ABSTRACT
China’s commitment to open its capital markets to international firms takes place at a point of great fragility in the international financial system. The explosion of the Asian Financial Crisis provided a vivid illustration of the dangers of close integration with a poorly regulated international financial system and the alarming speed with which a financial ‘fire’ could spread and leap across national boundaries. Management of the ideology and the practical realm of money-making in China are based on a fundamentally different philosophical foundation from that in the West. In the West there has been a deep-rooted Manichean conflict between those who regard the pursuit of ‘money to make money’ as immoral and sinful, deserving a place in hell, and those who regard the individual’s unfettered pursuit of money as the foundation of a successful economy and a free society. The management and regulation of the financial system and the financial firms is not driven by 'regulatory capture'.
