20 years of China’s WTO accession: • Table.Briefings

China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001 was met with high hopes in the Western world. The integration of the emerging country into the multilateral organization was supposed to promote not only global prosperity, but also free entrepreneurial activity in China. These hopes were largely disappointed. Although prosperity has increased, China is still not a free market economy.

Speaking to both houses of the U.S. Congress, the then US president promoted China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). The world would no longer be the same, he promised. The world’s most populous country would open its markets. And the US, with its wheat and corn, Hollywood movies, Fords and GMs, would be at the forefront. With more free trade, there would also be a freer China, Clinton said confidently. But things turned out differently.

20 years of China’s WTO accession: Clinton’s big mistake

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