Abstract (EN)

This article analyzes the practices of financial valuation carried out in crossborderinvestment in China. Based on interviews carried out with financialprofessionals in charge of buying companies in China with money coming fromabroad or buying companies abroad with money coming from the Chinese territory.Financial value is defined through conflicts concerning the methods ofvaluation and the definition of what are the companies being bought and sold.These meanings are constituted through the interaction between different discoursesand practices, such as the political and macroeconomic rationales thatdistinguish the jurisdictions that are crossed by financial flows, the power relationsin the transactions, the bureaucratic and career issues concerning eachemployee in their work place, and the constitution of moral, political, nationaland cultural identities. The paper highlights the importance of moral and politicalmeanings and of the construction of cultural and national identities inthe definition of financial value in everyday professional practices.