During the Cold War, Hong Kong and Macau played a crucial role supporting the economic and foreign policies of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). As nodes within the larger shadow economy of the region, both colonial enclaves helped the PRC penetrate the “Bamboo Curtain”—the array of embargoes and trade restrictions imposed by a hostile international community led by the United States. Key to facilitating China’s circumvention of containment was the “red capitalists,” the Chinese businessmen from both colonies who facilitated, brokered, and nurtured connections between the PRC and the capitalist world throughout the Cold War. Claiming multiple allegiances, they orchestrated deals between different governments and managed sprawling business empires across different geopolitical lines.
This paper examines the murky history of red capitalists, tracing how these bourgeois businessmen eagerly traded with Communist China in the name of patriotism and profit. It also explores the role they later played leveraging their economic and political clout by drumming up support for China’s “Reform and Opening” and sitting on numerous committees overseeing the retrocession of Hong Kong and Macao to the People’s Republic. Relatively understudied by scholars, red capitalists were in fact crucial players in the broader history of the Cold War who combined business and diplomacy to amass sizable fortunes and wield redoubtable influence. Their case also sheds light on key issues in business history, expands the category of “public interest” to include geopolitics, and complements the traditional focus on elite diplomacy in Cold War history.