New Delhi, Aug. 13 -- As China continues to capture global markets for goods and its trade surpluses grow, it is increasingly viewed elsewhere as a country whose economic growth comes at the expense of the rest of the world. China's industrial policies and growth model at large, critics complain, are beggar-thy-neighbour.

The term 'beggar-thy-neighbour' has an interesting history. It refers to an old children's card game in Britain, as depicted in Charles Dickens's 1861 novel Great Expectations, where the objective is to win all the cards in the deck.

It made its first appearance in economics in Adam Smith's portrayal of mercantilist thought in Wealth of Nations. Mercantilists mistakenly taught nations, wrote Smith, "that their interest...