Skip to content

Reconsidering Economic Development and Free Trade Taking China’s Rare Earth Industry as an Example

by Ge Zheng

Translated by Yan Pan

Repository Citation

Ge Zheng, RECONSIDERING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND FREE TRADE TAKING CHINA’S RARE EARTH INDUSTRY AS AN EXAMPLE, Winter 2021 Int’l J. L. Ethics Tech. 1 (Yan Pan trans., 2021).
Available at: https://doi.org/10.55574/XGZJ2182

Author Information: Ge Zhang, Professor of Public Law, KoGuan School of Law, Shanghai Jiao Tong University; Yan Pan, Student of International Law, KoGuan School of Law, Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Abstract: Free Trade is shaped by a system of rules made by WTO and other
international organizations initially dominated by the United States and other developed
countries. The seemingly fair rules are based on the status quo and designed to
consolidate it, in which the “trade barriers” for the developing countries to export their
raw materials and cheap labor should be removed and the high added-value
manufactured goods should be free to enter the domestic markets of every country.
After China joined the WTO, it emerged as a game-changer by following the rules.
How China escaped the “resource curse” experienced by many developing countries
and became an industrialized developing country capable of competing with the
developed countries on fair terms? This paper uses China’s rare earth industry and
related industrial policy and law as an example to formulate a narrative in which
relationship between law and development can be reconsbidered from the perspective
of the developing world.
Keywords: Rare Earth, Free Trade, Law and Development, Resource Curse, Industrial Policy

Tables of contents

Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Persistent link: https://www.ijlet.org/w202101/

DOI: https://doi.org/10.55574/XGZJ2182

Full-text PDF article