"Marconi, Telefunken, the Radio Corporation of America and Mitsui – Multinational Companies and Wireless Telegraphy in China, 1912-1937"

During the first half of the 20th century, a wide range of multinational telecommunications companies sought connections with China and concessions for wireless installations. Both during the period of Chinese fragmentation under the Beiyang government (1912-1927) and during the Nanjing Decade (1927-1937), when China once again had a relatively strong central government, British, American, Japanese and German companies competed for wireless concessions from the Chinese government. While previous works have focused on individual wireless companies or have looked at wireless competition from a mainly political angle, this article uses Chinese, Japanese, English and German primary sources to provide a comparative study of the business strategies of the British Marconi Company, German Telefunken, the American Radio Corporation of America and Japanese Mitsui in operating in China and marketing their wireless equipment there. Through this comparative study, this article hopes to make a contribution to our understanding of the development of wireless telegraphy in China the role of multinational companies therein.