How China Outplayed the West and the WTO:
A Tale of Cunning and Patience. By Robert Louis Stevenson
China's Excellent WTO Adventure, one of my most popular posts, attracted this submission from a reader whose nom de plume, Robert Louis Stevenson, is self-explanatory:
In the grand and gilded halls of Geneva, where the lords of commerce once dictated the terms of trade to a subservient world, there now sits an unexpected master. The World Trade Organization (WTO), conceived as the crowning instrument of Western economic dominion, has become, by a most delicious irony, the very stage upon which China has usurped its creators. Like Long John Silver, that most charming and treacherous of pirates, China smiled, bowed, and bided its time—until the moment came to seize the treasure for itself.
The Humiliation: Entering the WTO on Western Terms
When China joined the WTO in 2001, it was not as an equal, but as a supplicant. The terms were harsh, designed to keep the Middle Kingdom in its place: forced market openings, restrictions on state subsidies, and the expectation that Beijing would conform to the "rules-based order" as defined by Washington and Brussels. The West, in its arrogance, believed it had tamed the dragon.
But China, ever the patient strategist, saw what the West did not—that the WTO was not a cage, but a ladder.
The Game: Exploiting the Rules While Rewriting Them
China played the game with a cunning that would win Machiavelli’s approval. It adhered to the letter of WTO law while subverting its spirit, using every loophole, every ambiguity, to its advantage.
State Capitalism in Free Trade Clothing
The West had assumed China would dismantle its state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Instead, Beijing refined them. Companies like Sinopec and China Mobile, bolstered by state funding, undercut foreign competitors while expanding globally.
The WTO had no rule against state-backed giants, so China built them—each bigger, faster, and more ruthless than any private Western firm.
The Art of the Subsidy
Western nations cried foul as China poured billions into strategic industries—steel, solar panels, electric vehicles. But the WTO’s dispute system moved at the pace of a sleepy clerk. By the time rulings came, China’s dominance was already cemented.
A masterstroke: China’s subsidies weren’t just handouts—they were investments in infrastructure, R&D, and global supply chains. The West subsidized farmers; China subsidized the future.
Dumping Without Consequences
When China flooded markets with cheap steel, aluminum, and electronics, the WTO’s anti-dumping mechanisms proved sluggish and toothless.
The West hesitated to retaliate—its own consumers and corporations had grown addicted to cheap Chinese goods.
The Belt and Road Gambit
While the West lectured about "free trade," China built its own trade empire. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) bypassed WTO rules entirely, locking developing nations into Chinese-led supply chains.
A new economic order, with China at the center.
The Checkmate: How China Now Dominates
By the time the West awoke to the trap, it was too late.
China is now the world’s largest trader, surpassing the U.S. in total trade volume.
It controls 28% of global manufacturing, more than the US, Germany and Japan combined.
The WTO is paralyzed, its dispute system crippled by U.S. obstruction—while China shrugs and keeps trading.
The Irony: The West’s Own Weapons Turned Against It
The WTO, designed to enforce Western rules, became China’s shield. Whenever the U.S. or EU imposed tariffs, China dragged them before the WTO—and often won. When the West complained of intellectual property theft, China pointed to its WTO-compliant patent laws (while turning a blind eye to corporate espionage).
And now, as the West flails with sanctions and decoupling, China simply redirects trade elsewhere—to Africa, to Latin America, to its new vassals in the Global South.
The Moral of the Tale
The West believed trade was a game of law. China knew it was a game of power.
In the end, the WTO was not a weapon to contain China—it was a ladder for China to climb, then kick away. And now, as the West fumes and flounders, China sits atop the world’s trading system, smiling faintly, as if to say, "You made the rules. We simply played them better."