Ethical issues in the globalization of the knowledge economy

More and more people in China are now realizing that the country has already become a globalizing economy, but some contend that China's economy is still far from being based on knowledge. However, as globalization necessarily brings with it a knowledge economy, China is of necessity involved in the new economy, and has in consequence encountered many new ethical issues. In the first part of the paper some of these issues are discussed – issues of intellectual property protection, issues related to the exploitation of Chinese know‐how and knowledge products by foreign companies, and issues of cultural colonization. These issues are complicated, widespread and novel, and there is a need to develop ethical guidelines to deal with these issues. Although the perspective of the analysis is Chinese, these same problems are faced by countries the world over.