Authoritarian Markets: The Politics of China’s Banking Explosion

Conventional wisdom holds that banking markets flourish where property rights are secure, the rule of law is strong, and the state keeps its hands off. China has none of these. Yet over the past three decades, the number of Chinese banks grew exponentially, and competition became fierce. Why? In Authoritarian Markets: The Politics of China’s Banking Explosion (Cornell University Press, 2026), Adam Y. Liu argues that China’s banking market grew not despite authoritarian rule but because of it. The banking sector, he argues, is a market of the state, by the state, and for the state. Drawing on a decade of fieldwork and an extensive array of original data, Liu uncovers the political logic of banking market development in China and authoritarian states more broadly and explores what this means for the future of China’s economy.

Speaker: Adam Y. Liu is an Assistant Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. His research focuses on Chinese politics and political economy. He earned his PhD from Stanford University, where his dissertation on the politics of China's banking development won the 2020 BRICS Economic Research Award.