Forging new meanings of Europe. The cross-ideological logic of Western Business Interest Associations (BIAs) promoting trade with Mao’s China

Abstract

This paper explores the role of BIAs in the promotion of trade across the Cold War divide during the 1950s, when the creation of a new political and economic ensemble in Western Europe intertwined with the re-elaboration of imperialist entanglements and the emergence of Socialist economies. The focus on everyday business practice allows us to identify the nature and the purpose of these BIAs, revealing a great variety of logics, but a unifying interest: creating a new role for their national economies in China’s nascent economic progress. In the absence of full diplomatic relations, these organisations were identified in many cases as main reference points by the Chinese authorities and were, thus, in a privileged position to change the image of West European countries from colonisers into viable partners at a time when the PRC was shaping a new national narrative.