ABSTRACT
In its heyday, the hallmark of British imperialism was a mix of free-trade mercantilism and the imposition of modern government that involved counting, measuring, delimiting, and disciplining. Today, China’s engagements with poor countries are frequently called neocolonial or neo-imperial and alternately accused of engaging in robber-baron capitalism and of subverting the free market through state-backed loans and murky patronage networks. But, just as the ideology of free trade did not prevent the British government from enforcing an opium monopoly in India and using it to improve its foreign-trade balance, so too large-scale Chinese projects abroad combine the involvement of policy banks and state enterprises with the championing of free trade.
