16th September 2026
A major investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has shed new light on how China is using one of the world's biggest banks to expand its economic reach around the globe.
The investigation, called China Capital, examines the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the world's largest bank by assets. It is based on 4.8 million confidential bank records and focuses particularly on ICBC's international operations, including its business in London.
What emerges is a picture of a bank that is undoubtedly commercial, but which operates within a much wider Chinese state-controlled financial system.
That raises an important question. Is China simply becoming a powerful international financial competitor, or is its banking system also becoming an instrument of Chinese foreign policy?
A very different type of bank
ICBC is not an ordinary multinational bank.
It is state-owned and has expanded dramatically outside China. By the end of 2025 it had hundreds of subsidiaries and branches across almost 50 countries and regions, with assets worth more than $8 trillion.
Its overseas business includes lending to companies, governments and major infrastructure projects.
The confidential records examined by ICIJ provide an unusually detailed look at what happens behind the scenes.
The investigation suggests that ICBC sometimes receives instructions from its headquarters in Beijing to pursue opportunities that fit China's wider strategic interests.
These include financing projects involving energy, transport and telecommunications, helping Chinese companies expand overseas and developing relationships with countries that are important to China's access to natural resources.
There is nothing inherently unusual about a country supporting its businesses abroad. Western governments do this too, directly or indirectly.
The difference is the scale and the degree of state ownership involved.
London plays an important role
ICIJ examined confidential documents from ICBC's London operations covering almost two decades.
They include emails, internal reports, client information and records relating to thousands of corporate customers.
London is particularly significant because it is one of the world's leading financial centres. Chinese banks operating there are therefore able to connect China's financial system with the international banking system.
The investigation found examples where commercial considerations became closely intertwined with Chinese strategic interests.
One involved Russian mining company Norilsk Nickel. ICBC bankers discussed ways of financing the company in Chinese currency rather than US dollars at a time when some of its major shareholders were subject to Western sanctions.
Another involved Huawei.
In 2019, shortly after the United States had charged Huawei with alleged offences including sanctions violations, ICBC bankers in London arranged the rapid transfer of around $1.3 billion in what was described as emergency cash.
ICIJ reports that the transaction caused concern within parts of ICBC's own financial crime prevention operation because it had not been informed beforehand.
The transaction was not itself declared illegal, but it illustrates the difficulties that can arise when a major Chinese company has enormous strategic importance to Beijing.
Lending can create influence
Perhaps the most important part of the investigation concerns developing countries.
ICIJ examined around 200 loan agreements involving ICBC London and borrowers in roughly 30 countries.
One example is Zambia.
In 2011, ICBC lent $285 million to Zambia's state-owned electricity company, ZESCO.
Several years later Zambia was struggling with a severe debt crisis.
ICIJ reports that ICBC subsequently pressed for repayment and that its Beijing headquarters instructed London staff to transfer $20 million from ZESCO's account to China before normal compliance checks had been completed.
Zambia eventually became one of the countries caught up in a major international dispute over how to restructure its debts, much of which was owed to Chinese lenders.
This illustrates one of the strengths of China's financial approach.
A country does not necessarily have to own an airport, railway, mine or electricity company to gain influence over it.
Providing the money to build or operate it can create a powerful long-term relationship.
China's financial advantage
This is where the China Capital investigation becomes much bigger than ICBC.
China has built an enormous state-controlled financial system capable of supporting its companies overseas.
Chinese banks can finance infrastructure projects, provide loans to governments and companies, support Chinese exporters and help secure access to commodities and markets.
The result is a form of international influence that does not necessarily look like traditional foreign policy.
There may be no soldiers involved and no formal political agreement.
Instead there is a loan, a construction contract, a Chinese company, a long-term supply agreement and a financial relationship.
Over time these relationships can become strategically important.
Western countries have powerful commercial banks, development agencies and export-finance institutions, but their systems operate under very different ownership and regulatory structures.
China's state-controlled model allows Beijing to think about finance, trade, industry and foreign policy as parts of a much larger strategy.
There are risks for China too
The model is not without problems.
ICIJ reports that courts and regulators in several countries have taken adverse action against ICBC or its overseas operations over financial compliance issues.
Chinese banks also face the same risks as other lenders when countries become heavily indebted or projects fail to generate the expected returns.
There is also a reputational risk.
If international customers begin to believe that dealing with a Chinese state-owned bank means becoming indirectly involved in Chinese geopolitical objectives, some may look elsewhere.
The Chinese government rejects the suggestion that its lending is politically motivated and says China follows international rules.
That debate is unlikely to disappear.
A new form of global power
The China Capital investigation demonstrates that the contest between China and the West is not simply about military strength or who produces the most goods.
It is also about who controls capital and who decides where that capital goes.
China has spent decades building financial institutions capable of supporting its economic ambitions overseas.
ICBC is at the centre of that system.
The significance of the investigation is therefore not necessarily that ICBC has broken rules. It is that the confidential documents provide a rare insight into how commercial banking can operate alongside a country's wider strategic objectives.
For Western governments, that presents a difficult challenge.
China's growing influence may not arrive with a flag or a military base. Sometimes it arrives in the form of a bank loan.
Source:[url=https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-capital/about-china-capital-investigation-icbc/]International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, China Capital investigation[/url]