The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, HSBC for short, is a famous bank and financing institution, and enjoys a high reputation around the world. Thomas Sutherland, the founder of HSBC, realized a demand for local banking facilities in Hongkong and on the China coast. Hence, the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation was founded in 1865 and the first bank opened in Hong Kong in March 1865 and at the same year, the first branch opened in Shanghai. Nowadays, the business of HSBC is distributed in more than 100 countries and regions and HSBC has over 100 million customers all over the world.

Chinese market is quite important and special for HSBC and Shanghai was chose by HSBC and opened the first branch in 1865. Although the founder was a Scot, HSBC still headquartered in Hong Kong until 1980s. In early stage, HSBC hoped to become the local bank of China and gave services to the clients all over the world but now, HSBC preferred to be a global bank to cater to Chinese. Therefore, the China strategy is crucial for HSBC.

The China strategy of HSBC can be divided into three stages, which was before Oct, 1949, before China’s accession to the WTO and after China’s accession to the WTO. In the middle of the 19th century, more and more British merchants came to China to do business but Qing government lacked banks or financing institution. Mr. Sutherland recognized the demand and founded HSBC to give services to the Brutish merchants and Chinese merchants. HSBC considered that China was a potential market and few competitors had already entered Chinese market. Furthermore, Qing government signed several treaties with Britain. It was a quite favorable condition for HSBC because HSBC could obtain the safeguard of the government. Thus it can be seen that HSBC chose the appropriate timing entering Chinese market and as a first mover, HSBC established a