David Clayton examines the political economy of Sino-British relations in the 1950s. He discusses, among other issues, the state of diplomatic relations, British investments in China and the pattern of Sino-British trade. He assesses Communist China's troubled integration into world diplomatic and trading systems and the attempts by US administrations to restrict western economic and political contact with China; a policy that directly threatened British interests and influence.

He argues that to understand the profound political and economic changes taking place in Asia - including the emergence of 'Two Chinas' and the outbreak of the Korean War - we have to revisit the notion of imperialism.

British government policy towards China, the main focus of the book, was, he argues, shaped by the relationship between the British state and British business elites in Asia; a symbiotic relationship held together by their mutual desire to keep Hong Kong 'democratic', capitalist and British.