings BV
(Netherlands)
• Rothschild North America Inc. and Rothschild Asset Management Inc. (US)
• N. M. Rothschild & Sons (Australia) Ltd, N. M. Rothschild Australia Holdings Pty Ltd
and Rothschild Australia Asset Management Ltd
• N. M. Rothschild & Sons (Hong Kong) Ltd and Rothschild Asset Management (Hong
Kong) Ltd
• N. M. Rothschild & Sons (Singapore) Ltd”
Ferguson further added that the N. M. Rothschild group was “controlled by the fam-
ily through another Swiss company—Rothschild Concordia AG—which has a majority
(52.4 per cent) stake in Rothschilds Continuation Holdings AG. Closely linked to this struc-
ture is the Paris-Orléans holding company which controls 37 per cent of Rothschild & Cie
Banque in Paris, around 40 per cent of Rothschild North America, 22 per cent of Roth-
schild Canada and 40 per cent of Rothschild Europe.” In addition to the affiliated com-
panies listed above, there were also smaller subsidiaries, and thus “[i]n 1997 there were
offices in Argentina, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Indonesia,
38
Isle of Man, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Russia,
South Africa and Zimbabwe.” (Ferguson, 1999)
3.4. Rothschilds in the 21st century
The very beginning of the 21st century illustrates the continuity of the family proximity
to political power. In 2000, during the finishing presidency of Bill Clinton, Sir Evelyn
de Rothschild and Lynn Forrester had their honeymoon at the White House. (Godwin,
2017) In 2004, Rothschilds sold their place in the Gold Fixing scheme to Bank Nova
Scotia. In his 2009 interview for CCTV in《对话》 "Dialogue" program, David René de
Rothschild said it was his decision, based on the fact that in a low margin gold market,
the company had to manage vast quantities of the commodity in order to make a profit,
and it was no longer an essential undertaking for them. (Leung, 2014) Nathaniel Roth-
schild, a descendent of the British branch, co-founded the company Atticus in 1995. In
the following decade, it became one of Wall Street's most powerful hedge funds "with
$10-billion of assets under administration" and "a reputation for playing rough." Report-
edly named after Atticus Finch, the fearless lawyer who fights for the underdog in To
Kill A Mockingbird, the fund "had helped derail a bid by Germany's Deutsche Bourse to
acquire the London Stock Exchange and pushed European steel maker Arcelor to merge
with rival Mittal Steel Co". (McNish, 2006)
Later, several prominent politicians arrived on the political stage with an experi-
ence from one of the Rothschild's banks. To name just some of the alumni, French Pres-
ident Emmanuel Macron earned about €2.9m as an investment banker at Rothschild
between 2008 and 2010, notably for his role in advising Nestlé on the acquisition of a
Pfizer unit. (Chassany, 2017) Even though Sir Evelyn and Lady Lynn openly supported
Hillary Clinton in the 2016 US Presidential Elections (Godwin, 2017), they had a rather
interesting connection to Donald Trump's Cabinet. The reason is Trump's appointment
of one of the most experienced former Rothschild employees in America, Wilbur Ross,
as Secretary of Commerce. Though this might seem only a coincidence and far-fetched
39
speculation, the fact is that between the 1970s and 1990s, Ross spent 25 years in Roth-
schild Inc, heading the bankruptcy division, and more importantly, it was Ross who
provided massive loans which helped Trump keep his ownership of the Taj Mahal ca-
sino during the 1980s credit crisis. (Alexander, 2017)
When the French and British branches decided to merge its companies in 2003, a
new family business flagship emerged - Rothschild & Co. The company's website states
the following: "We provide M&A, strategy and financing advice, as well as investment
and wealth management solutions to large institutions, families, individuals and govern-
ments, worldwide." It then quite openly defines the company's position: "Having been
at the centre of the world's financial markets for over 200 years, we can rely on an unri-
valled global network of trusted professionals and decision makers. This means that we
have in-depth market intelligence, bringing us closer to current issues than any other
global financial institution." As of 2020, the firm had 3,600 employees in over 50 offices
around the world, with three business lines: Global Advisory, Wealth and Asset Man-
agement, and Merchant Banking. (Rothschild & Co, 2020)
In 2016, Rothschild Trust Guernsey Limited, now Sequent (Guernsey) Limited, was
listed amongst the top 10 users of Panamanian legal firm Mossack Fonseca, alongside
HSBC, Coutts, UBS, and others. (Mohdin, 2016) According to the leaked millions of doc-
uments later to become known as Panama Papers, these institutions have been creat-
ing offshore tax havens for their clients for decades, during which they "asked the law
firm to set up hundreds of the near 15,600 paper companies to help clients conceal
their finances". (Goodway, 2016) Another set of confidential documents acquired by
the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) show that Thyssen,
Sachs and Rothschild families were among Switzerland's largest law firm clients in es-
tablishing secretive offshore entities. Peter Hafter, one of the mainstay attorneys in the
largest Swiss law firm Lenz & Staehelin, established 18 trusts in the Cook Islands for
Baron Elie de Rothschild, the founder and former president of the Rothschild Bank in
Zurich, who died in 2007. While this practice is officially known as "asset protection" in
40
commercial legalese, some experts argue it represents tax avoidance and evasion.
(Plattner et al., 2013)
Regarding the size and potential global impact, probably the most significant pro-
ject currently managed by the family is the Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism, of which
Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild is the founder and Chief Executive. The Coalition for
Inclusive Capitalism has several subprojects, such as The Council for Inclusive Capital-
ism with the Vatican, defined as "a historic collaboration of CEOs and global leaders
working with the moral authority of Pope Francis and Cardinal Peter Turkson … to har-
ness the private sector to create a capitalism that is more fair, inclusive, and sustainable."
(Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism, 2020) Another vital subproject is The Embankment
Project for Inclusive Capitalism (EPIC), launched in 2017. According to its 2018 report:
"The Coalition, EY [Ernst & Young] and 31 companies, asset managers and asset owners,
with approximately USD 30 trillion of assets under management, came together in pur-
suit of a single goal: to identify and create new metrics to measure and demonstrate long-
term value to financial markets." (Embankment Project for Inclusive Capitalism, 2018)
However, several commentators have raised the proposition that the Initiative is
not going deep enough to improve society's functioning, or even worse, only acts as a
distraction for the global masses. For example, an article in The Guardian reflects on
its 2014 Conference in this tone: "The Initiative for Inclusive Capitalism's recommenda-
tions for reform seem well-meaning at first glance, but in reality barely skim the surface
of capitalism's growing crisis tendencies: giant corporations should invest in more job
training, should encourage positive relationships and partnerships with small- and me-
dium-sized businesses, and – while not jettisoning quarterly turnovers – should also ac-
count for ways of sustaining long-term value for shareholders." And then directly points
to the Initiative's founders: "Their focus, in de Rothschild's words in the Wall Street Jour-
nal, is cosmetic: repairing "capitalism's bruised image" in order to protect the "common
long-term interests of investors and of the capitalist system."" (Ahmed, 2014)
41
CHINA’S POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC FRAMEWORK
4. China’s Political and Economic Framework

There are not many countries that went through a more turbulent development in past
centuries than China. For more than two millennia, the country was reigned by a num-
ber of successive dynasties (or hereditary monarchical regimes), in which the Emperor
had traditionally held the highest power over society as well as its economic and polit-
ical aspects. Throughout the history, China has undergone alternating cycles of pros-
perity and decline, but eventually reached the position of one of the world's largest and
most advanced economies. Within the international framework, Chinese rulers re-
garded self-sufficiency in high regard and thus avoided far reaching expansionist
tendencies, even though the country had the means to become a colonial power many
decades before the European countries in the 15th century started to dominate other
continents. China traditionally engaged in tea, silk, porcelain, and manufactured goods
export, which over time created large, favorable trade balance with the West and kept
it until the First Opium War (1839-1842). (Suzuki, 2021)
When Rothschilds conducted their first cooperation with the Middle Kingdom in
1838, it was under the reign of Daoguang (道光), the 7th Emperor of the Qing Dynasty.
After suffering the defeat from Western powers in the Opium Wars, China had to open
various treaty ports along its coast for international trade, with foreigners operating
under the extraterritorial law. (Suzuki, 2021) This event brought fundamental and
long-lasting changes to the Chinese monetary and banking system, coming from the
simultaneous establishment of Western merchant houses and later banks that engaged
in money exchange and trade finance. Those banks, coming from the West as well as
Japan, began to accept deposits and issue bank notes convertible into silver. Signing of
the Sino-Japanese treaty of Shimonoseki in 1896 expanded the scope of foreign direct
investment and further strengthened the political control of foreign business interest
at the expense of China’s central authority. This had at least two consequences of great
importance. Firstly, the Qing court recognised the need of a modern bank and in 1897
founded the Imperial Bank of China. Secondly, during the last years of its existence,
42
there was a genuine imperial attempt to establish a silver standard and mint a national
silver dollar. However, after the unsuccessful attempt to modernise and restore its for-
mer position, the Qing dynasty saw its fall in 1912. (Ma, 2012)
After the collapse of the dynastic China, the country found itself in a turmoil of the
Republican era (also termed as the Warlord era) and the regime of the first President
of the Republic of China, Yuan Shikai, was confronted with severe fiscal shortfalls. After
his death in 1916, several other local warlords struggled for power, but eventually the
Warlord Era ended in 1928, when Chiang Kai-shek and the Chinese Nationalist Party
(Guomindang) unified China. (Britannica, 2017b) The political disintegration brought
unintended jurisdictional and economic competition, in which the International Settle-
ment area of Shanghai emerged as China’s financial centre. The Chinese capital how-
ever grew rapidly and the 1920s marked the so-called “Golden Age” of Chinese modern
banks, when issuance of banknotes by Bank of China and Bank of Communication grew
rapidly and soon overshadowed the Western banks such as HSBC or the Chartered
Bank (now known as the Standard Chartered), as well as banks from Russia or Japan.
China’s adherence to a silver standard probably allowed China to eschew the worst
effects of the Great Depression connected to a global Gold standard. Then, in 1937,
China faced the full-scale invasion from Japan, followed by a massive civil War and the
hyper-inflation of the late 1940s. This brought an end to the Nationalist rule and a vic-
torious Communist government emerged to create a command economy that elimi-
nated both private markets and money. (Ma, 2012)
4.1. The Political and Economic Framework of the PRC
After the PRC was founded on 1 October 1949 by the CCP’s leader Mao Zedong, a new
sociopolitical system that stressed the class struggle and the fight against bourgeois
emerged in China. At the same time, Guomindang nationalist government led by Chiang
Kai-shek moved to Taiwan, where the de facto independent Republic of China exists
ever since. When this division occurred, Western countries supported Chiang Kai-shek
43
and thus concentrated their political and economic interests on the relatively small is-
land East of the PRC’s mainland. As a part of the Communist bloc, China oriented its
diplomacy, trade, cultural exchange and others mainly to the USSR. Nevertheless, when
Mao initiated the Great Leap Forward at the turn of the 1950s, China saw its agriculture
get annihilated in an attempt to become one of the global leaders in heavy industry.
The subsequent disastrous famine that killed tens of millions were caused partly by
the gradual ideological and economic division with the Soviet Union and basically be-
coming isolated, partly by a severe drought and drastically reduced crop yield, and
partly by the social engineering mismanagement. However, things started to change in
1971, Taiwan was replaced by the PRC at the United Nations Security Council. A year
later, Richard Nixon was the first US President to visit the PRC, marking a historical
change in the acceptance of the communist party-state by Western countries (and their
banking and financial institutions, for that matter). Regarding the banking system in
Mao’s era, Cousin states that: “Before the start of the reforms in 1978, the banking system
was just one of many parts of a huge state administration. Financial flows were organised
around the planning exercises for the whole economy and flows were directed to specific
industries and regions based on political decisions.” (Cousin, 2011)
Wider opening-up of the Chinese banking sector began in 1979, when foreign banks
were first allowed to open representative offices in China, and then, from 1982, to set
up branches in the special economic zones (SEZs). This geographical restriction was
substituted with a new list of 23 cities in 1994 and then lifted altogether after China’s
accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, with Beijing agreeing to
undertake a series of financial liberalization policies. The article of Li et al. on Conse-
quences of China’s Opening to Foreign Banks states that “… despite revisions to regula-
tions to allow foreign banks national treatment, invisible barriers to China’s banking sec-
tor mean that foreign banks are disadvantaged. For example, language and cultural bar-
riers in reality often force foreign banks to focus on elite clients – the “cream-skimming”
effect.” (2015) Foreign banks were also encouraged to incorporate locally, and those
granted this license did enjoy national treatment in terms of registered capital, branch
44
opening rights, required operating capital and regulatory standards. The Central Fi-
nancial Work Commission (CFWC) was created in 1998 under aegis of Jiang Zemin, in
order to supervise the Chinese financial system on behalf of the CCP. However, the new
Wen Jiabao government decided to end the CFWC-led approach in 2003 and redele-
gated the oversight functions to the four-headed structure of the People’s Bank of
China (PBOC), China Banking Regulation Commission (CBRC), China Securities Regu-
lation Commission (CSRC), and China Insurance Regulation Commission (CIRC). (Chin,
2013)
China’s accession to the WTO in 2001 at first induced a loosening effect on Party
control of the financial sector and promised a gradual opening of the domestic financial
sector to foreign financial institutions. Over the years, the so called “troika reforms”
(opening of the financial industry, exchange rate liberalization and relaxation of capital
control) have made coordinated progress and created a favorable financial environ-
ment for China’s economic growth. The entry of foreign financial institutions has com-
pelled domestic financial institutions to achieve greater improvement in product de-
sign, market development, business models, management experience and other as-
pects. Since China joined the WTO, all those areas that have thoroughly opened and
actively participated in the global allocation of resources—China’s finance, commerce,
agriculture, automobile and other industries—have achieved better development,
strong competitiveness and high degrees of internationalization. However, experts
claim that the openness of China’s financial system is still insufficient and the overall
market share of foreign financial institutions in China is low, “much lower than in major
developed economies and most developing countries”. There are still many discrimina-
tory provisions in regard to the ownership ratio and business scope of foreign financial
institutions. Additionally, the breadth and depth of China’s financial market is not suf-
ficient, and the accounting, audit and taxation systems are underdeveloped, leaving
much room for improvement. (Jun et al., 2020)
45
Commentators had two major concerns about foreign banks entering China’s finan-
cial market in the first decade of the 21st century. The first was that foreign banks pos-
sessed advantages over domestic banks, including greater product variety, broader in-
ternational networks and more advanced risk-management skills. It was not implausi-
ble to think that domestic banks would be crowded out of the market, or even collapse
once foreign banks enjoyed ‘national treatment’. Secondly, unlike domestic banks, for-
eign banks in China were under the control of their parent corporations, which some
feared could ultimately become a source of financial instability for China. Retrospec-
tively, the fears were not necessary. Although foreign banks have expanded quite dra-
matically since 2003, at least in terms of their numbers and volume of their total assets,
the relative size of foreign banks compared to domestic Chinese institutions remained
negligible – less than 2 per cent of total banking assets. (Li et al., 2015)
At this point, it is also important to mention a role of Tech giants in Chinese banking,
for two reasons at least. First, they have become important players in the industry over
time, mainly through unprecedented technological advancements, aggregation of mas-
sive data sets, and through the exploitation of a looser legal framework compared to
regular banks. Second, the most successful of them, Alibaba, has a manyfold connection
to the Rothschilds, which is covered later in the thesis. This company, nowadays the
world’s biggest e-commerce market, launched Alipay back in 2004, thus establishing
the first Chinese online-payment intermediary and electronic third-party payment sys-
tem. Alipay saw a gradual growth and in 2016 reached 175 million transactions per
day, and 870 million active users worldwide in 2019. Furthermore, Ant Financial, of
which Alibaba owns a 33 per cent stake, in 2015 developed MYbank “to provide inclu-
sive and innovative financial instruments for individuals and small and medium-sized en-
terprises” (SMEs). Ant Financial has also launched Ant Fortune, a wealth-management
app through which consumers can purchase 900 different financial products from 80
financial institutions. In addition, Ant Financial ecosystem includes Yu’e Bao
– a money-market fund that has around 120 million users and 210 billion US dollars
under management, making it the largest such fund in the world. Lastly, until 2017,
46
Alipay (renamed Ant Financial in 2014) represented the backbone of China’s e-com-
merce payments – accounting for almost 54 per cent of the mobile-payment market in
2017. (Bilotta & Romano, 2019) Even though Alipay continues to be the only online
payment system used on Taobao, the leading shopping website in China owned by
Alibaba, in general terms it has been surpassed by Tenpay, which includes QQ Wallet
and WeChat Pay – the most used mobile payment solution at the time. (Daxue Consult-
ing, 2021)
4.2. Relevant Institutions in the PRC’s Banking and Financial Sector
In terms of the most important laws and regulations of the PRC, it has been reported
that those include the Law of the People’s Bank of China, the Commercial Banking Law
and the Law on Banking Supervision and Administration. In regard to banking and fi-
nancial industry policy setting and regulation in the era following the WTO accession,
the particularly important role was that of the CBRC. After assuming numerous func-
tions previously conducted by the PBOC, the CBRC was responsible for formulating the
supervisory rules and regulations governing the banking institutions, authorizing the
business scope of the banking institutions, on-site examination and off-site surveil-
lance of the banking institutions, and taking enforcement actions against rule-breaking
behaviors, among others. (Cousin, 2011) According to some observers, after Xi Jinping
took hold of the Chinese leadership, importance of the organization somehow dimin-
ished. According to Victor Shih, a specialist in Chinese finance and factional politics at
the University of California at San Diego: “An appointment as the head of the C.B.R.C.
[sic] today is not as significant as the same appointment five years ago because the Peo-
ple’s Bank of China has taken over many of the regulatory oversight tasks.” (Bradsher,
2017)
47
Figure 2 The logo of the former China Banking Regulatory Commission, coincidentally depicting
the Red Shield.
Source: International Capital Conference. Available from: http://www.internationalcapital-

conference.com/sites/default/files/China_Banking_Regulatory_Commission_Logo.jpg
More structural changes followed in April 2018, when the China Banking and In-
surance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) was established as a merger of two China's
banking and insurance regulators, namely the China Banking Regulatory Commission
(CBRC) and China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC). With an authorization of
the State Council, the CBIRC has a mandate “[t]o regulate and supervise banking and
insurance institutions in China and their market conduct; to maintain fair competition in
the banking and insurance sectors; and to protect the legitimate rights and interests of
stakeholders including depositors and insurance policyholders.” (CBIRC, 2019) In 2012,
the Chinese banking system had several distinctive characteristics, which included but
were not limited to the following points:
• It is highly concentrated, but remains competitive in most areas.

• The banking sector is as the financial sector as a whole the focus of the interven-
tion – both explicit and implicit – of central and local authorities.
• The banks are regulated through a very hands-on approach to regulation.
• Market orientation of banks and introduction of banking best practices appeared
only in recent years – thus there is a lack of experience.
• Reforms have also brought restructuring for the ownership structure, neverthe-
less the state remains – directly or indirectly – fully in charge of most the banking
assets.” (Cousin, 2011)
48
Figure 3 Structure of the PRC’s financial system.
Source: S&P. Adjusted by author. Available from: https://www.spglobal.com/en/research-

insights/articles/easset_upload_file64384_910037_e.png
As previously pointed out, the main decision-power ultimately lays in the central
CCP organs. Cousin states that in the context of China, “the structures of the Party and
of the state run in parallel from top to bottom and the party permeates all state activities,
even though it is not always mentioned as such.” (Cousin, 2011) The state not only acts
as a banking regulatory entity, it also serves as the financier, provider of emergency
funds and guarantees, dominant shareholder in state-owned banks and other compa-
nies, and employer. Therefore, the PBOC cannot be regarded as an independent central
bank in commonly understood terms. Instead, the economic paradigm is guided by the
decisions of the Central Financial and Economic Affairs Commission (中央财经委员会
), formerly known as the Central Leading Group on Financial and Economic Affairs (中
49
央财经领导小组), chaired by the current CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping. (Grünberg,

2019). Considering the real influence of the party, an appropriate scheme of institu-
tions which control the Chinese financial system would rather look like this:
Figure 4 Structure of political and financial institutions in the PRC.
Source: Shih, V. (2007). Factions and Finance in China: Elite Conflict and Inflation. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511790591
According to the respected Merics Institute for China Studies, following can be ob-
served: „Under China’s party and state leader Xi Jinping a few central organizations have
evolved to become the true nerve center of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). These so-
called Central Commissions and Leading Small Groups constitute the political core exec-
utive and give the central leadership around “core leader” Xi significant influence over
strategic policymaking.“ The article further states that „[b]y positioning himself and his
aides in leadership positions of this core executive, Xi has become the most powerful
50
leader since Mao Zedong.“ Xi‘s redirecting of authority over crucial issues back to the
inner circle of the party, and stronger central steering has replaced the more decen-
tralised policymaking approach of his predecessors, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao. The
stated goal of this more centralised governance is to strengthen Communist Party rule,
and to turn the Chinese party-state into a modern, disciplined, and efficient administra-
tion. (Grünberg, 2019)
To achieve this goal, Xi has put himself in charge of multiple policy areas – although
he is very much aware that he cannot tackle all tasks on his own. For swift and thor-
ough implementation, he relies on a powerful network of entities within the CCP hier-
archy, the Central Commissions and Leading Small Groups (LSGs). Xi upgraded four
LSGs to Central CCP Commissions, signifying the topics they focus on are now fixtures
on the political agenda. This and the fact that they are headed by Xi himself institution-
alises their status within the party hierarchy and China’s overall political system, in-
creasing their importance for policymaking. (Grünberg, 2019)
51
INTERACTIONS BETWEEN THE ROTHSCHILDS AND CHINA
5. Interactions between the Rothschilds and China
5.1. Interactions between the Rothschilds and China prior to 1949
The first firm evidence of official interaction between the Rothschilds and China dates
from 1838, in the earliest surviving letters from Rothschilds' agents in Canton (now
Guangzhou). The family was interested in the trade of silks feature, alongside tin, tea,
cochineal, quicksilver, and other commodities in the increasingly bustling corner of the
globe. For this purpose, Rothschild appointed Jardine, Matheson & Co to act as its agent.
By doing so, “the venerable banking group was relying on one of the few British firms
with its roots in Asia to act as its eyes and ears in a beguiling but impenetrable market.”
(Larsen, 2005)
Following the Anglo-Chinese Treaties of 1842 and 1858, which ended the Opium
Wars, Rothschilds moved to expand the Chinese links, taking on new agents - Messrs
Bower Hanbury & Co - in Shanghai, which was then opened as one of the ‘Treaty Ports’
by the peace agreements. The correspondence with these agents focused mainly on
silver, a key feature of Rothschilds’ trade with China at the time. Sycees (a type of silver
bullion) took the form of ingots called ‘shoes’, so-called because they were supposed
to resemble the Chinese female foot deformed by foot binding. These were used
throughout China in varying weights and sizes. Each ingot was stamped with the name
of the smelter, date of casting and an indication of the weight and fineness. According
to the family archive: “Trading and shipping of specie and bullion had, from the first,
been a central pillar of the business of N M Rothschild and the firm was quick to organise
a substantial trade to China.” (The Rothschild Archive, 2014)
52
Figure 5 Chinese Sycee c.1903, labelled 'Superintendency of Hupeh 5th month of the 32nd year
of Kuang Hsu official bank', given to Charles Rothschild (1877-1923) as a gift, and displayed in
the Bank.
Source: The Rothschild Archive. Available from https://www.rothschildarchive.org/collec-

tions/treasure_of_the_month/treasure_of_the_month_may_2014
In 1887, Aline Caroline de Rothschild, the granddaughter of Jacob (James) Mayer

Rothschild, marries Edward Albert Sassoon. (Sotheby’s, 2020) The Sassoons, originally
Baghdadi Jews, were also called „the Rothschilds of the East“. The reason behind this
is understood when we take into consideration the scope of their business in the Ori-
ent. The house of David Sassoon & Co., had „branches at Calcutta, Shanghai, Canton, and
Hongkong; and his business, which included a monopoly of the opium-trade, extended as
far as Yokohama, Nagasaki, and other cities in Japan. Sassoon attributed his great success
to the employment of his sons as his agents and to his strict observance of the law of tithe.“
(Jewish Encyclopedia, n.d.-b)
In his book British Multinational Banking, 1830-1990, the author Geoffrey Jones
wrote that the Hongkong Bank’s (later known as HSBC) successful rise in 19th century
was intertwined with the Rothschild family. (Jones, 1995) At the end of the century,
when Hongkong Bank became virtually two banks—exchange bank in the East, and
merchant bank in London, the bank managed “to maintain a good relationship with Bar-
ings and, especially, Rothschilds, while preventing them gaining a dominant role.”
53
According to the author, “relations with N. M. Rothschild were particularly close”, and
the family members “acted as intermediaries in the negotiations which led to the accord
on China loans between Hongkong Bank and Deutsche-Asiatische Bank in 1895.” As a
reward, adds Jones, “Hongkong Bank agreed that if it needed help in placing a China loan
in London, it would offer the business first to Rothschilds. Subsequently, in 1899, Carl
Meyer—a very close associate of the Rothschilds—joined the London Committee of the
Hongkong Bank.” Considering the sheer volume of international activities in which the
Rothschilds were involved at this time of history, we can now understand Ferguson‘s
statement that: “Late-nineteenth-century imperialism was the political accompaniment
to an economic process similar to the “globalization” of the late twentieth century. As
leading members of that elite of imperial investors, the Rothschilds’ role in British impe-
rialism was substantial.” (Ferguson, 1999)
Rothschilds were further involved in the Pekin Syndicate, “a large British holding
company that invested heavily in China’s hinterland – particularly in coal mines – during
the late-Qing and Republican eras.” (Zhou, 2010) The origins of its activities emerged
during the Hundred Day’s Reform of 1898, when a fairly broad coalition at the Qing
court was formed to examine the possibility of allowing foreigners to invest in Chinese
mines with a goal to extend imperial tax revenue. According to the Rothschild Archive,
the available documents prove that in 1896 Viceroy Li Hongzhang had personally met
Lord Rothschild, that he had remitted funds for purchase of Pekin Syndicate shares,
and that Lord Rothschild had been keeping Li informed of the Syndicate’s progress.
(King, 2007) After the downfall of the Qing dynasty, Yuan Shikai organised independ-
ent local pit-owners into a single company called the Chung Yuan Corporation, which
then cooperated with the Syndicate, until the latter was finally dissolved by the Chinese
authorities after the establishment of the PRC. (Zhou, 2010) As a partner in the Chinese
Central Railways, the Pekin Syndicate indirectly competed against itself, for Rothschild
money was involved both in this enterprise and in the Asiatic Petroleum Company. The
latter, created jointly by Rothschilds and Marcus Samuel and Company, participated in
Chinese oil field prospections and infrastructure development projects and thus was
54
rival of the British and Chinese Corporation. (Davis, 1982) Later, in 1911, Rothschilds
exchanged their entire Russian oil operation “for shares in Royal Dutch and Shell, mak-
ing them the largest shareholders in each.” (Ferguson, 1999)
Then, several decades followed when Rothschilds’ activities in China were, at least
publicly, severely limited. Among other things, because Nazism gained prominence in
Germany in the 1930s and Rothschilds, as a major Jewish banking family, were busy
enough with securing their wellbeing in the war that came and swept the continent.
However, one more noteworthy involvement of a Rothschild family member in China
prior to the establishment of the PRC, though not through a direct descendant of Mayer
Amschel, was conducted by Baron Robert Rothschild (1911-1998). The following is an
excerpt from his obituary published in the Times on December 8, 1998: “Robert Roth-
schild was born in Brussels, the son of a businessman who was descended from the family
which had founded the Rothschild banking dynasty two centuries ago.” (The Times,
1998) In 1944, Baron Rothschild went to China where he was first secretary at the
embassy in Chunking (Chongqing), which at the time was the capital of Chiang Kai-
shek’s Nationalist Government. The article further mentions that: “With hostilities be-
tween Chinese Communists and Nationalists suspended for the duration of the war
against Japan, he also frequently met Chou En-lai in Chunking.” Then, after the end of
the war, he became Consul-General in Shanghai and regretted that in 1949, when the
Communists captured the city, that the Belgian Government did not immediately rec-
ognise the Mao Tse-tung regime. Because of the circumstances, he had to leave the
country for similar position in Washington, D.C. and later in several other countries. He
was also one of the signers of the Treaty of Rome, which can be regarded as a first step
of formation of the later European Union. (The Times, 1998)
5.2. Rothschilds & Republic of China post-1949
Compared to its activities in the PRC, Rothschilds presence in the Republic of China (or
Taiwan; regarded as a rebellion province by Beijing), seems rather negligible. In April
55
2010, Securities and Futures Bureau of Taiwan approved Manulife to begin distrib-
uting funds of Edmond de Rothschild AM, also active in the PRC and covered previ-
ously. Already since 2009, Edmond de Rothschild AM’s funds have been distributed in
Taiwan through its previous master agent and although relatively new in the Taiwan
market, it has gained broad recognition from investors. The firm had six funds regis-
tered in Taiwan at the time, with a goal to bring “more added-value to Taiwanese inves-
tors.” (The Asset, 2010) Edmond de Rothschild AM had USD16.5 billion under manage-
ment as of March 31, 2010, of which USD2.6 billion represented Asian & emerging eq-
uities. Furthermore, the Rothschild & Co 2020 annual report states the Group is cur-
rently working with clients on offshore wind farms around the globe including the UK8,
Germany, Netherlands, Ireland, Vietnam, and Taiwan. (Rothchild & Co, 2020) A more
detailed analysis of the interactions between Rothschilds and the Republic of China
post-1949 would be an interesting and promising topic for future research but, unfor-
tunately, exceeds the scope of this thesis.
5.3. Interactions with the PRC before its Accession to the WTO
As mentioned in the previous chapter, the first publicly known interaction between
one of the Rothschild family members and the PRC representatives was through Baron
Robert Rothschild. However, he was not a direct member of the family’s banking dyn-
asty branch, and neither was he involved in this field. Shortly after the establishment
of the PRC, the state found itself involved in the Korean War, lasting from 1950 to 1953,
and by then was de facto isolated from the Western financial ecosystem. Its interna-
tional relations at the time were somewhat limited to the Communist International and
particularly the USSR. Right after the war, the situation normalised, and Rothschild’s
company “was one of the first Western business institutions to re-establish relations after
1953”. (Rothschild & Co, 2020) Details on these relations are nearly impossible to find,
8 In the UK, the company has been financially advising on the world’s largest offshore wind farm –
the £7 billion, 3.6GW Dogger Bank project. (Rothschild & Co, 2020a)
56
with a single exception of The Australian Financial Review newspaper article from
1994, which mentions that the dealings focused mainly on gold trading with the Bank
of China. (Boyd, 1994) It is worth mentioning that despite this evidence and Roth-
schilds’ open acknowledgement that the first interactions with the PRC begun in the
early 1950s, Chinese sources analysed and cited later in the thesis unanimously state
that those relations were only re-established in the 1970s.
Nevertheless, the truth is that the last decade of Mao Zedong’s leadership can
hardly be considered favourable for the Rothschilds interest in China or any other do-
mestic or foreign “bourgeois” entity. In 1966, Mao set into motion the Great Proletarian
Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution. This all-encompass-
ing sociopolitical movement attempted to enforce communism in the country by re-
moving capitalist, as well as traditional and numerous cultural elements from Chinese
society. These circumstances indeed negatively influenced the relationship with main-
land China, and available sources do not show any interaction during this era. This,
however, did not apply so strictly to Hong Kong, which was a British colony at the time
and where NM Rothschild officially opened its office in 1973. There, they co-managed
the financing of the Mass Transit Scheme, an underground railway system, together
with Kleinworts and the Bank of Hong Kong. This deal closely correlates with the Roth-
schilds’ involvement in railways, which now spans over 180 years and historically cov-
ered places as diverse as the European continent, Brazil, India, or South Africa. (The
Rothschild Archive - Timeline, n.d.-a)
However, shortly after Mao Zedong died on 9 September 1976, and on the eve of
the reopening of trade with China, Evelyn de Rothschild in his capacity as Chairman of
The Economist visited China in 1977. Evelyn’s wife Lynn later commented on the visit:
"My husband with Rothschild Bank was here very early. He came after the Cultural Rev-
olution ended, and he was the first major bank to come to see the government in the
1970s." (CKGSB, 2013) Yitzhak Shichor, Professor of Political Science and Asian Studies
57
at the University of Haifa, offers an interesting insight to a wider context of the Jewish
involvement at the time:
“In the late 1970s, as soon as Beijing’s post-Mao leaders decided it was time to under-
take wide-ranging economic reform (which some had in mind since the early 1950s), dis-
cussions were held with leading foreign economic experts, invited to China. Intentionally,
or not, most of them were Jewish. Historically, Jews were usually associated with money
(capital), for better or for worse. Skilled in commerce and banking, educated, urban yet
highly mobile, and with worldwide family connections – Jews represented modernity, and
a most significant driving force behind capitalist growth and development. … Jews also
excelled in research: 40 percent of all Nobel Prize winners in economics and 51 percent
of all US economics Nobel Prize winners were Jewish. Some of them helped China to be-
come the second – perhaps the leading – world economic power.” (Shichor, 2020)
This voyage of Sir Evelyn paved the way for further visits by representatives of the
family bank, offering a range of possible interests, particularly on gold and foreign ex-
change. The family archive mentions that as a direct result of the Four Modernizations,
which aimed to strengthen the fields of agriculture, industry, defence and science and
technology, foreign companies were invited to participate and assist in a number of
developmental projects in China. Thus, in 1979, N M Rothschild & Sons Limited was a
financial adviser to two UK companies, National Coal Board and Northern Engineering
Industries, who bid for the construction of two power generating plants in Beijing and
Jiangsu Province. (The Rothschild Archive, n.d.-a)
In the same year, Sichuan Provincial Government invited Rothschilds to act as a

bridge to British companies to develop local natural gas and mineral resources. Then,
by the mid-1980s, the Rothschild Group was invited by Chinese officials to become a
consulting company for China's economic development and help with constructing the
railway system. Through their cooperation agreements with China North Industries
Corporation (NORINCO) and Great Wall Industries Corporation, Rothschilds also get
involved in the Chinese military industry, though no details are publicly available.
58
Relevant agreements also involved the technological expansion of a variety of indus-

trial products and research on the European market. Interestingly, Rothschild has been
a project financing consultant in the subsequent development of China's communica-
tions satellites. (Pei, 2014)
Following the armed suppression of the 1989 protests at Tiananmen square, many
Western countries and their institutions temporarily interrupted their interactions
with the PRC. After this brief suspension, Rothschilds’ Shanghai representative office
opened for business in 1994. In September 1996, N M Rothschild & Sons Limited
signed a historical Memorandum of Understanding with the Industrial and Commercial
Bank of China to jointly develop financial advisory business in China and internation-
ally. (The Rothschild Archive, n.d.-a) Sir Evelyn de Rothschild commented at the time
for The Australian Financial Review, saying he believed bullion banking, project fi-
nance and corporate advisory on equity issues would constitute the three main areas
of business for NM Rothschild in China. He also stated that “… the Rothschild expansion
into China under the auspices of the Hong Kong office should provide valuable spin-offs
for other parts of the business, including funds management and treasury.” Lastly, he
mentioned that “[t]he Chinese are pragmatic people, they know that in the long run they
have got to have foreign capital.” (Boyd, 1994)
The turn of the twenty-first century was marked by a gradual deepening and inten-
sifying of the Rothschild and China cooperation. According to a brief remark on a web-
site under Chinese Foreign Ministry, just in the decade between 1994 and 2004 Roth-
schilds provided consulting services for 55 projects in China with the total value of
US$48 billion, and in 2000 the family established Rothschild China Holdings Limited (
洛希尔中国控股有限公司) in Beijing to further expand their business. (Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, 2007) Other sources stated that the number of projects with the Rothschilds
involvement in this period exceeded that of any other investment bank. (Pei, 2014)
59
5.4. Interactions with the PRC after its Accession to the WTO
Interactions between the Rothschilds and entities in the PRC, whether it be state-
owned companies, politicians, officials, private enterprises, and other groups, literally
sky-rocketed since China entered the WTO in 2001. Compared to the first years of the
PRC’s existence, there is also much more data to rely on and to use for analysis. These
consist of numerous trade deals, joint-ventures, financial advisory services, meetings,
media commentaries, et cetera. Following pages provide a detailed look into these in-
teractions, divided by their primary focus into banking, financial, and other interac-
tions, with an additional subchapter focusing on political connections.
5.4.1. Banking Activities

Since the end of the 18th century, the central activity of the Rothschild family has been
banking in its various forms. It is therefore understandable that banking operations
play a central role in its activities in the PRC. The aim of this subchapter is therefore to
map the development of these operations, to present the diversity of actors from family
businesses as well as from Chinese entities, and to illustrate on concrete examples
what their specific attributes are and how they fit into the broader context of the PRC’s
banking framework.
5.4.1.1. Jardine Matheson

In 2005 deal, Jardine Strategic Holdings paid US$185 million for a 20 per cent stake in
NM Rothschild & Sons, relationship which dated back to the days of Empire. (Larsen,
2005) In a statement, Jardine Matheson Group chairman Henry Keswick welcomed the
reunion of the two firms, stating: “In making this strategic investment our group is re-
newing a relationship that began in 1838 when we first acted as agents for Rothschild in
China”. The deal, depicted by media as a reunion of “the hong9 with its 19th century
European peer”, marked Jardines' return to the investment banking sphere after a
9 Merriam-Webster defines hong as a „commercial establishment or house of foreign trade in China“.

(Merriam-Webster, 2020)
60
seven-year absence. Jardines Strategic bought the interest in Rothschild Continuation

Holdings (RCH) from British insurer Royal & Sun Alliance, with two executives to be
put to RCH's board, without having an active role in Rothschild's operations. “They will
be a shareholder but not involved in management,” RCH chairman David de Rothschild
said, adding: “The [Rothschild and Keswick] families have been friendly for many, many
years.” Furthermore, one of the family companies Paris Orleans stated in its 2010-11
Annual Report the following: “JRE Partners, a joint venture formed in 2008 between
Rothschild and Jardine Matheson, was strengthened in 2010, by including Exor S.p.A as a
partner. JRE Partners invests in Asia with a focus on China and India.” (Paris Orleans,
2011)
5.4.1.2. The Blackstone Group

In a prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 21, 2007,
the Blackstone Group L.P. stated following: “We have entered into an agreement with
an investment vehicle established by the People's Republic of China with respect to its
foreign exchange reserve that we refer to as the "State Investment Company" pursuant
to which we will sell to it 101,334,234 non-voting common units for $3.0 billion…“ (U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission, 2007) Capital-wise, this made it one of the larg-
est deals in terms of the PRC’s investments in foreign financial companies. Morgan
Stanley & Co. Incorporated and Citigroup Global Markets Inc. acted as global coordina-
tors and representatives of the underwriters. Other underwriters included companies
such as Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Lehman Brothers Inc., and ABN AMRO Roth-
schild LLC, which held a share of 1,475,000 common units. More importantly, the doc-
ument further states: “We anticipate that the Right Honorable Brian Mulroney 10 and
Lord Nathaniel Charles Jacob Rothschild will be appointed to the board of directors prior
to the consummation of this offering…”. (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission,
2007) Lord Rothschild thus joined the Blackstone’s board just on time to oversee its
opening phase of collaboration with China, and after this partnership was up and
10 Martin Brian Mulroney served as the 18th prime minister of Canada between 1984 and 1993.
61
running, he stepped down from the Board of Directors to join the International Advi-
sory Board. (The Blackstone Group, 2008) The cooperation proved to bear fruit in time,
and between 2012 and 2018, Blackstone and Chinese investors transacted “headline-
grabbing deals worth a total of US$33bn (€28bn)”, according to Real Capital Analytics
(RCA). (Chong, 2018)
5.4.1.3. Bank of China

In September 2008, Bank of China (“BOC”) and La Compagnie Financière Edmond de
Rothschild (“LCFR”) have signed “a long-term strategic investment and business coop-
eration agreement covering private banking and asset management businesses in their
respective domestic markets and other strategic geographies”. (Bank of China, 2008)
With the deal, BOC was about to acquire a 20% stake in LCFR for €236.3 million (RMB
2.3 billion). According to the BOC’s own words, it was supposed to be “the first strategic
investment by a leading Chinese bank in a Eurozone bank”. The objective of the agree-
ment was reportedly to “leverage both parties’ strengths and well established franchises
in their respective markets”, with BOC intention to “strengthen its international pres-
ence, notably in Europe, and further develop its asset management and private banking
businesses”. On the other side, LCFR aimed “to accelerate its international development,
notably in China, by leveraging the extensive distribution capabilities and substantial
customer base of BOC, the 5th largest bank in the world (in terms of market capitalization
as end of 2007)”. Michel Cicurel, CEO of LCFR, further praised the deal and Chinese
partner, stating: “It is a strategic partnership with the best international bank in the best
country of the emerging world.” The article also reflected on other LCFR activities in
China, where the company previously opened representative office in Shanghai, cre-
ated an asset management subsidiary in Hong Kong and was granted the Qualified For-
eign Institutional Investor (QFII) license, which put altogether “demonstrated LCFR’s
commitment to China and Asia.” To proceed with the deal, BOC stated that it shall gain
“appropriate corporate governance rights”, and in particular, the bank would be enti-
tled to appoint two representatives to LCFR’s Supervisory Board. (Bank of China,
62
2008) Important condition for completing the deal was both parties obtaining the rel-
evant regulatory approvals. Eventually, this condition showed to be fatal.
First, Bank of China has set an extended deadline - 31 March 2009, to complete the
deal, after the original 2009 New Year's Eve deadline passed without a word from Chi-
nese authorities. This reportedly had to do with Chinese officials being concerned of
falling equity values of Western investments and the stock market declines during the
economic crisis. Bank of China won regulatory clearance to open a private banking
business in Switzerland in November 2008, but BOC’s spokesman, Wang Zhaowen, said
the “China Banking Regulatory Commission might be reluctant to approve overseas in-
vestments by Chinese companies due to global financial volatility.” (Burroughes, 2009)
Finally, in April 2009, the media reported that the state-run Bank of China dropped the
deal to buy into LCFR after failing to get approval from Chinese authorities. According
to people involved, China has stepped up its scrutiny of overseas investments by do-
mestic financial institutions since Ping An’s failed investment in Belgian-Dutch finan-
cial services firm Fortis NV and CIC’s high-profile losses on stakes in Blackstone and
Morgan Stanley. “We failed to obtain approval from relevant Chinese authorities for the
deal,” said Wang Zhouwen, BOC’s spokesman, at the same time adding: “However, we
will continue to seek other forms of business cooperation with Rothschild.” (Jim, 2009)
5.4.1.4. Bank of Qingdao

In September 2008 Rothschild & Co invested €30 million in the Bank of Qingdao (BOQ),
acquiring a 5% stake. The deal was sourced through Rothschild Italy advising the spon-
sor, Intesa SanPaolo, who acquired 20% shareholding. The Bank of Qingdao is a city
commercial bank, in the northern Chinese province of Shandong, the second wealthiest
province in China. (Paris Orleans, 2011) Later, in November 2015, BOQ, the largest city
commercial lender in China’s northern province of Shandong at the time, raised $606
million in its Hong Kong initial public offering backed by Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo SpA
and Rothschild. (Baretto, 2015) On a personal level, the connection between BOQ and
Rothschilds can be further illustrated on Mr. Tingjie Zhang, who was appointed as
63
independent non-executive Director of the Bank of Qingdao in February 2020. Simul-

taneously, since March 2019 he has been the China co-director and managing director
of the Shanghai branch of Rothschild Financial Consulting (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (洛希爾財
務諮詢（北京）有限公司), and has previously served as a longtime chief representa-
tive in the Shanghai Representative Office of Rothschild China Holdings Co., Ltd. (洛希
爾中國控股有限公司). (Bank of Qingdao, 2021)
As a sidenote related to the city of Qingdao, in May 2020, Chinese financial maga-
zine Sina commented on an interesting synchronicity in their article “罗斯柴尔德家族
、好莱坞在同一天于青岛成立新公司” [“The Rothschild family and Hollywood estab-
lished a new company in Qingdao on the same day”]. (Xinlang Caijing, 2020) According
to the article, on May 8, 2020, Hollywood (Qingdao) Cultural Property Co., Ltd. was
established in Qingdao with a registered capital of 1 billion RMB. The company's busi-
ness scope includes wide range of activities, such as cultural and artistic exchange, real
estate brokerage, or Internet of Things technology research and development, among
others. On the same day, the Rothschild Family (Qingdao) Investment Management Co.,
Ltd. was established with a registered capital of 100 million U.S. dollars. The company's
business scope includes investment activities with its own funds, equity investment,
venture capital, business consulting (excluding investment consulting), social and eco-
nomic consulting services, et cetera. This company is wholly owned by Rothschild
Family Investment Management Co., Ltd. Even though this could have been a pure co-
incidence, both companies have the same listed legal representative - Pengfei Wang.
(Xinlang Caijing, 2020)
5.4.1.5. Quercus Ventures

In 2009, Lord Rothschild was one of the backers of Quercus Ventures, a boutique in-
vestment advisory firm providing strategic and investment advice in the world's fast-
est growing markets, “with a particular expertise in China”. Quercus Ventures is run by
Beijing-based founder and CEO William Stonor and its London office is run by Maxim
64
Parr. Lord Rothschild was a founder investor in Quercus Ventures when it was formed
in September 2009 and owns 20% of the company. Lord Camoys, Chairman of Quercus
Ventures, said "Quercus is proud to have brought together RIT and Creat, both of which
have exceptional strengths and positions within their respective fields, to launch this first-
of-a-kind joint venture. We know both sides well and have every confidence it will be a
great success." (Investegate, 2011)
5.4.1.6. Creat Group

Chinese Creat Group was founded by Zheng Yuewen and his partners in 1992, as one
of the country’s earliest private equity firms. Creat reportedly invested in a number of
the better-performing credit cooperatives, some of which would grow into regional
lenders such as the Bank of Nanchang and Bank of Dalian. According to media reports,
“Creat’s most successful pick was its investment in human blood”, and Zheng Yuewen was
the key man behind Shanghai RAAS Blood Products’ incredible rise. The company was
the fastest growing private-sector firm in the terms of market value on the country’s
stock markets, and shares in the Shenzhen-listed blood plasma provider have risen
nearly 10 times over between 2012 and 2017, adding nearly $14.5 billion in market
cap. (Week in China, 2017)
In June 2011, Lord Jacob Rothschild, chairman of RIT Capital Partner established a
joint venture with Creat. According to media reports, this $750m private equity fund,
which offered Chinese investors an international investment, “look[ed] like an experi-
ment, not only for him but also for the government officials who gave it the green light.”
Considering the success, Rothschild supposedly must have “won friends and influenced
people in China” to gain state approval for his private equity fund. The technology
transfer, which is promoted by party bosses, might have “sweetened the deal”, accord-
ing to Financial Times. Targets of the investments included mainly clean technology
and healthcare. (Guthrie, 2011) Reuters quoted Jacob Rothschild saying: “This unique
venture will allow China’s private sector to invest in Western companies, whilst providing
65
opportunities for Western companies to enter China’s rapidly growing and vibrant econ-
omy.” (Meads & Aldred, 2011)
Paradise Papers, leaked by International Consortium of Investigative Journalists,

and self-described as a “global investigation into the offshore activities of some of the
world’s most powerful people and companies,” show that a firm named J. Rothschild
Creat Partners Limited was incorporated and registered in Cayman Islands on 25 May
2011. The date corresponds with the public announcement of establishing the joint-
venture mentioned above. The firm covered several entities related to Jacob Roth-
schild’s interests in China, namely Creat Fund Management Limited (with its Chairman
Zheng Yuewen), and Quercus Associates Limited (with Maxim Parr). (ICIJ, 2014)
5.4.1.7. CIIC
During Xi Jinping’s visit to France in March 2014 and in the presence of Xi’s French
counterpart, President Francois Hollande, Rothschild & Co chairman David René de
Rothschild signed a cooperation agreement with Dr. Wang Tianyi, chairman of CIIC 11.
(CIIC, 2014) According to its website, CIIC (Group) Company (Chinese: 中实（集团）
公司), established in 1988, is a multinational group focusing mainly on real estate and
theme parks, covering the whole process of planning, designing, financing, develop-
ment, construction, up to final completion. The website further states that over the
years, it has established shareholder and cooperative partnerships with “political fam-
ilies, business families, financial families, and royal families that are ranked the world’s
top, and contributes to the construction of national key projects and the private econ-
omy.” (CIIC, n.d.)
Even though news report about the 2014 deal do not specify its parameters, its
background can be understood from other sources. For example, the company’s intro-
duction website openly admits that by relying on Yinggu Fund (Chinese: 盈谷基金),
11 Not to be confused with China International Intellectech Co., Ltd. ('CIIC') established in 1987, and
specializing in human resources and intellectual services.
66
which was signed by state leaders, “the group has established a special fund and infor-
mation service platform with first-class partners at home and abroad.” (CIIC, n.d.) Iden-
tity of this supposed first-class partner is not mentioned in here, nevertheless addi-
tional reports on the website makes the issue clearer.
One of the websites reports on the establishing of international investment fund

and Yinggu Fund Management Company. According to the report, the fund size target
in the first phase is 10 billion US dollars, 50 billion US dollars in the medium term, and
the final goal is to manage 100 billion US dollars of assets. Agriculture is defined as an
“entry point”, and later the fund should extend to “people's livelihood fields” such as
medicine and health. (CIIC, 2015) The photograph from the first meeting of the man-
agement team clearly shows Marc-Olivier Laurent, President of Rothschild Merchant
Banking division and Managing Partner at Rothschild & Co, CIIC Chairman Dr. Wang
Tianyi, one more male person, and a female person with a blurred face (figure 6). Her
identity can be deduced from other reports, both by CIIC and elsewhere.
At the April 2016 meeting between Dr. Wang Tianyi, Director Zhang of the Joint
Office of the Eighteen Ministries and Commissions, and Marc-Olivier Laurent, also pre-
sent was Jennifer Yu, who at that time chaired Rothschild Greater China and previously
was behind many successful M&A’s of Chinese and foreign enterprises, and here she
was openly declared as CEO of Yinggu Fund. Furthermore, among attendees was CIIC’s
longtime co-chairman Neil Bush, son of former President George H. W. Bush and
brother of President George W. Bush. Together with members of the fund management
team attended the event to discuss the Yinggu Fund and its future prospects. (CIIC,
2016)
67
Figure 6 Meeting of the „International Investment Fund“ under CIIC. From the left: Yu Liping,
Marc-Olivier Laurent, Dr. Wang Tianyi, and one of the fund’s managers.
Source: CIIC website. http://www.ciic-bj.com.cn/article_gyzs_38c3fd_web.htm
On April 7, 2016, Neil Bush also met with Xiao Yaqing, director of the State-owned
Assets Supervision and Administration Commission12 (SASAC) of the State Council. At
the meeting, Xiao spoke highly of the Bush family's efforts for the healthy development
of Sino-US relations. He introduced the basic situation of the overseas operations of
central enterprises, and further pointed out that in the process of "going out", they
need to strengthen cooperation with powerful multinational enterprises to improve
their own competitiveness and development level. On the other side, foreign party led
by Mr. Bush commented on the “successful experience” of CIIC and Rothschild Group in
12 By the end of 2020, the total assets of China's SOEs amounted to 218.3 trillion yuan ($33.78 trillion)
(SASAC, 2021) and accordingly the SASAC has been described as the largest economic entity in the
world. (Girard, 2019)
68
helping Chinese companies achieve M&A’s and reorganizations, expressing hopes to

provide further support and services for central enterprises' overseas M&A’s. (SASAC,
2016)
Another Western political figure connected to the Rothschilds’ China interest in

general and with CIIC in particular is former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
Schroeder, from his position as consultant at Rothschild & Co, visited China in Novem-
ber 2012 to attend Rothschild Financial Group and CIIC dinner party co-organised by
the Chinese side. During his visit, Schroeder reportedly “hoped to communicate with
leaders in China's financial and agricultural sphere on topics such as cooperation in the
fields of finance and agriculture.” (CIIC, 2013)
69
Figure 7 David Rothschild (seated, right) signs a cooperation deal with Dr. Wang Tianyi (seated,
left). Overseeing the deal are General Secretary Xi Jinping and President Francois Hollande.
Source: CIIC website. Available from: http://www.ciic-bj.com.cn/arti-

cle_xwzx_7aaee1_web.htm?lang=en
Figure 8 A meeting of CIIC, Rothschild, and Chinese state representatives, April 7, 2016. Fourth
from the left is Neil Bush, Co-Chairman of the CIIC and member of the Bush family.
Source: CIIC website. Available from: http://www.ciic-bj.com.cn/arti-

cle_gyzs_39d577_web.htm
70
Figure 9 CIIC chairman Dr. Wang Tianyi (right) poses for a photo with former German Chan-
cellor and later senior external consultant for Rothschild & Co, Gerhard Schroeder
Source: CIIC website. Available from: http://www.ciic-bj.com.cn/article_gjhz_2777_web.htm
Figure 10 CIIC chairman Dr. Wang Tianyi (right) with then Chairman of Rothschild & Co, David
de Rothschild.
Source: CIIC website. Available from: http://www.ciic-bj.com.cn/article_gjhz_2777_web.htm
71
5.4.1.8. CEFC China Energy

On 10 May 2017, Alexandre de Rothschild, deputy chairman of Rothschild & Co, met
with Ye Jianming, chairman of CEFC China Energy at its Shanghai headquarters “to ex-
change ideas on global investment opportunities,” and “to establish contacts with CEFC
China in different business segments.” (China Daily, 2017) The two parties reportedly
agreed to strengthen cooperation in sectors including energy, financial services, avia-
tion, infrastructure construction, food and high-end property management. Ye said
that CEFC China is developing a bank and insurance company-based financial platform
to support its expansion in overseas markets. It focused on investing in the United
States, Central Asia, Middle East and Central and East Europe. Rothschild explained
firm’s efforts in global expansion, drawing on experiences from being “a pioneer in
providing professional and customized investment consulting services to global busi-
nesses”. Rothschild further told Ye that “the group has strong advantages when it comes
to energy projects in the regions including Europe, West Africa and the Middle East.”
(China Daily, 2017)
The article further states: “Rothschild & Co Group is a leading investment bank in
Europe and has paid close attention to expanding in the Chinese market. The company
has accumulated ample experiences in promoting mergers and acquisitions between Chi-
nese privately owned companies and large-scale Chinese State-owned companies. It also
pushed several merger and acquisition cases between Chinese and foreign companies.”
(China Daily, 2017) Besides Alexandre, son of David René de Rothschild, who at the
time chaired the bank, attendees of the meeting included Jean-Claude Meyer, Interna-
tional Vice Chairman of Rothschild Group; Yu Liping, President of Rothschild Greater
China; Duka, CEO of the German Office; Zang Jianjun, Executive Director of CEFC China;
and General Finance Manager of CEFC Shanghai International Group, Wang Zhou.
(Economic Information Daily, 2017)
72
Figure 11 Ye Jianming, chairman of CEFC China Energy, meets with delegates from Rothschild &
Co on May 10, 2017. Note Yu Liping’s visibly blurred face, similarly to the photo from CIIC mee-
ting (figure 6).
Source: China Daily. Available from: https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2017-

05/11/content_29307432.htm
According to the company's archived website, CEFC China was founded by Ye

Jianming in 2002. (CEFC, 2016) Initially, it operated as an industrial conglomerate fo-
cused on a wide range of business activities with primary interest in the energy sector.
In 2014, oil and gas trade generated 60% of total 220 billion yuan in revenues, followed
by financial services with 25%. In addition, the company also operated in transport
infrastructure, forestry, asset management, real estate construction and warehousing
and logistics services. At the time, CEFC was at the height of its fame and was among
the 10 largest private companies in the PRC. (Want China Times, 2014) However, on
November 18, 2017, Patrick Ho Chi-shi, Director of the China Energy Fund Committee,
CEFC’s subsidiary acting as a non-governmental organization with Consultative Status
at the UN ECOSOC, was arrested for money laundering and corruption of the President
73
of Chad, or to the Foreign Minister of Uganda. Furthermore, the NGO was accused of
circumventing international sanctions on Iran, and of involvement in the illegal arms
trade. (Stevenson et al., 2018) When the scandal broke out in the US, Ye Jianming was
detained and investigated by the Chinese authorities. In March 2020, the company
went bankrupt, including its subsidiaries CEFC Shanghai International and CEFC Hai-
nan International. (Caixin, 2020)
5.4.1.9. Edmond de Rothschild Group

Another important family entity involved in the PRC is Edmond de Rothschild Group,
through its many affiliates. The group’s representative office in Shanghai was opened
in 2006, and the move represented “the first foreign family-controlled bank to obtain
approval from the China Banking Regulatory Commission to enter China’s financial mar-
ket.” (WealthBriefing, 2006) Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management (AM), has spe-
cialised mainly on the "new economy" and was “most positive on four themes: new en-
ergy and environment, urbanization, healthcare and consumption”. Firm’s strategy re-
portedly follows the direction of future reforms in the country, and therefore eyes sec-
tors receiving policy support. As Xing Hu, head of Chinese equities at the French asset
management company said for The Asset: "We always follow the party". The article fur-
ther stated that the firm was zeroing-in on the producers of traditional Chinese medi-
cine (TCM), daily necessities, or a company making civilian cameras. (Wang, 2013)
In March 2008, La Compagnie Financière Edmond de Rothschild bought a 15 per-

cent equity share in an asset manager Zhonghai Fund Management Company (Zhon-
ghai FMC). According to Reuters, at the time the deal “was the first foreign private bank
to hold a stake in a mutual fund manager in China, where more than 30 Sino-foreign fund
ventures have already been established.” (Chen, 2008) Later, in 2011 LCF has raised its
stake to 25 percent, with a controlling share hold by oil company CNOOC. Zhonghai
FMC manages assets on behalf of institutional and private investors in China, with as-
sets under management amounting to some 24 billion RMB (about USD3.6 billion) at
the end of December 2010. The article further commented that LCF Edmond de
74
Rothschild had “some USD6 billion of assets under management in the Asian region, in-
cluding USD2.2 billion managed by its asset management subsidiary Edmond de Roth-
schild Asset Management Hong Kong and USD3.6 billion through Zhonghai FMC.” (The
Asset, 2011)
However, in December 2016, the bank announced the closure of its Hong Kong op-
erations, few months after China’s banking regulator approved a request by the com-
pany to close down its Shanghai representative office. Edmond de Rothschild opened
in Hong Kong in 1992 and was “among the first of a wave of boutique private banks”
which then seek to capture “the business of a rapidly growing class of affluent Asians”.
Similarly, later it was one of the first companies to get a Qualified Foreign Institutional
Investor quota, in 2006. Nevertheless, due to profit declines in 2015 and rising cost
pressures, the company decided to reorient back on Europe and to pursue opportuni-
ties in Asia “through selective strategic partnerships”, such as with SMBC Nikko Securi-
ties Inc. and Samsung Asset Management Co. (Chatterjee, 2016)
Still, another arm of the banking group focusing on China seems to continue pros-
pering. According to public market data, Edmond de Rothschild Fund – China, an in-
vestment vehicle with Luxembourg domicile, specialises on sectors related to the afore
mentioned “new economy” in China. “Edmond de Rothschild Fund China is an equity
fund that invests primarily in companies with the majority of their activity linked to China
and listed in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and the United States (via ADRs13). The in-
vestment team implements a thematic approach and applies a fundamental analysis to
build a portfolio based on strong convictions.” (Edmond de Rothschild Asset Manage-
ment, 2021) It is particularly interested in consumer cyclical 14 , communication
13 An American depositary receipt (ADR) is a certificate issued by a U.S. bank that represents shares
in foreign stock. ADRs trade on American stock exchanges. (Hayes, 2021).
14 Consumer cyclicals are a category of stocks that rely heavily on the business cycle and economic
conditions. These include industries such as automotive, housing, entertainment, and retail.
(Hayes, 2020)
75
services, financial services, consumer defensive15, and healthcare. As of May 31, 2021,
its size was 438.85 million GBP (close to 4 billion CNY), and its portfolio’s largest share
holdings were in Tencent Holdings Ltd, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, Meituan, Ping An
Insurance (Group) Co. of China Ltd, and WuXi Biologics (Cayman). (The Financial
Times, 2021)
5.4.1.10. Auster Capital

In 2020, Jennifer Yu (Yu Liping) with the sponsorship of Rothschild & Co (backing 30%
of the company), founded Auster Capital (Chinese: 南风资本), which is according to its
own words “a unique and independent manager backed by a global financial institution
and SWF” with offices in London, Shanghai and Hong Kong, and which is “supported by
a strong team that deeply understands cross-border investments and the Chinese mar-
ket.” (Auster Capital, 2020) Yu, who is listed as the controlling shareholder, was re-
sponsible for Rothschilds Sino-foreign deals such as Geely’s acquisition of Volvo Car,
Chem China’s acquisition of Pirelli, Dongfeng Motor’s investment in PSA, and JIC’s ac-
quisition of SGD Pharma. (Auster Capital, 2020b)
The main function of Auster Capital is advising on majority and minority invest-
ment in European companies, primarily those “that have an existing or potential China
angle to their business”. Similarly to the Edmond de Rothschild Fund, Auster Capital
also focuses on “the industrial, healthcare, and consumer sectors”. In May 2020 it suc-
cessfully launched Auster Fund I, L.P., the firm’s first Cayman Islands Limited Partner-
ship with target size of $1 billion, and with capital commitments from sovereign wealth
fund, financial institutions, industry leaders and family offices. The fund further has a
capped capital pool for investment outside of the above core geography and sectors.
(Auster Capital, 2020) Rothschild & Co further states in their annual report that the
15 Consumer defensive or consumer staples are essential products that include typical products such
as foods & beverage, household goods, and hygiene products; but the category also includes such
items as alcohol and tobacco. (Chen, 2021)
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“vehicle will invest in either foreign companies looking to expand in Greater China or in
Chinese companies looking to expand internationally.” (Rothschild & Co, 2020a)
In December 2017, Elizabeth Wang replaced Jennifer Yu as Head of Rothschild

Global Advisory (RGA) in Greater China. Elizabeth has deep experience in Investment
Banking with over 20 years working in the industry, such as Morgan Stanley, UBS, or
Goldman Sachs. Furthermore, in 2015, The Women’s Foundation recognised Elizabeth
as one of the Leading Women in Investment Banking. (Hubbis, 2017)
5.4.2. Financial Advisory

Besides their own banking activities, Rothschild family has been actively involved in
advising external clients. The historical role dating back to the very roots of Mayer Am-
schel Rothschild’s activities in Frankfurt, was later managed by NM Rothschild & Sons
and since its creation in 2003, inherited by the Rothschild & Co. These services include
mainly M&A and Strategic Advisory, Debt Advisory and Restructuring, and Equity Ad-
visory. According to its own website:
“Global Advisory has direct access to the region's markets through our locally based
teams, including senior Chinese bankers, supported by a partnership in South Korea. We
command an in-depth knowledge of the region's economic development and the chal-
lenges facing its industries. We have developed an exceptional understanding of the local
regulatory and market environment. Our team is skilled at bridging the cultural gaps
that can exist between the managements of foreign and local companies, and are the
leading adviser to Chinese companies investing in Europe.” (Rothschild & Co, 2020b)
5.4.2.1. CNOOC
In 2005, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), the state-owned offshore
oil and natural-gas producer, pursued the biggest overseas acquisition to date - an
$18.5 billion competitive bid against Chevron Corp. for control of California-based Un-
ocal Corp. Questions were raised about the security aspect of the deal, as CNOOC was
70 percent-owned by the Chinese government. For the deal, Chinese conglomerate has
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„mobilized three investment banks, three law firms, a pair of media strategy groups, and
a Texas lobbying firm with connections in the White House to help shepherd the bid to-
ward success“. Amongst listed advisors of CNOOC was the investment bank N.M. Roth-
schild & Sons and consulting firm CRA International Inc. (Linebaugh, 2005)
However, after mounting opposition from the U.S. government on potential threats
to national security, CNOOC dropped the efforts to buy Unocal Corp. The Economist,
magazine in the Rothschilds’ co-ownership, commented on the result in a rather un-
satisfied tone with the article: “Bogus fears send the Chinese packing”. Article opposed
the decision saying: “By denying China access to energy assets through legitimate means,
America might expose itself to bigger threats. Some think that China might now seek en-
ergy security more aggressively, for instance by competing more directly for access to the
oil and gas from Russia and Central Asia that the West so prizes”, and furthermore “the
Chinese government may retaliate by blocking American investment in China.” (The
Economist, 2005) Though this particular deal was not successful for China, a Reuters
article from 2011 mentioned that Chinese M&A’s during the first decade were domi-
nated by the country’s hunger for natural resources, and the oil, gas and mining sectors
have accounted for more than half of total outbound deal volume during the period.
(Thomas, 2011)
5.4.2.2. China Netcom

In the 2008 Annual Report, Rothschild & Co mentioned their advisory role to the inde-
pendent board committee of China Netcom on the terms of the $56billion merger with
China Unicom Limited, transaction that “has been awarded Asia M&A Deal of Year 2008
by FT & mergermarket”. The report states that company’s success in winning a number
of high-profile mandates stems from their position, which is “free from conflicts of in-
terest and cross-selling pressure.” The advisory role was taken by Paris Orleans, which
at the time topped the business hierarchy and controlled other family businesses
through a web of interconnected shareholding scheme. (Paris Orleans, 2009) In 2011,
Rothschild advised on 30% acquisition of GDF Suez’s Exploration & Production
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division by China Investment Corporation for a cash consideration of $3.3bn. Further-

more, the company was involved in the €2.7bn sale of a 21.35% stake by the Portu-
guese State & Strategic Partnership with the acquirer China Three Gorges; or 50% ac-
quisition take in InterGen from GMR Group for US$1.2bn. Lastly, the report mentions
co-investment related to the IPO of the leading video-sharing website in China, Tudou,
without specifying the sum or share size. (Paris Orleans, 2013)
5.4.2.3. Volvo
One of the most discussed acquisitions by the Chinese company was Geely’s purchase
of Volvo. Forbes India reported in detail about the development of the deal, stating that
Li Shufu, founder of the Chinese automotive manufacturer, proposed “the daring idea”
of buying Volvo, Northern Europe’s largest car maker, back in 2002 in an internal meet-
ing. (Nueno & Liu, 2012) He saw Volvo “as the vehicle that would provide the innovation,
brand and technology needed to propel China’s auto industry to the global stage”. How-
ever, time was not ripe back then, and he had to wait for an ideal opportunity, which
came with financial crisis in 2008 and slowing down of the car industry. However, Li
and his company still lacked the necessary background for such high-profile deal, and
was unable to open serious negotiations with Ford, Volvo's parent company, on his
own. Situation changed when he asked for an external help:
“Li Shufu decided to invite Rothschild, the most prestigious investment bank in the
auto industry, to step in to help with the acquisition. Rothschild was assigned responsi-
bility for the overall coordination and valuation analysis of Volvo’s assets. With the bank’s
help, Geely soon assembled an acquisitions team. … The marathon negotiation came to
an end on August 2, 2010, when Ford and Geely signed the final agreement for the Volvo
acquisition. Geely acquired all shares of Volvo with $1.5 billion cash.” (Nueno & Liu,
2012)
The article says that one of the reasons for a success of this deal was Geely assembly
of a strong negotiating team, which “worked closely with an experienced team of finan-
ciers and advisors” and which “was able to convince Volvo – as well as the regulators in
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China and 40 other countries – that the deal was good for the future of the global car
industry.” (Nueno & Liu, 2012) Retrospectively, it has been observed that that the “ac-
quisitions allowed [Geely] to accelerate its catch-up process, and eventually also growth,
in both the domestic and international markets.” (ETUI Contributors, 2020)
Jim Lawrence, then co-head of global investment banking at Rothschild, said in 2011:
“Today, if you are selling certain types of assets, you have to be able to present them to
Chinese companies because they may well be the best buyers,” and further added: “The
activity has shifted from western companies looking to buy in China to Chinese companies
actively looking at opportunities globally.” (Thomas, 2011)
5.4.2.4. Pirelli
Following the achievement of Volvo deal, Rothschild made yet another important con-
tribution to Chinese automotive industry in 2015, when China National Chemical Corp
(ChemChina) bought into Pirelli, the world's fifth-largest tire maker, in a €7.1 billion
($7.7 billion) deal that transferred the 143-year-old Italian company to Chinese hands.
(Arosio, 2015) According to Swiss bank UBS, the deal created a global leader with a
market share of 10 percent. Reuters mentioned that bid was to be launched by an in-
vestment vehicle controlled by the Chinese state-owned group, with partial ownership
of Camfin investors, who included Pirelli boss Marco Tronchetti Provera, Italian banks
UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo, and Russia's Rosneft. The last-named bought a 50 per-
cent stake in Camfin in 2014, before the onset of the Russian economic crisis. Chem-
China was advised by ChemChina Finance Corp and Rothschild, with J.P. Morgan advis-
ing China National Tire & Rubber. The bid for Pirelli reportedly marked „a return of
China’s state-owned enterprises to global dealmaking, following a hiatus caused by Pres-
ident Xi Jinping’s anti-graft crackdown that targeted several current and former senior
officials at state companies.“ (Arosio, 2015)
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5.4.2.5. Technology companies

According to its 2010/2011 annual report, the Rothschild Group “advised on some of
the largest and most transformational deals of the year and has strengthened its position
in growth markets particularly in BRIC nations (Brazil – Russia – India – China).” The
company also advised on what it calls “the world’s largest ever auctioned block trade”,
when Vodafone sold its 3.2% share of China Mobile for $6.6bn. In 2009, RCO made a
minority share co-investment with Crescent Point in one of China’s leading providers
of integrated surveillance and control systems. (Paris Orleans, 2011) The investment
in Fanwo Technologies Ltd was among company’s “growth capital” investments, which
were “designed to finance growth that the company is not in a position to finance itself.”
(Paris Orleans, 2010)
Some of the less headline grabbing deals, but still strategic to particular fields, in-
cluded the 2020 August deal between Tencent, a Chinese multinational conglomerate,
and Voodoo, a French video game developer and publisher based in Paris. The former
hired Rothschild & Co as financial advisor for the deal, and Alexandre Yazdi, Voodoo
CEO, commented on the $1.4bn investment flowing from the Chinese company with
these words: "We are thrilled to welcome Tencent, a company we admire for its leading
game and consumer mobile apps. We look forward to developing new products together
for the Asian market, and publishing games created by the many talented games studios
in the region." (MergerLinks, 2020) In yet another field of industry, Rothschild & Co
advised on Wumart’s (物美) acquisition of an 80% stake in METRO China for €1.9 bil-
lion, which Rothschild characterised as “one of the largest Chinese retail transactions to
complete in 2020”, demonstrating company’s “expertise in carrying out high-profile and
complex buyside mandates.” (Rothschild & Co, 2020a) Besides their activities in China,
Rothschild & Co is active elsewhere in the world, and together with Goldman Sachs
they were top financial advisors by value and volume in Europe in the first half of 2020.
(GlobalData, 2020)
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5.4.2.6. China Chengtong Holdings Group

Cooperation on a systemic level was agreed on at the February 2016 meeting between
Rothschild & Co representatives and China Chengtong Holdings Group Ltd. (中国诚通
控股集团有限公司), one of the pilot enterprises under SASAC focusing on state-owned
assets operation. The latter’s business scope covers wide range of activities such as
investment & financing, assets management, capital operation, equity management,
and industrial management. At the meeting, the Group’s president Zhu Bixin met with
Rothschild Bank’s CEO Olivier Pecoux, together with the bank’s chairman for Greater
China, Ms. Yu Liping, and other attendees. According to a report from the meeting, Zhu
stressed China Chentong’s vision to comprehensively intensify SASAC SOE reform and
“hoped to deepen communication and seek multiple cooperation in capital operation
with Rothschild Bank”. Similarly, Pecoux stated that: “Rothschild Bank attached great
importance to the significant role of China Chengtong in capital markets and would be
happy to carry out intensified cooperation in capital markets and international mergers
and realize win-win development.” (China Chengtong Holdings Group, 2016) In Septem-
ber the same year, China Chengtong initiated the establishment of China Structural Re-
form Fund (CSRF), with a size of the fund of RMB 350 billion and RMB 131 billion raised
at the initial stage. According to its own words, “China Chengtong has opened a new
journey of state-owned capital operation.” (China Chengtong Holdings Group, n.d.)
5.4.2.7. Alibaba Group

When it comes to the size and importance of one single Chinese entity connected the
Rothschild dealings, an e-commerce giant Alibaba ranks amongst the highest. First, N
M Rothschild & Sons (Hong Kong) Limited acted as financial advisor to the company’s
business-to-business unit, Alibaba.com, enlisting on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
The IPO raised HK$13.1 billion (US$1.7 billion), making it the largest Internet IPO in
Asia and the second largest globally at the time. Jack Ma, non-executive Chairman of
the Company and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Alibaba Group commented
on the deal: "Alibaba.com's IPO ushers in a new era of ecommerce development and we
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look forward to pioneering an e-commerce ecosystem that benefits businesses in China

and around the world." (Alibaba, 2007) The eight Cornerstone Investors which partic-
ipated in the Global Offering included Yahoo! Inc., AIG Global Investment Corporation
(Asia) Limited, Foxconn (Far East) Limited, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
(Asia) Limited, Cisco Systems International B.V., and entities affiliated with Mr. Peter
Kwong Ching Woo (Chairman of The Wharf (Holdings) Limited), the Kwok family (con-
trolling shareholders of Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited) and Mr. Kuok Hock Nien.
(Alibaba, 2007)
In September 2009, Rothschild advised Alibaba.com in acquiring China Civilink

(Cayman), operating as HiChina Web Solutions in China, for US$79.06 million in cash.
At the time of transaction, HiChina was a leading provider of Internet infrastructure
services in China, including domain name services, web and server hosting services,
email hosting services and website design and development services. According to the
transaction report, with the acquisition of HiChina, Alibaba.com gained four key assets:
“a new, large customer base; new, value-added applications; advanced and automated
“do it yourself Web site technology; and a strong management and operating team.”
((Alibaba, 2009) Rothschild also advised on 2010’s Alibaba’s acquisition of Auctiva, the
leading third-party developer of tools for eBay sellers, as well as the purchase of Ven-
dio, a multi-channel e-commerce company providing a one-stop solution for small
businesses that are selling online across multiple channels. Alibaba stated on the trans-
actions that “[t]he combination of both the Auctiva and Vendio acquisitions brings more
than 250,000 new customers to the Alibaba.com family of products, and significantly ex-
pands the size of Alibaba.com’s U.S. operations.” (Alibaba, 2010)
However, the most important role of Rothschild in regard to the expansion of

Alibaba came in 2014, with advising on the Chinese e-commerce behemoth’s New York
Stock Exchange IPO. The Rothschild’s role is actually twofold. First, Michael Yao, who
was a Rothschild banker in Hong Kong since 2006 and member of the team advising
Alibaba.com on its Hong Kong Stock Exchange 2007 IPO as well as its delisting in 2010,
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was actually hired by Alibaba in late 2012 as Senior Vice President, heading the corpo-
rate finance division. In this position, he was tasked with planning what has become
“the most anticipated IPO since Facebook”. (Barreto, 2014a) Yao was also involved in
the acquisitions mentioned in the previous paragraph and helped the company took
its B2B unit Alibaba.com private in 2011. According to the Reuters article reporting on
the deal, Yao is also well-connected in Hong Kong after a “long banking career” in the
city and “through family ties”. His wife is the granddaughter of the late Tung Chao Yung,
founder of Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL), one of the world’s largest container
transport and logistics companies. Her uncle is Tung Chee-hwa, Hong Kong’s first head
of government after Britain handed back sovereignty to China in 1997. (Barreto,
2014a)
Secondly, Rothschild Group was hired as Alibaba’s exclusive independent financial

advisor on the deal, with Citigroup Inc, Credit Suisse Group AG, Deutsche Bank, Gold-
man Sachs Group Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Morgan Stanley acting as the joint un-
derwriters in the IPO. At the time, Alibaba’s IPO ranked as the world’s biggest at $25
billion, surpassing a previous global record set by Agricultural Bank of China Ltd in
2010, when the lender raised $22.1 billion. (Barreto, 2014b) In her interview with Chi-
nese finance magazine Yicai, head of the Rothschild Greater China Yu Liping said:
“Alibaba is a very mature and highly internationalized company… When Alibaba Group
was preparing to list its B2B business, it felt that it would ask an independent financial
consultant for its listing location during internal evaluation, the timing of listing, and the
comprehensive evaluation of securities companies.” Yu Liping also recalled that before
Alibaba went public in Hong Kong, Jack Ma personally went to Europe to visit Baron
David Rothschild, with high recognition of the “philosophy and business model of the
Rothschild family”. According, to Yu, the two sides agreed well on common interests:
"In the past few years, the high-quality professional services and sincere and fair evalua-
tion opinions of the Rothschild team have been highly recognized by the Alibaba’s execu-
tive team.” (Hu, 2016)
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5.4.2.8. Tanzanian Railway

Besides Rothschild’s involvement in the massive Chinese M&A spree in Europe and the
US, it is noteworthy to mention family’s participation in Tanzanian railway project. In
May 2015, Reuters reported that “Tanzania has awarded contracts to build new railway
lines worth about $9 billion to Chinese firms”, which in effect led to “expanding Beijing’s
presence in East Africa’s second-biggest economy.” The main part of the project, 2,561
km (1,536 miles) long standard gauge railway connecting Dar es Salaam port to land-
locked neighbours, was valued at $7.6 billion. The consortium of Chinese railway com-
panies was led by China Railway Materials (CRM), while financial adviser Rothschild
was at the time “finalising procedures for financing of the project through banks”, said
Tanzanian Transport Minister Samuel Sitta. (Ng’wanakilala, 2015)
5.4.3. Other activities

Apart from their activities in the banking and financial advisory spheres, members of
the family occasionally get involved in various other fields in the PRC. Even though
these are linked to the previous two and particularly stem from their investment ac-
tivities and other banking operations, they still represent a distinct subgroup of busi-
nesses, as shall be observed on the following pages.
5.4.3.1. Weather Central

For a rather brief period between 2011 and 2012, Rothschilds were a dominant force
in Chinese weather forecasting and modelling industry. In January 2011, E.L. Roth-
schild LLC, a private investment company led by Chairman Sir Evelyn de Rothschild
and CEO Lynn Forester de Rothschild, acquired a 70% interest in Weather Central, LP,
“the world’s leading provider of interactive weather graphics and data services for tele-
vision, web, and mobile”. At the time, Weather Central had more than 400 broadcast
television clients in 21 countries worldwide including the US, UK, Canada, Spain, Brazil,
Mexico, among others. More importantly, since August 2006, Weather Central was “the
primary provider of weather technology and delivery to broadcast stations in China”,
85
with regional offices in Beijing and Hong Kong. (Business Wire, 2011) Terry Kelly,
founder and CEO of the Weather Central, made an interesting remark, saying that in
China the government “treats weather data almost like military state secrets.”
(Edgecliffe-Johnson, 2011) In August 2012 the Rothschild owned Weather Central was
acquired by Weather Services International (WSI) and further moved under control of
IBM in 2015. (The Weather Channel, 2019)
5.4.3.2. Vallar and Vallares

In 2010, Vallar, an investment company founded by Nathaniel Rothschild and listed at
the London Stock Exchange, acquired 75% of the share capital of Berau Coal and 25%
of the share capital of Bumi Resources Group for an aggregate consideration of circa
$3.0 billion. (Investegate, 2010) According to Nat’s own words, the logic behind com-
bining the assets of Bumi and Berau, the largest and fifth-largest coal miners of Indo-
nesia, was essentially “to create the largest exporter of coking coal to China,” adding:
"This is a business that by 2013 should produce 140 million tonnes of coal a year." (Reu-
ters, 2010) In 2015, Nikkei reported that British financier ended in a takeover battle
with local agricultural conglomerate Sinar Mas Group over his creation, Asia Resource
Minerals, or ARMS. Eventually Rothschild had to close the business, as ARMS faced de-
clining coal prices because of “weak demand from China”, in addition to a series of dis-
putes over mismanagement. (Suzuki, 2015)
In a similar fashion, in 2011 Nat Rothschild set up Vallares, an acquisition vehicle

that would target oil assets and which was described as "a sequel to Rothschild's Vallar
mining investment vehicle". (Bergin, 2011) Tony Hayward, a former CEO of British Pe-
troleum, joined Rothschild to bring the specialization and attract foreign partners.
Later that year, Vallares acquired Turkish oil company Genel Energy (and subse-
quently was renamed after it), which had a prime position in the Kurdish region of
northern Iraq. Partners in this deal included Norway's DNO International, Canada's
Heritage Oil and Longford Energy and, most importantly, Sinopec. At the time, the Chi-
nese giant was among the "biggest oil companies in the world, with revenues of $200
86
billion", and successful development with Sinopec of these Iraqi fields "could poten-
tially serve as an entry point for Hayward and Vallares to partner with Sinopec elsewhere
in the world". (Helman, 2011) However, after promising years reaching its peak in
2014, it met a similar fate as Vallar and faced several problems, "including having to
twice significantly reduce its estimate of how much oil is contained in its flagship Taq Taq
field". Subsequently, Reuters reported in June 2017 that Nat Rothschild and other sen-
ior managers resigned and left the company. (Thomas, 2017) As an interesting side
note, just a few months earlier, Reuters reported that another family enterprise - Roth-
schild & Co, advised American corporation Chevron on the sale of its South African oil
assets valued up to $1 billion to Sinopec, "to secure its first major refinery on the conti-
nent ". (Resnick-Ault, 2017)
5.4.3.3. Volex
Another enterprise of Nat Rothschild related to China is Volex, one of the world’s top
three power cord manufacturers. Nat became executive chairman in 2015, with a quar-
ter of the shares bought back in 2008. (Burgess, 2016) Since it establishment in Man-
chester around 1892, Volex focused on the manufacture of electronic widgets. Cur-
rently, it claims that they are “a leading integrated manufacturing specialist for perfor-
mance-critical applications and power products”. (Volex Group, n.d.-a) It has subsidiar-
ies in Asia, Europe and Americas, and just the four of the factories situated in Shenzhen,
Suzhou, and Zhongshan. (Volex Group, n.d.-b)
5.4.3.4. Rothschild’s Wine in China

The Rothschild family has been involved in wine business for a long time, as Baron
James de Rothschild purchased prestigious Château Lafite winery in France back in
1868. (Lafite, 2019) In China, history of the Rothschild wine dates at least decades,
when the first Christie's top-class wine sale in Hong Kong took place in 1998. At the
auction, an imperiale - equal to eight regular bottles - of 1996 Mouton-Rothschild sold
for $17,000. Baroness Philippine de Rothschild personally promoted the set, saying
that 1996 label was designed by 'wonderful' Chinese artist, Gu Gan, and this is a one-
87
time opportunity to get it. The sale was a success, overshadowing other wine brands,
some of which did not sell at all. (Finlay, 1998)
Fast forward to 2012, police in Wenzhou, south of Shanghai, discovered 10,000 bot-
tles labelled as one of the world's most expensive wines, Château Lafite Rothschild. If
authentic, the haul would be worth £10m ($16m), but police “believed it is fake”. Ac-
cording to the article, “Chateau Lafite is very popular with China's new rich and 50,000
bottles are imported from the estate each year”, with analysts further estimating “that
70% of bottles of Chateau Lafite sold in China are fakes”. The official Rothschild estate
has fought back and just until 2012 won six lawsuits against Chinese companies over
fine wines. (BBC, 2012) From the economic point of view, attempts to profit from
forged wines make sense, as EU wine exports to China in 2012 alone were valued at
nearly $1 billion, more than a tenfold increase since 2006. In this regard, Lafite has
been regarded as “such a generic brand in China that it has widespread appeal as a name
and as a status symbol”. (Jones, 2013)
In 2017, Chinese partner in the vineyard ownership, CITIC, seemed to have shifted
its focus away from wine, with a statement: “Given the macroeconomic situations and
the shift of our business focus, CITIC IIG is undergoing strategic adjustment by initiatively
exiting many of its minority-owned businesses, including the partnership with DBR. We
remain confident about the success of this project.” The 30% stake that CITIC was selling
is valued at RMB 32.56 million, and DBR purchased CITIC’s shares with expectations
to own the entire capital of its Chinese vineyard after the completion of a public bidding
process. (Wang, 2018)
In July 2019, the Lafite Rothschild Group unveiled its winery in Penglai, Shandong
province. Baron Rothschild and his daughter Saskia, Chairman of Lafite Rothschild
Group, together with special guests such as French Ambassador to China Li Xiang, Dep-
uty Mayor of Yantai City Zhang Dailing, Penglai Mayor Yang Shengyan and other rele-
vant leaders of Yantai and Penglai “attended this event to witness the historical moment
- the inauguration of Lafite Penglai Winery.” (Penglaiqu Zhengfu, 2019) According to
88
media, by customizing well-established French wine with a domestic brand, Roth-

schilds are betting they can “ride out China’s economic slowdown and turn nationalistic
headwinds to its advantage with a locally made product.“ (Qin, 2019) With 74 acres of
vineyards, production at the new estate is modest. Only 2,500 cases of the 2017 vintage
will be sold, mostly in China, compared with the 16,000 that Château Lafite Rothschild
in Bordeaux produces on average. For Lafite, though, the estate in Shandong also offers
a foothold into China’s growing market for pricey wines. To guard the pricey wine
against counterfeiting, each bottle is equipped with a special chip technology. (Qin,
2019)
Figure 12 Baron Eric de Rothschild (in the middle) and Miss Saskia (first from the right),
Chairwoman of the Lafite Rothschild Group, at the unveiling of Penglai winery.
Source: Penglai County website. Available from:

http://www.penglai.gov.cn/art/2019/7/8/art_13632_2467850.html
Hand in hand with drinks and wine goes delicious food. In this matter, In December
2015, Yicai magazine reported that the Rothschild family entered China's catering
89
industry and invested tens of millions of dollars in Oriental Dumpling King 东方饺子.
Pierre-Michel Passy, CEO of the Rothschild Family Investment Fund, said that China’s
future catering industry market is very large, and the family prefers to invest in indus-
tries with great development potential and good market prospects. “At the same time”,
Passy added, “it is still a very Chinese culture company, so when we invest in this com-
pany, we are also investing in Chinese culture.” But just investing in Chinese culture is
not enough, the goal is to export it and expand overseas: “The King of Oriental Dump-
lings has been very successful in China. Dumplings, as the favorite food of Chinese con-
sumers, will be popular all over the world. The Rothschild family believes that it can be
promoted to a wider overseas market.", added Passy. However, in the process of inter-
nationalization, the Rothschild family will make “slight adjustments on the basis of pre-
serving the oriental flavor of the food to make the food more in line with the tastes of the
locals.” (Nie, 2015)
5.4.3.5. Chinese Participation in the Inclusive Capitalism Initiative

As already mentioned in the thesis introductory part, Lady Lynn Forrester de Roth-
schild is the founder and main proponent of the Inclusive Capitalism Initiative, which
through its Embankment Project for Initiative Capitalism (EPIC) connects financial in-
stitutions with approximately $30 trillion assets under management. (Coalition for In-
clusive Capitalism, 2021) Regarding the Chinese subjects related to the project, it is
important to name Chen Yilong, chairman of Sunshine Kaidi New Energy Group Co.
Ltd., sponsored by Sir Evelyn de Rothschild and Lady Lynn, who personally visited its
headquarters and biofuel production facility in East China. According to the United Na-
tions Development Programme, the “company is known as the largest private company
in biomass power generation in China,” and “with over 500 million RMB in R&D, Kaidi
is rapidly advancing in green technology by producing bio-liquid fuel from biomass.”
(National Forestry and Grassland Administration, 2014)
Chen Yilong was one of the three reported Chinese to participate in the "Inclusive
Capitalism Conference" held by the family in London on 27 May 2014, with the total of
90
250 people representing the very top of financial, political, industrial circles, coming
from 37 countries around the world present. Speakers at the conference included
Prince Charles of the United Kingdom, former US President Clinton, IMF President and
Managing Director Christina Lagarde, or Lionel Barber, editor-in-chief of the Financial
Times, just to name a few. As a representative of Chinese enterprises, Chen delivered a
speech on "Accelerating the Development of Low-Carbon Circular Economy and Promot-
ing Social Fairness and Justice" at the meeting. In his speech, Chen Yilong mentioned
that Sunshine Kaidi has carried out technological innovation and business model inno-
vation in the utilization of agricultural and forestry waste resources in accordance with
China's national conditions and vigorously develops the biomass energy industry in
rural China. (National Forestry and Grassland Administration, 2014)
The remaining two attendees from the PRC were the then Bureau Director, Office
of the Central Leading Group on Financial and Economic Affairs, Fang Xinghai 方星海,
and China International Capital Corporation Chairman Jin Liqun 金立群. (National For-
estry and Grassland Administration, 2014) From his position, Fang Xinghai, was a
member of China’s highest circles in terms of economic policies setting mechanisms at
the time. Previously, he gathered deep experience at the Shanghai Stock Exchange,
where he was successively appointed Assistant President, Vice President, and Member
of the Party Committee from July 2001. Later he served as Deputy Party Secretary of
Shanghai Financial Committee and Director-General of Shanghai Municipal Financial
Service Office. In September 2013, he went on to serve as Bureau Director, Office of the
Central Leading Group for Financial and Economic Affairs. He was appointed CSRC Vice
Chairman and member of the CSRC Party Committee in October 2015, positions he
holds to date. (China Securities Regulatory Commission, n.d.)
Jin Liqun has served as the first President of the Asian Infrastructure Investment
Bank (AIIB) since January 16, 2016. Previously, in the 1980s he worked at the Ministry
of Finance in several leadership positions. Between 1988 to 1993 he was a Deputy Ex-
ecutive Director of the World Bank China. He then went to work at the Ministry of
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Finance, concurrently holding the post of Monetary Policy Committee Member of the
People’s Bank of China. From 2003 to 2008, he served as Vice President of the Asian
Development Bank. He served as the Chairman of China Investment Corporation since
his joining in May 2013. Since January 2014, he has participated in the preparation of
the AIIB, leading the Preparatory Working Group and acting as the Secretary-General
of the Multilateral Interim Secretariat. (Jiangsusheng Renmin Zhengfu, n.d.)
Rothschilds themselves have been promoting Inclusive Capitalism in China for

many years now. On 11 April 2013, Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild and Sir Evelyn
de Rothschild participated in a dialogue on Inclusive Capitalism, held on Cheung Kong
Graduate School of Business (CKGSB) Beijing campus. (CKGSB, 2013) The “wide-rang-
ing and insightful discussion” touched upon equality of opportunities, sustainable econ-
omies, and preserving an inclusive society, among other issues. In her speech, Lynn
Forester said to the audience, from which elite circles of the Chinese industry and busi-
ness arise: “Now, I know I am in a country that does not consider itself capitalist. The
Economist refers to your economic system as “bamboo capitalism” or as “the rise of state
capitalism”, but I don’t think the rest of the world has figured out the correct nomencla-
ture for the amazing economic miracle in China. We have enormous respect and admira-
tion for what this nation has done in improving the lives of hundreds of millions of people.
You may not call it capitalism but what we are really thinking about are free markets
and free trade.” And she ended with saying: “You seem to be in a golden period in China,
with hundreds of millions of people lifted out of poverty and enormous wealth creation.
You want to sustain it by keeping the public with you, not just by protecting people like
you, like me, but by protecting opportunities for all. The key is to keep the elevator work-
ing.” (CKGSB, 2013)
5.4.4. Political Connections

Some of the previous chapters have shown that Rothschilds use far-reaching connec-
tions to promote their business interests in China. To secure their banking, financial,
commerce, and other activities in the country, Rothschilds have partly relied on close
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relationship with people in power, be it politicians, regulators, and other important

figures. For example, in his 2011 interview for Bloomberg, Sir Evelyn called Liu Ming-
kang, the first chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission since its estab-
lishment in 2003, and person responsible for setting regulations including those for
foreign financial institutions, as an “old friend of mine”. (Bloomberg, 2011)
One of the significant events in terms of networking and establishing Rothschilds’

connections in China was the fourth annual China-US Economists Symposium between
the China Finance 40 Forum (CF40) and the Peterson Institute for International Eco-
nomics (PIIE), which took place May 23-24, 2015, in Beijing. Sir Evelyn de Rothschild,
board member of PIIE, had an opportunity to meet with “more than a hundred Chinese
government officials, scholars, and practitioners”. Those included Vice Minister of Fi-
nance Zhu Guangyao, Vice Mayor of Tianjin Yan Qingmin, China Development Bank
Chairman Zheng Zhijie, Executive Vice President of China Investment Corporation Xie
Ping, Former Export-Import Bank President and Chairman Li Ruogu, China Academy
of Social Sciences (CASS) Senior Research Fellow Yu Yongding, CF40 Secretary-General
Wang Haiming, among others. (PIIE, 2015)
The conference focused on diverging monetary policies, global investment includ-

ing the Belt and Road Initiative, the role of Internet finance in the Chinese and Euro-
pean financial systems, market-based finance versus traditional banks, and the future
of trade agreements between China and the United States. Furthermore, in addition to
participating in the symposium, the PIIE delegation also visited numerous groups in
Beijing and Shanghai. In Beijing, the group visited “Chinese government offices and
other institutes, including the Central Leading Group for Financial and Economic Affairs,
Ministry of Finance, China Investment Corporation, State Administration of Foreign Ex-
change, People's Bank of China, and the China Securities Regulatory Commission, among
others”. The report states that discussions revolved around issues of trade, investment,
monetary policy, global growth, and Sino-US relations. In Shanghai, the delegation met
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with the municipal government and the Shanghai stock exchange to discuss China's
financial development and connectivity with the world financial system. (PIIE, 2015)
Figure 13 Attendees of China-US Economists Symposium between the China Finance 40 Forum
(CF40) and the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE). Seated, on the very right,
is Sir Evelyn de Rothschild.
Source: PIIE website. Available from: https://www.piie.com/events/china-us-econo-

mists-symposium-new-pattern-sino-us-economic-relations
Sir Evelyn is indeed not the only member of the family with the highest connections
to Chinese politicians and state officials. On July 19, 2011, Wang Qishan, Vice Premier
of the State Council, received Lord Jacob Rothschild, Chairman of the British Rothschild
Investment Trust, in Zhongnanhai, the central headquarters for the Chinese Com-
munist Party and the State Council of China. The two sides reportedly exchanged views
on China-UK economic cooperation, the world economic and financial situation and
other issues. (Embassy of the PRC, 2011) A year later, on April 26, 2012, the two met
again in Zhongnanhai, this time accompanied by former British Prime Minister Tony
Blair. (Embassy of the PRC, 2012)
94
Figure 14 On April 26, 2012, Lord Jacob Rothschild (left), Chairman of the British Rothschild In-
vestment Trust, met with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan (right) in Zhongnanhai, Beijing.
Source: The Chinese government website. Available from:

http://www.gov.cn/ldhd/2012-04/26/content_2124158.htm
Lord Rothschild furthermore accepted the delegation of the China Entrepreneurs

Club （中国企业家俱乐部）at the meeting that took place on July 27, 2012, in London.
100 members including outstanding representatives from the British business, aca-
demic and political circles, and the delegation of the Chinese Entrepreneur Club to the
UK attended the event. (Renmin Wang, 2012) According to its website: “China Entre-
preneur Club (CEC) is one of the most influential business leader platforms in China,
founded in 2006 by 31 business leaders, economists and diplomats. Members of China En-
trepreneur Club are representatives of China’s market economy and first pioneers since
the reform and opening-up, the companies they represent are leaders in their respective
fields.” With additional note that “CEC currently counts with 64 members and 5 advisors.
95
Currently Mr. Jack Ma, Founder of the Jack Ma Foundation and Partner of Alibaba Group
serves as Chairman, and Mr. Wang Yusuo, President of ENN Group serves as the President
of CEC”. The article from Australian Financial Review mentioned back in 2015 that “the
club's membership list has grown to 47 executives, mostly men (there are three women),
who are in charge of over 2 trillion yuan ($438 billion) in revenue.” (China Entrepreneur
Club, 2020). It has been also reported that the China Entrepreneurs Club “has become
an influential voice on the diplomatic world stage.” (Murray, 2015)
Figure 15 Lord Jacob Rothschild (upper row, in the middle) with representatives of the China
Enterpreneurs Club, London, 2012.
Source: China Entrepreneur Club website. Available from: http://www.dao-

nong.com/cec/uk/pic/2012/0726/34683_5.html
Furthermore, Lord Rothschild has met with UK Ambassador Liu Xiaoming on sev-
eral occasions. On meeting that took place 14 July, 2015, the two sides focused on
broader China-UK financial cooperation. Ambassador Liu said that China-UK relations
have entered a new period of rapid and comprehensive development, and expressed
96
hope that the British financial community “will seize the opportunities, bring out its po-
tential and further expand cooperation with the Chinese side in finance and infrastruc-
ture investment.” Similarly, Lord Jacob Rothschild said that “all social sectors in the UK
attach importance to developing relations with China”, and that “the financial sector in
particular is fully confident in the prospects for China's development”. He also added that
“the British side is willing to work with China to enhance financial cooperation, expand
mutual investment and achieve win-win outcomes.” (Embassy of the PRC, 2015) Three
years later, in July 2018, both sides at one of the many renowned Rothschild’s estates,
Waddesdon Manor, to discuss China's economy and China-UK business cooperation.
Ambassador Liu emphasised, that “both history and our current experience” have
proven three points: “First, openness, connectivity and win-win cooperation are the over-
arching trend of the times; Second, economic globalization is irreversible; Third, there is
no winner in a trade war.” (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2018)
As an interesting side note, in the article on the Volvo acquisition, Reuters quoted a
French business magazine Challenges, which in 2008 reported that Yu Liping, long-
time head of Rothschild Greater China, is married to the adopted son of former Chinese
President Jiang Zemin. Her proximity to power reportedly helped to smooth relations
with the Chinese government, whose support was vital for Geely. (Webb, 2010; Chal-
lenges, 2008) Information about Yu Liping being a daughter-in-law of Jiang Zemin can
also be found in other sources, but given the closely kept privacy of the Chinese elites,
these are far from official documents. (Schumach, 2011; Ziyou Minzhu Kexue, 2011)
97
NARRATIVES ON ROTHSCHILDS AND THE PRC
6. Narratives on Rothschilds and the PRC
6.1. Portrayal of China in the Economist
Britannica provides the following definition: „The Economist, weekly magazine of news
and opinion published in London and generally regarded as one of the world’s preeminent
journals of its kind. It provides wide-ranging coverage of general news and particularly
of international and political developments and prospects bearing on the world’s econ-
omy. The publication is known for its social-libertarian slant and maintains that free
markets provide the best method of running economies and governments.” (Britannica,
2019)
Rothschilds have been openly involved in the Economist for almost a century now.
As Financial Times reported in 2015: “Since 1928, when [The Economist] was rescued
from financial malaise by a combination of the Rothschild, Cadbury and Schroder families
and the publisher of the then Financial News, its set-up has provided financial and edito-
rial independence that only a handful of other media organisations can match.” (Mance,
2015) The role of the family became even more transparent when Sir Evelyn de Roth-
schild served as Chairman of The Economist Group from 1972 until 1989. During this
time, its circulation increased from 101,000 to 362,000 copies and the turnover in-
creased from £4.4m to £70.8m. (Atlantic Partnership, n.d.) In August 2015, the Agnelli
and Rothschild families acquired control part of shares of The Economist after buying
out Pearson’s 50 percent stake in the magazine. As part of the deal, Exor, the Agnelli
family’s investment company, raised its stake in the magazine from 4.7 percent to more
than 40 percent. (Spence, 2015) That would make the Italians the largest shareholders
in the publishing company. Nevertheless, the article informs that “the Rothschilds, who
currently own about 21 percent, will emerge from the buyout with the same voting rights
and as many board seats as Exor.” According to Politico: “The magazine may not be the
commercial success that it once was, with slumping print advertising dragging down rev-
enues in recent years, but it still boasts a circulation of 1.6 million in print and online, and
98
profits of almost £60 million a year. Its real allure among the global elite, however, is the
social cachet that would come with owning it.” And added that Rothschilds regarded
themselves “as custodians of the magazine’s legacy.“ (Spence, 2015)
In 2020, The Economist had two offices in China, namely “The Economist Group
(Asia/Pacific) Limited” situated in Hong Kong, and “Economist (Shanghai) Management
Consulting Company Limited”, with its principal activity and operation of publishing,
hosting events and information services. The importance on the China coverage can be
understood from the following statement in 2020 Annual Report: “The US-China trade
war, Brexit and the coronavirus dominated our editorial teams’ agenda during much of
the year. Our Beijing-based China team was especially busy, analysing the impact of tariff
escalation and working with their global colleagues on the diversification of clients’ sup-
ply chains, before turning their attention to the government‘s response to the covid-19
outbreak.” Besides reporting on China-related issues, The Economist Group is also in-
volved in other interactions with the PRC. The following is stated in the company’s
2020 annual report: “Encouragingly, we saw exceptional growth in our new geospatial
service in China, and a significant increase in development work with a variety of US gov-
ernment agencies.“ (The Economist, 2020)
In his paper called “The Rise of China: media perception and implications for inter-
national politics”, Li Zhang included 614 articles from The Economist into the research,
showing that most of its Chinese coverage falls in the Asia, World Politics and Current
Affairs, Business, Finance and Science sections. (Li, 2010) Furthermore, data has
shown that the volume of media coverage of China in the Financial Times and The
Economist increased during the period from 1989 to 2005. According to the EU offi-
cials interviewed for the research, the most popular newspapers among EU officials
are the most important transnational or trans-European newspapers. The most widely
read newspaper in Brussels is the Financial Times, with The Economist being “widely
read”. As the author states: “The overall information that the EU officials get about China
provides input in forming their perception of China, which leads to their decision-making.
99
Since the news media are their main source of China information on a daily basis, what
they perceive from the media reporting will greatly influence their perception of China,
even though they interpret the media through their own expertise and attitudes and the
opinions of the people around them.” (Li, 2010)
In 2018, Kun Xu made an interesting study on semiotic analysis and comparison of

magazine covers depicting China, and included The Economist in his research. Accord-
ing to his findings: “The Economist centered on China’s economic issues. From 2001 to
2007, The Economist had 18 China-related magazine covers. From 2008 to March 2014,
the number increased to 34. It suggests that The Economist increased its coverage of
China’s role in the world. Similar to Time, The Economist had concentrated on China’s
changes and growth in the first few years since 2001. Later, it framed China as an unsta-
ble superpower of the world. Though the focuses on consumerism and policymaking indi-
cated that China was shouldering the responsibilities of leading the world economy, the
linguistic messages such as ‘fear,’ ‘face-off,’ and ‘takeovers’ reflected editors’ mixed feel-
ings toward China. An example would be the use of a Peking Opera makeup on one of its
magazine covers. The makeup was coded as black and white. In Peking Opera, black
means integrity and selflessness, while white means deviousness, guile, and suspicion. The
use of a black-and-white makeup again established a double-faced China.” (Kun, 2018)
In 2016, it has been reported that The Economist and Time websites have joined
the list of foreign news websites blocked in mainland China. The sites appear to have
been censored as a result of several cover articles “critical of the growing power of
China’s president, Xi Jinping.” (Feng, 2016)
100
6.2. Portrayal of the Rothschild Family in Chinese Public Space and

State-Owned Media
Baike Baidu, which can be considered as Chinese Wikipedia and therefore one of the
main sources for information for a wide public, has a following definition of the Roth-
schild family as of May 2021:
“罗斯柴尔德家族的财富已达五十万亿美元（学者宋鸿兵 2007 年估计）。[1] 罗

斯柴尔德家族掌门人曾主动提出拒绝邀请宋鸿兵。 [1] 罗斯柴尔德家族（Rothschild
Family）是欧洲乃至世界久负盛名的金融家族。它发迹于 19 世纪初，其创始人是梅
耶·罗斯柴尔德（Mayer Amschel Rothschild）。他和他的 5 个儿子即“罗氏五虎”先后
在英国伦敦、法国巴黎、奥地利维也纳、德国法兰克福、意大利那不勒斯等欧洲著
名城市开设银行 [2]” (Baike Baidu, 2021)
Which can be translated as:
[“The wealth of the Rothschild family reaches US$50 trillion (estimated by scholar
Song Hongbing in 2007). [1] The head of the Rothschild family once suggested to refuse
to invite Song Hongbing.16 [1] The Rothschild family has been a highly reputed finan-
cial family, both in Europe and across the world. The family made fortune in the early
19th century, with the founder Mayer Rothschild (Mayer Amschel Rothschild). Over
the time, he and his five sons, nicknamed "Rothschild’s five tigers", opened banks in
England - London, France - Paris, Austria - Vienna, Germany - Frankfurt, Italy - Naples,
as well as other famous European cities. [2]”]
Both sources in the statement are linked to the article called “探究神秘的罗斯柴尔
德家族” [“Exploring the mysterious Rothschild family”], published on 人民网, internet
version of 人民日报 [People’s Daily] (Renmin Wang, 2012)
16 This comment is related to the 2009 interview of David de Rothschild in CCTV, where he dismissed
Song’s statements. (Leung, 2014)
101
6.2.1. “Currency Wars”
In February 2018, CGTN published an article named: “China's fascination with the Roth-
schild family”. The article mentions that beyond its growing financial presence in the
country, the past decade has seen growing cultural awareness in China of the Roth-
schild family. This was connected to several bestselling yet controversial books which
have seen a wave of interest in Jewish business practices, Chinese books on Jewish
business practices, e.g. How do Jewish People win? (犹太人凭什么赢); Jewish Business
Bible (犹太人生意经); Jewish Businessmen's Wisdom (犹太商人智慧); or Jewish Busi-
ness Teachings (犹太商训). These were particularly popular among wealthy entrepre-
neurs and investors looking to establish their own family legacies. The most relevant
of those in regard to Rothschilds was the Currency Wars (货币战争), published in 2007
and written by Song Hongbing (宋鸿兵). According to the state-owned publisher CITIC,
some 600 000 copies were in circulation within months after release, which meant a
huge success. (Moore, 2018)
In Currency Wars, Song, who studied and lived in the US from 1994 and worked as
an IT consultant, claims the Rothschild family control fifty trillion US dollars’ worth of
global wealth or “900 times that of Bill Gates”, the world’s richest person at that time.
(McGregor, 2007) Currency Wars maps some two hundred years of the family’s his-
tory, with timeframe covering events from the Battle of Waterloo of 1815, through the
rise of Adolf Hitler in 1930’s, or the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis and the environmen-
tal destruction in the developing world. According to Song, all of those are intertwined
by the control of money issuance and in the end lead to the Rothschild banking dynasty.
The book further claims that the US Federal Reserve established in 1914 to date re-
mains puppet of private banks, which also ultimately owe their allegiance to the ubiq-
uitous Rothschilds. (Song, 2007)
The article of Financial Times says that “[t]he Fed does describe itself “as an unusual
mixture of public and private elements. … While its seven governors are all appointed by
102
the US president, private banks do hold shares in its 12 regional reserve banks.” Mr. Song
argues that the Fed’s key functions are ultimately controlled by five private banks, such
as Citibank, all of which have maintained a “close relationship” with the Rothschilds.
The author commented on the alleged antisemitic elements of his work saying: “The
Chinese people think that the Jews are smart and rich, so we should learn from them. Even
me, I think they are really smart, maybe the smartest people on earth.” Furthermore, the
article said that the book also “gives ammunition, however hay-wire, to many in China
who argue that Beijing should resist pressure from the US and other countries to allow
its currency, the renminbi, to appreciate.” (McGregor, 2007)
In the West, Song’s work was widely criticised as an “economic novel,” and lam-
basted for promoting anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. The Financial Times reported
that Currency Wars was widely read by Chinese company heads and government offi-
cials, with Song himself saying “I never imagined it could be so hot and that top leaders
would be reading it.” He insisted that the book was not anti-Semitic. Nevertheless, Jon
Benjamin, then the chief executive of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, told the
Financial Times he was concerned by the book, and was worried that the Rothschild
conspiracy theory was gaining traction “in the world’s most important emerging econ-
omy,” despite China having “little or no concurrent culture of anti-Semitism.” Song
Hongbing, who acquired impressive audience and reached over two million followers
on Sina Weibo, has gone on to publish five books in his Currency Wars series, with
more and more books on the Rothschilds and more generally on so-called Jewish busi-
ness practices reaching the Chinese market. (McGregor, 2007)
When we consider that the book has sold hundreds of thousands of copies with
several times more in total circulation; that mentions of the book can be found on nu-
merous websites with a Chinese government domain and it was highly popular
amongst the highest political officials and business personas; and finally, that the book
serves as a main source of information in the Baidu Baike encyclopedia entry on the
103
family, it cannot be disputed that Currency Wars play a crucial role in determining the
narrative about Rothschilds in the PRC.
6.2.2. Media Coverage of “Fake” Rothschild in China
A 2016 incident of a Rothschild-named con artist pretending to be a member of the

famous banking family, travelling across China, and even enjoying a personal receive
by the President of China's prestigious Tsinghua University was widely covered by
both Chinese and Western media (Zhou, 2016; Denyer, 2016; Zhun, 2016). According
to a statement posted on the website of Tsinghua University, the president of the
school met with Oliver Rothschild, described as "a core member of the prominent Roth-
schild family, a global financial investor, an entrepreneurial strategist and a philanthro-
pist." It went on to say that Rothschild had made a number of visits to China, during
which "he met with many high-profile Chinese entrepreneurs and government officials."
When his true identity was uncovered in a report by the Economic Observer, a repre-
sentative of the UK branch of the Rothschild Group wrote to the newspaper that Oliver
Rothschild is not a member of the Rothschild family and that he is not involved in any
of the family's businesses. (Zhun, 2016)
Global Times, an English-language Chinese newspaper under the People's Daily, of-
ficial mouthpiece of the CCP, later reacted on the incident in their article named “‘Fake’
Rothschild exposes our insecurities”. The opening paragraph shows how the Rothschilds
are perceived in the media which are fully controlled by the Party: „The Rothschild fam-
ily has been a bulwark of European finance for over two centuries, but the surname is a
double-edged sword. As a Jewish family, the Rothschild's have long been the target of con-
spiracy theorists and anti-semites. And, it seems, even just being called Rothschild can
make you famous - or infamous - even if you have no actual connection to the banking
family.“ The author then claims that the incident has „betrayed a tinge of an ingrained
social ambition in China“, with „a longing for international endorsement, especially from
the developed world, as an indicator of being something.“ (Zhun, 2016)
104
The following paragraph is especially noteworthy for the discourse of Chinese self-
identity and its relation to the West: „Since China reopened its gates to the outside world
more than three decades ago, the country has vowed to gear itself toward the "interna-
tional community," which is actually a euphemism for the developed world. The attitude
of learning from the best, when China was backward in almost all walks of life, should be
encouraged as a sign of progression and vibrancy. However, decades-long propaganda
about how China should work hard and catch up with the developed world has unfortu-
nately made a dent in the Chinese way of thinking. An inferiority complex has taken root
in the mind of many Chinese, xenophilia mixed with a worship of everything foreign.“ And
the article ends with a proclamation: „When Tsinghua can honestly treat a Rothschild
as a reliable partner instead of an adornment, the public can start to shift their mind-
set.“ (Zhun, 2016)
6.3. Conspiracy Theories Surrounding the Rothschilds and the PRC
The Rothschild family has been surrounded by conspiracy theories since the inception
of their international activities, and their tremendous success in the banking and finan-
cial sphere only fueled wild accusations. This was partly caused by their religious faith,
as Jewish pogroms were occurring periodically for centuries throughout the history.
When Rothschilds became the wealthiest family on the European continent (and pos-
sibly in the world) in the first half of the 19th century, they subsequently attracted at-
tention of those who deemed their behind-the-scenes influence over monarchs and
politicians too dangerous and “conspiratorial”. These claims were further developed in
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion at the end of the 19th century. This rather short text
laid down the alleged plan of the highest people in the Jewish (or Zionist, to be more
precise) circles to orchestrate international affairs and eventually control the world,
but it has later been recognised as a fabrication of Russian secret services with an aim
to strengthen the antisemitic feelings. (Britannica, 2018) Then, in the 1930s and 1940s,
Nazi Germany made the archenemy of Jews and in their antisemitic propaganda movie
105
Die Ewigen Jude (the Eternal Jew) depicted Rothschilds as the secret force behind the
global financial structures. It is then quite understandable that Rothschilds are found
in conspiracy theories connected to the creation of communist ideology, assisting Mao
Zedong with founding the PRC, and even contemporary issues connected to the highest
levels of China’s political and financial sphere. The following are three selected exam-
ples of conspiracy theories portraying the Rothschild family and the PRC.
6.3.1. Rothschilds and Mao Zedong
One of the recurring accusations in the conspiracy theories focusing on Rothschilds

and their relationship with China is their involvement in the communist revolutions
and the creation of the ideology itself. Some of these theories claim that the communist
ideology, which in its sinicised form currently constitutes the governing political sys-
tem of the PRC, is as such product of Rothschilds’ backing of Karl Marx and later spon-
sorship of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia. (China Watch Canada, 2016) The con-
nection, yet rather distant, between Karl Marx and Rothschilds is a proven fact, as Marx
shared a common ancestor, Barent-Cohen of Amsterdam, with Nathan Mayer, 1st Lord
Rothschild. (Gelles, 2017). However, this by no means represents the evidence that the
two ever met in the three-decades long window of shared lifespan, not to mention
claims that they conspired to develop an ideological tool to control global masses.
The article called “Mao Was a Yale Man – Rothschilds Create People’s Republic of
China” published under the nickname “raysongtree” on www.lipstick-and-war-
crimes.org on 13 April, 2016, is promoting the idea that the establishment of the PRC
was actually orchestrated by the Western powers, particularly with the Rothschilds’
help. (Songtree, 2016) Even though this might seem preposterous and can be immedi-
ately disregarded as a wild fantasy of a single man, similar content in various altera-
tions can be found in other conspiracy theory related articles, such as “Jews turn China
red” (Dean Berry Ministry, 2018), or an article with an extremely sensational, contro-
versial, and chaotical name: „CHINESE REVOLUTION THE BIGGEST GENOCIDE ON
106
PLANET EARTH , COMMUNISM AND THE JEWS , MAO TSE TUNG AND ROTHSCHILD
FUNDS – CAPT AJIT VADAKAYIL, Part 1” The latter for example states that: “Any ideol-
ogy that further concentrates wealth and power in the hands of the "State" is Communism
in another guise. These ideologies -- socialism, liberalism, fascism, neo-conservatism, zi-
onism and feminism -- are fronts for "Communism," and are organized and funded by the
central banking cartel. … Current events are all designed by the central bankers to in-
crease government power. German Jew Marx was hired by German Jew Rothschild to dupe
the masses. The aim of the revolution is no less than to redefine reality in terms of the
interests of the Jew bankers.” (China Watch Canada, 2016)
Elsewhere, it states following:
“A group of somewhere between thirty and sixty Chinese students arrived in Moscow
by August 1921 funded by Rothschild. Although it was customary for foreigners who
came to Moscow for training to become members of the Soviet Communist Party it was
decided to make an exception of the Chinese. Many of them were organized instead into
a “Moscow branch” of the Chinese Communist Party. … Rothschild used Jews Lenin and
Trotsky, to inflict a blow to China as they had done to Russia vide the Bolshevik Jew led
Russian Revolution of 1917. Kill the monarachs [sic], steal their wealth. Then have a Com-
munist system where no man or woman can own anything— vacuum and siphon off their
wealth, under fear of death a torture.” (China Watch Canada, 2016)
The raysongtree’s article is based on a premise that there exist hidden connections be-
tween Yale University, Rothschilds and China:
“In 1903, Yale Divinity School established a number of schools and hospitals through-
out China that were collectively known as ‘Yale in China.’ It has since been shown that
‘Yale in China’ was an intelligence network whose purpose was to destroy the republican
movement of Sun Yat-sen on behalf of the Anglo-American Establishment. The Anglo-
American “Establishment” hated Sun, because he wanted to develop China. On the other
hand, they loved the Chinese communists because they intended to keep China backward,
and were committed to the production of drugs. One of ‘Yale in China’s’ most important
107
students was Mao Zedong. … During World War II, ‘Yale in China’ was a primary instru-
ment used by the U.S. Establishment and its Office of Strategic Services (OSS) to install
the Maoists into power. ‘Yale in China’ was run by OSS operative Reuben Holden, the hus-
band of Bush’s cousin, and also a member of Skull and Bones.” (Songtree, 2016)
And subsequently states:
“1949: On October 1, Mao Tse Tsung declares the founding of the People’s Republic
Of China in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. He is funded by Rothschild created Communism
in Russia and also the following Rothschild agents: Solomon Adler, a former United States
Treasury official who was a Soviet Spy; Israel Epstein, the son of a Jewish Bolshevik im-
prisoned by the Tsar in Russia for trying to forment a revolution there; and Frank Coe, a
leading official of the Rothschild owned IMF.” (Songtree, 2016)
The article also comments on supposed connection between Solomon Adler and Victor
Rothschild through the Cambridge Five spy ring:
“Solomon Adler (August 6, 1909 — August 4, 1994) was an economist who worked in
the U. S. Treasury Department, serving as Treasury representative in China during World
War II. He was identified by Whittaker Chambers and Elizabeth Bentley as a Soviet intel-
ligence source and resigned from the Treasury Department in 1950. After several years
teaching at Cambridge University in England, he returned to China in the 1950s and was
a resident there from the 1960s until his death, working as a translator, economic advi-
sor, and possibly with the Central External Liaison Department, a Chinese intelligence
agency. … The Cambridge Five were a ring of spies, recruited in part by Russian talent
spotter Arnold Deutsch in the United Kingdom who passed information to the Soviet Un-
ion during World War II and at least into the early 1950s. … Other Apostles accused of
having spied for the Soviets include Michael Whitney Straight, Victor Rothschild, research
fellow Lewis Daly and Guy Liddell.” (Songtree, 2016)
108
Another remark is related to the Baron Robert Rothschild’s activities in China (pre-
sented in chapter 5.1.), stating that: “David Rockefeller meets Zhou Enlai almost 30 years
after Baron Robert Rothschild left Zhou behind.” (Songtree, 2016)
6.3.2. Rothschilds and Bo Xilai
The article named “[2012] Bo Xilai – Corruption or Treason?”, with a stated author
“Wayne Madsen” posted on the thechaoscat.wordpress.org, attempts to shine a differ-
ent light on the case of Bo Xilai and his international backing to reach to the highest
echelons of Chinese politics. (Madsen, 2020) According to the author, one group had
been connected to the globalist wing, while the other—represented by the clique sur-
rounding current General Secretary Xi Jinping—was more nationalist in its essence.
Following are the excerpts from the lengthy commentary in analytical style:
“The recent political schism between a faction of the Chinese Communist Party backed
by the Rothschild banking cartel and politicians in Canada, Britain, and the United States
on one side and more nationalistic Chinese Communist Party leaders allied with like-
minded leaders in Russia, on the other, has brought the Obama administration’s use of
“soft power” information warfare and propaganda tactics to the inner political sanctums
of China.” (Madsen, 2020)
The article than proceed with details of the story that led to the fall of Bo Xilai, one
of the party seniors aspiring for the post of the President and, more importantly, Gen-
eral Secretary of the CCP. The story according to the author had several deeper layers,
not portrayed by the media:
“The suspicious death last November in a Chongqing hotel room of British citizen Neil
Heywood, a reputed middleman for the Rothschilds and their international financial front
man George Soros, has brought further attention on the ties between failed Chinese Com-
munist Party Politburo candidate Bo Xilai and Western supporters. Bo is now considered
by many observers inside and outside China to have been the favorite of the globalists to
become Chinese President instead of Xi Jinping, the designated successor to Hu Jintao. The
109
Hu and Xi faction are opposed to transforming China’s form of government from a quasi-
Communist system to a totally capitalist system. The Bo faction was ousted from Chinese
Communist Party leadership positions during the recent National People’s Congress.”
(Madsen, 2020)
The article further claims that “Bo and his family were reportedly the Trojan horses
for the Rothschild and Soros syndicate who were expected to steer China firmly into the
capitalist and globalist camp and ensure that China would adhere to the dictates of the
Bilderberg, Davos, and G8 supranational constructs.” This view fits in the general picture
of conspiracy theories surrounding the family, according to which it covertly controls
global financial markets and macroeconomic mechanisms. (McGregor, 2007)
The author then goes even deeper and elaborate in quite detailed fashion on Hey-
wood’s reported links to the intelligence services:
“Heywood, fluent in Mandarin Chinese and the reported handler of Bo Guagua, Bo’s
son, at the exclusive British Papplewich and Harrow boarding schools, as well as at Ox-
ford University, was a consultant to Hakluyt & Company, Ltd., a secretive British private
intelligence firm estaboished in 1995 and linked to the Rothschilds. … Heywood’s associ-
ation with Hakluyt points to other significant players in the attempt by the West and the
global elites, including the Rothschilds, to place Bo in the Chinese presidency. Hakluyt’s
co-founders are Christopher James, formerly an MI-6 agent, and Peter Cazalet, a former
vice president of BP. On the Hakluyt board are Rupert Huxler, private secretary to Roth-
schild-linked former British Business Secretary and European Union Trade Commissioner
Peter Mandelson; Herve de Moriniere, the managing director of the Nathaniel Rothschild
Bank; and Sir John Rose, deputy director of Rothschild Group.” (Madsen, 2020)
Then, the article proceeds by claiming:
“According to Chinese sources, Heywood, who was merely a messenger between Bo

and the Rothschilds, may not only have become aware of financial improprieties by Gu
Kailai, Bo’s wife, who runs an international law office in Beijing, but also the contents of
110
classified Chinese documents being passed by British intelligence assets inside the Chinese
Public Security Ministry. One such source for such documents, who likely incriminated Bo
and his associates in criminal wrongdoing, may have been Bo’s erstwhile crime fighting
deputy, Wang Lijun. After Heywood’s suspicious death in November 2011, Wang tried,
unsuccessfully, to obtain political asylum in the U.S. Consulate General in Chengdu on
February 6. Wang was bundled off by Chinese security personnel after he emerged from
the consulate. On February 8, a ticket was purchased for Wang on a flight from Chengdu
to Beijing. Also on the flight was Qiu Jin, vice minister for counter-espionage and secret
state security.” (Madsen, 2020)
Lastly, the article comments on the Rothschilds’ involvement in the Falun Gong, claim-
ing it was “long sponsored by the CIA and George Soros-linked NGOs”. According to the
author:
“The Falun Gong sect remains strongly opposed to Bo and his family due to Bo’s severe
crackdown on Falun Gong members, including their incarceration in newly-built deten-
tion camps and torture ordered by Bo when he was mayor of Dalian. In a clear case of
“blow back,” Bo’s close friendship with Desmarais, the Rothschilds, Harper, Chretien, So-
ros, and Huntsman has resulted in the Falun Gong making common cause with Xi and his
faction to ensure that Bo’s faction is routed out of the Chinese government and party. In
fact, the Chinese-language website of Falun Gong’s newspaper Epoch Times has run
WMR’s report on the connections of Bo to the Rothschilds, Soros, and Canadian officials,
a development that cannot make the Cass Sunstein/George Soros “cognitive infiltration”
operatives very happy.” (Madsen, 2020)
6.3.3. Rothschilds and the PRC in the Context of the New World Order
Another prominent conspiracy theory that surrounds Rothschilds and their relation-
ship with the PRC is their possible involvement in the creation of the so-called New
World Order. In this regard, one of the promoters of these claims with presumably the
widest reach is James Corbett, who presents himself as investigative journalist. Corbett
111
runs the podcast “Corbett Report” analyzing political affairs and stuff deemed conspir-
acy theories. The following is a reflection of an interview of Corbett and a YouTube
channel “SGT Report” (deleted as of 2021):
“James says that despite the formation of the BRICS Banks, the Shanghai Gold Ex-
change and the new Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the International
Banker’s plans to usher in their New World Order remain firmly in place and on track.
How could that be when the evidence suggest that the world is moving away from the
Dollar as wealth moves from West to East? Because, James says, “At the very top of this
Bankster pyramid, the Chinese elite is connected directly in with the U.S. Western elite.”
James has carefully documented the “8 Immortal Families” in his report on China and the
New World Order which shows how the 8 Immortals are totally connected to Henry Kis-
singer and the Rockefeller-Rothschild banking elite. This is the way they will lead us into
a New WORLD Order. “The West is being engineered into a world system of governance
and government that can only come about through the rise of the East. It’s been puppet-
eered from the very start. There is no doubt that China’s rise right now is something that
has been long planned for and carefully engineered.” (Activitpost.com, 2015)
Earlier, in 2014, Corbett made a whole episode called: “Episode 297 – China and the
New World Order” (Corbet, 2014) The following are selected statements from the ver-
batim transcript of the episode:
“And so we’re beginning to develop a thesis that I like to think of as a revision or up-
dating or extending of the thesis of Antony Sutton into the 21st century, US versus China
paradigm, which again looks, I think, very similar in some ways to the US versus Russia,
the US versus Nazi Germany paradigm of the 20th century. … And I say its a revision an
updating an extending of that thesis because I would posit that the reform of the thesis
that this takes when we apply it to the supposed battle between the American Capitalists
and the Chinese Communists is in fact the agenda to forward the development of a system
of one world governmental control, that involves the merger of capitalist and socialist
systems into a system that basically contains the worst of both worlds. … We have the
112
Chinese version of Red Capitalism which represents both the command-and-control top-
down political authoritarianism and the bankster controlled economic Crony Capitalism
that is the model for the New World Order.” (Corbet, 2014)
The transcript (as well as the original podcast) includes direct quotes from China-
related interviews with George Soros, Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and most
importantly Sir Evelyn de Rothschild. The latter is quoted from his interview for
Bloomberg, called: “De Rothschild Says China's Growth a `Remarkable' Story”. Asked by
a reporter: “Do you see the day in the next five years where it’s [RMB] fully convertible
and flexible?” Sir Evelyn responded:
“Well you’re talking to a person who’s quite old. If I were around in five years I’d like
to think that that is the case. I think we’ve all got to move towards that opportunity and
I think the challenge also is whether we should move towards an international currency.”
(Bloomberg, 2011)
Furthermore, the podcast also makes some remarks on Mao Zedong’s background (an-
alysed in chapter 6.3.1 in more details), supposed connections of the so called Eight
Immortals to the Western elites, technology transfer from the West to China, and many
more. (Corbet, 2014)
In a similar tone, an article on the New American website called “Chinese Mega-bank
Partners With World Bank for New World Order” reflects the AIIB’s partnership with
the World Bank followingly:
“The many establishment analysts who portrayed the Communist Chinese dictator-
ship’s new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) as a supposed “rival” to the West-
ern globalist-led international economic order must be awfully embarrassed right now.
And those who believed them, hoping the brutal Beijing regime’s bank was going to stand
up to the World Bank-International Monetary Fund axis in particular, must be sorely dis-
appointed. It turns out the scandal-plagued World Bank and the Communist Party of
China-controlled AIIB are going to be proud partners in globalism. Together, the
113
organizations will seek to promote the dangerous agenda known as “sustainable devel-
opment” while undermining national sovereignty across Asia by bankrolling regional in-
tegration." (Newman, 2016)
And continues by saying:
“The Communist Party of China operative leading the AIIB, Jin Liqun, who served as
the brutal communist dictatorship’s “vice minister of finance” before joining the Roth-
schild-led “Inclusive Capitalism” bandwagon, also celebrated the deal. “I am very pleased
today to sign this co-financing agreement together with World Bank Group President
Kim,” Jin said in a statement. “The AIIB is very grateful for the generous and timely sup-
port offered by the World Bank Group throughout our establishment process, and we look
forward to a long and fruitful relationship with ongoing cooperation in project co-financ-
ing and other areas.” (Newman, 2016)
And the text concludes:
“With the announcement, the two globalist financing giants confirmed what The New
American has been reporting for over a year. “Despite establishment efforts to paint the
AIIB as a potential ‘rival’ to existing globalist institutions such as the International Mon-
etary Fund and the World Bank, the Beijing-led bank will fit nicely with what the Com-
munist Chinese regime and Western globalists all regularly refer to as the emerging ‘New
World Order,’” this magazine reported in April of last year, citing official statements and
mountains of evidence that the regime in Beijing is fully on-board with the globalist
agenda.” (Newman, 2016)
114
CONCLUSION
7. Conclusion
The thesis has illustrated various shapes and forms of the relationship between mem-
bers of the Rothschild dynasty and the People's Republic of China. This relationship,
which has begun almost two centuries ago and since then covered a wide range of ac-
tivities, in some cases represented ground-breaking cooperation for both sides. The
work focused on various forms of these interactions, primarily emphasizing the bank-
ing and financial sphere parallel to the locus of family activities. Additionally, the ties
of selected family members to political and other significant entities in the PRC were
also examined. Another research feature was the mutual narratives surrounding the
family and the PRC. Since the Rothschilds are often the target of conspiracy theories,
the last researched case focused on narratives of this type.
The work showed that the three current leading enterprises under the control of
different family branches and subbranches have all abundant experience with dealings
in the PRC. Namely Rothschild & Co (formed by the merger of NM Rothschild & Son and
Paris Orleans of the British and French branches respectively, in 2003; formerly con-
trolled by Baron David René de Rothschild, since 2018 by his son Alexander de Roth-
schild), RIT Capital Partners (British branch; controlled by Lord Jacob Rothschild); and
Edmond de Rothschild (formerly La Compagnie Financiere Edmond de Rothschild;
French branch; previously controlled by Benjamin de Rothschild, since 2015 by his
wife, Ariane de Rothschild). Furthermore, other businesses such as E. L. Rothschild
(British branch, controlled by Sir Evelyn de Rothschild), Château Lafite Rothschild
(French branch, controlled by Baron Éric de Rothschild), as well as a number of com-
panies under the control of Nathaniel Rothschild, son of Jacob (British branch), have
also been involved. Each of these companies has specific characteristics and focus, and
at times even competes with each other. Nevertheless, in the case of the PRC, they are
united by the involvement in various pioneering interactions in their particular do-
mains and profiting remarkably from these activities. Last but not least, there is an
abundance of companies in which the family have more or less substantial interests
115
CONCLUSION
and which are somehow connected to the PRC. Some of these companies are men-
tioned in the study; however, their extensive analysis would go beyond the scope of
this thesis.
The thesis mapped the chronological development of Rothschilds activities in

China, briefly including the period before establishing the PRC. The first documented
connection between Rothschilds and China from 1838 predated the founding of the
Communist state by more than a century, and at that time, the European Jewish family
was at its apex as an unrivalled international financial power. In Imperial China, they
utilised multiple agents to conduct business with silver and gold bullions, silk, tea, and
other commodities, and participated in larger projects involving other actors, such as
the Pekin syndicate. However, after the Empire's fall in 1912 and during the turmoil of
the Warlord Era and later Civil War, Rothschilds have, at least publicly, interrupted
their activities in the country. Subsequently, they reappeared in the second half of the
20th century, shortly after the PRC was established.
In 1953, Rothschilds were amongst the first foreign institutions to re-establish con-
nections with the communist regime after the Korean War, with dealings consisting
primarily of gold trading with the Bank of China. Then, the Cultural Revolution, which
took place between 1966 and 1976, basically froze the development of this relation-
ship with no new publicly available deals signed during this period. Nevertheless, just
a year after the death of Mao Zedong, in 1977, Sir Evelyn de Rothschild personally vis-
ited China from his position as head of the family bank and Chairman of The Economist.
Subsequently, from 1979 and throughout the 1980s, Rothschilds advised a number of
companies, some of which were involved even in the military industry and communi-
cation satellites domain. Then, in September 1996, N M Rothschild & Sons Limited
signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of
China to develop a jointly financial advisory business in China and internationally. That
proved to be a fruitful decision for both parties and tremendous success in the long
term, especially after China joined the WTO in 2001.
116
CONCLUSION
In the years following the PRC's accession to the WTO, Rothschilds started to be
openly involved in more and more enterprises, mainly through their renowned finan-
cial advisory services, as well as various investment activities, joint ventures with Chi-
nese banks, and many more. Several of these interactions represented cutting-edge
deals in their respective fields. Apart from their banking and financial activities, which
indeed play a dominant role, Rothschilds participated in numerous other realms, such
as wine business, weather forecasting, coal and oil industry, or power cord manufac-
turing. One of the Rothschilds' prevailing activities in the 21st century is the financial
advisory, particularly on mergers and acquisitions, both domestic and cross-border.
The aggregated volume of these deals has clearly reached hundreds of billions of dol-
lars, though the precise sum cannot be estimated as not all transactions have their de-
tailed records publicly available.
The thesis has demonstrated that Rothschilds helped Chinese enterprises acquire
a long list of companies in Europe and the United States, some of which made it to the
news headlines and were widely discussed. To name just a few, Rothschild & Co ad-
vised on Geely's acquisition of Volvo in 2010 or Chem China's buyout of Italian tire
maker Pirelli in 2015. However, one of the most important individual companies in
which both sides joined forces is Alibaba Group. Between 2007 and 2014, Rothschild
& Co first helped list its B2B division Alibaba.com on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange,
then it advised on acquisitions of several US businesses and finally acted as sole finan-
cial advisor on the group's listing on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014. At the time,
this IPO was the most valuable in history at $25 billion. It is no exaggeration to say that
Rothschilds significantly helped Chinese companies in their growth and foreign expan-
sion on several continents, while at the same time reaped enormous profits from this
cooperation.
The research has also shown that to promote their interests in the PRC, Rothschilds
have used numerous high-level political and business connections. Important figures
directly or indirectly affiliated with their activities in China include former German
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, or a member of
117
CONCLUSION
the US presidential family Neil Bush. Similarly, family members and representatives of
their businesses established connections with people in the upper echelons of the Chi-
nese political and economic hierarchy. Be it Liu Minkang, then-Chairman of China
Banking Regulatory Commission; Wang Qishan, then Vice-Premier and current Vice-
President of the PRC; or Jack Ma, former CEO of Alibaba Group. Furthermore, several
sources stated that Yu Liping, a long-time dealmaker and head of Rothschild Greater
China division, who was behind the firm's many important and ground-breaking trans-
actions, is in fact the daughter-in-law of Jiang Zemin, former General Secretary of the
CCP and President of the PRC.
The research has thus confirmed the arguments put forward in the introduction,
particularly that Rothschilds, through their prominent position in global financial mar-
kets, would also play a non-negligible role in the PRC's banking and financial sphere.
Not only that, in many cases the individual Rothschild businesses were among the first
foreign institutions to be involved in the particular domain under consideration.
Namely the gold trade in the 1950s, financial advisory since the late 1970s, or mutual
investments and joint-venture enterprises after the new millennium. Thus, it can be
said that from the perspective of rational choice theory, both parties found common
ground and effectively bridged their conflicting ideological backgrounds to conduct
mutually beneficial business. In accord with this theory, it was observed that pragmatic
gains overshadowed attention to abstract values. This can be somehow understood in
interactions following the initiation of economic reforms in the late 1970s and yet
more after China joined WTO in 2001, but it is rather surprising with interactions start-
ing in 1953 during Mao Zedong's regime. Interestingly, all analyzed Chinese sources
overlook this cooperation in the PRC’s early years, which can basically be caused by
three reasons. First, the authors of these references might lack this knowledge, which
is very limited even in English sources. Secondly, they deliberately choose to neglect
these mentions for unknown reasons. Thirdly, such information is suppressed by state
censorship in the PRC.
118
CONCLUSION
What is of particular significance is that the Chinese wider public and numerous
Chinese business and political leaders are predominantly gaining their knowledge
about the family from sources that are often referred to as conspiracy theories in the
West. In this regard, the most notable source is the “Currency Wars” series by Song
Hongbing, with the first volume published in 2007 by a state-owned publishing house.
In Currency Wars, Song portrays the Rothschilds as a hidden driving force behind
global financial systems and claims, among other things, that the family and its close
affiliates are secretly controlling the US Federal Reserve. Therefore, the research has
shown that conspiracy theories about the Rothschilds, in general, are not just a mar-
ginal matter in China, but the information so labelled in the West play a crucial influ-
ence in shaping the image of this family in the eyes of Chinese people. In addition, a
plethora of publicly available materials of this kind focuses specifically on the activities
of the Rothschilds in China and the PRC. Scope of these conspiracy theories ranges from
the Rothschilds’ historical involvement in the international communist movement and
assistance in establishing the PRC, their hidden relations with particular politicians of
high ranks, to the overarching plan to make communist China the leading superpower
within the so-called New World Order.
The thesis has produced meaningful findings that were previously unavailable in a
comprehensive form in either English or Chinese literature. As this particular topic
lacked deeper academic discussion, it serves as a pioneering work of a sort. At the same
time, the work outlined several possible forms of future research and thus could serve
as a springboard for further studies in many areas. Specifically, the research may focus
on the details of Rothschilds' activities in China before the establishment of the PRC.
Alternatively, it would be possible to conduct research of Chinese public discourse
about Rothschilds and its comparison with their depiction in English sources. Last but
not least, the Rothschild family can also serve as a case study for the perception of Zi-
onism or anti-Semitism in the PRC. The author believes that great potential lies ahead
in all of these areas, and it is up to future researchers to address these topics.
119
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152
THE ROTHSCHILD FAMILY GENEALOGY
Appendix A The Rothschild Family Tree
153

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FILOZOFICKÁ FAKULTA

The Rothschilds and the PRC:

Banking, Financial and Other Interactions

between the Red Shield Dynasty and the Red China

Magisterská diplomová práce

Vedoucí práce: Mgr. Michal Fliegel, Ph.D.

Seminář čínských studií

Autor: David Gardáš

Author: David Gardáš

Brno June 13, 2021 .......................................

Transcription of Chinese Characters

Šablona DP 3.2.2-ARTS-dipl-obor-anglicky (2021-04-29) © 2014, 2016, 2018–2021 Masarykova univerzita 9

2. Theoretical Framework and Methodology 20

3. Introduction to the Family Background 27

4. China’s Political and Economic Framework 42

5. Interactions between the Rothschilds and China 52

5.2. Rothschilds & Republic of China post-1949 ...........................................................55

6. Narratives on Rothschilds and the PRC 98

6.1. Portrayal of China in the Economist .......................................................................... 98

Appendix A The Rothschild Family Tree 153

Figure 1 The coat of arms of the Rothschild family. ..................................................................29

AIIB – Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

The goal is to synthetise all aggregated data to provide a comprehensive picture of

2. Theoretical Framework and Methodology

2.1. The Rational Choice Theory

Britannica provides following definition of the rational choice theory: “Rational

2.2.1 Case Selection

2.2.2 Research Timeframe

2.2.3 Research Design

2.2.4 Research Limitations

3. Introduction to the Family Background

3.1. The Roots of the Dynasty

Figure 1 The coat of arms of the Rothschild family.

Source: Pinterest. Available from: https://www.pinterest.cl/pin/710372541193512107/

3.2. Establishing the Five Houses

3.2.1. The Frankfurt House

As a result of his business, Mayer Amschel amassed an immense fortune. In 1810, he

3.2.2. The London House

3.2.3. The Paris House

in London, circumventing the Continental blockade set by Napoleon. In 1817, James

3.2.4. The Vienna House

3.2.5. The Naples house

3.2.6. The Rothschilds and the Napoleonic Wars

3.2.7. The Rothschilds’ Wider Network of Agents

3.3. Rothschilds in the 20th Century

• N. M. Rothschild & Sons Ltd, Rothschilds Continuation Ltd, N. M. Rothschild Corporate

Finance Ltd and Rothschild Asset Management Ltd (UK)

• Rothschild & Cie Banque and Rothschild & Cie (France)

• Rothschild Bank AG (Switzerland)

• Rothschild Europe BV and Rothschild Asset Management International Holdings BV

• N. M. Rothschild & Sons (Singapore) Ltd”

3.4. Rothschilds in the 21st century

4. China’s Political and Economic Framework

4.1. The Political and Economic Framework of the PRC

4.2. Relevant Institutions in the PRC’s Banking and Financial Sector

Source: International Capital Conference. Available from: http://www.internationalcapital-

• It is highly concentrated, but remains competitive in most areas.

Figure 3 Structure of the PRC’s financial system.

Source: S&P. Adjusted by author. Available from: https://www.spglobal.com/en/research-