ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the ending of that particular relationship after the Communist revolution, approaching it as a process of 'decolonisation' affected by a multiplicity of state and non-state actors. The story of Westernised people in China has parallels in global patterns of decolonisation. China's policy towards foreign businesses was shaped by three main factors: domestic trends in the nationalisation and socialisation of the economy; the need to ensure economic stability; and the desire to avoid 'neo-colonial' dependence. In China, very few foreign businesses were expropriated, with the major exceptions being a few strategically important companies, including the public utilities in Shanghai. The Shanghai International Settlement was occupied by the Japanese and the British and Americans negotiated its return to Chinese sovereignty along with the abrogation of all their remaining treaty privileges. Shanghai's young people's 'hostility towards American imperialism had been awakened', said the Cultural Bureau.
