Copper mines in Zambia have mostly earned bumper profits, and when the government wanted to impose a windfall-profits tax, the proposal faced huge resistance from all the foreign investors that were running those mines. These included Chinese companies. If one looks at China, it is no surprise that former US president Donald Trump howled against Beijing’s opacity and support to state-owned enterprises, which could not be challenged under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.
China enjoyed the benefits of Globalization 1.0. It helped open up borders to enable the easy movement of goods, services, capital, technology and people. Many other countries benefitted from it, but advanced economies the most, as their companies gained access to large uncontested consumer markets. While Globalization 1.0 was touted as the outcome of a consensus-based global decision-making model under the WTO, developed countries were the rule-setters of this game and developing countries were rule-takers.
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