RESEARCH PAPER TRIES TO EXPLAIN WHY CHINA MADE CITY OF LONDON THE BANKER OF THE RENMINBI

The paper is:

Laura-Marie Töpfer & Sarah Hall (2018) London’s rise as an offshore RMB
financial centre: state–finance relations and selective institutional adaptation, Regional Studies,
52:8, 1053-1064

This paragraph from the paper looks at what happened in 2011. There is no mention in the paper of China attending Bilderberg that year or the following year.

High-profile state visits provided an important tool to cultivate close relations and mutual policy agendas. For example, the Chinese vice-premier was invited to visit the UK in September 2011, after which a joint plan was announced to transform London into a leading RMB centre (BOE, personal Interview, November 2015). Sino- UK ties were further strengthened when the British Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that London would launch a forum with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority to promote RMB denominated trade (HM Treasury,2012). British banks and financial institutions backed this policy agenda. They urged HM Treasury to obtain RQFII status to secure a major share of what it viewed as a rapidly growing market in foreign exchange and bond issuance (HM Treasury, personal interview, November 2013). This alignment of public–private interests on RMB finance was a decisive enabling mechanism for relational proximity with Chinese leaders, which helped secure RQFII privileges for London.