Victor C. Shih is a political economist at Northwestern University specializing in China. An immigrant to the United States from Hong Kong, Dr Shih received his doctorate in Government from Harvard University, where he researched banking sector reform in China with the support of the Jacob K. Javits Fellowship and the Fulbright Fellowship. He is the author of numerous articles appearing in academic and business journals, including The China Quarterly and The Far Eastern Economic Review, and frequent adviser to the private sector on the banking industry in China. His current research concerns the political economy of fiscal transfers in China and Chinese policies toward ethnic minorities. Dr Shih holds a B.A. from the George Washington University, where he studied on a University Presidential Fellowship and graduated summa cum laude in East Asian studies with a minor in economics.

How does the Chinese banking sector really work? Nearly all financial institutions in China are managed by members of the Communist Party, yet economists and even those who engage the Chinese banking sector simply do not have a framework with which to analyze the links between banking and politics. Drawing from interviews, statistical analysis, and archival research, this book is the first to develop a framework with which to analyze how elite politics impact both monetary and banking policies. This book serves as an important reference point for all subsequent work on Chinese banking.