Banque Industrielle de Chine

The Banque Industrielle de Chine or Industrial Bank of China was chartered in 1913 and was closed in 1922. Its Chinese office was in Shanghai and its European office in Paris. Its Chief Director was A.J. Pernotte.

In the beginning of the 1920s riots were happening in China, Chinese borrowers from this bank did not pay. French investors complained and André Berthelot one of the administrator of the bank asked the French Minister of Foreign Affairs Aristide Briand to find a solution, since the bank was a project of the French government and the Chinese government that got financed by several French companies. Paul Doumer just got elected he was strongly supported by members of extreme-right political parties of the 1920s including Action Francaise which helped him win his political campaign. Doumer had personnel interests in Banque d'Indochine the main competitor of Banque Industrielle de Chine.André Berthelot, one of the administrator of the bank, was the son of an atheist chemist and former minister who supported Dreyfus. Doumer, helped by newspapers of the extreme-right political parties, used the situation to explain that it was a scandal that one of the administrator of the bank André Berthelot was the brother of the General Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Philippe Berthelot and asked for the destitution of Philippe Berthelot and, more important, Aristide Briand. Not only it did not work sincea after an investigation Philippe Berthelot and Aristide Briand were proven to have acted fairly but André Berthelot gained full support from the medias (apart those of extreme-right political parties) and was supported by the majority of the Senate. Paradoxically this has been in fine quite beneficial for Aristide Briand. The bank did not go bankrupt but was closed and funds were injected in other banks.