The net result of China’s entry into the WTO and unprecedented access to global markets, coupled with its currency’s deeply advantageous fixed exchange rate, was that over the next decade and a half, China became the world’s leading manufacturing power, as factories relocated to the country from many advanced economies, including the US. This led to China also becoming the world’s largest trading country and the world’s second-largest destination for global foreign direct investment. It set the scene for the decline of American industry and the rise of populist resentment against globalization
...more
