Xi Zhongxun is credited with founding the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone (SEZ), the first of its kind, which was then copied to other areas of China, before being exported to other low-wage economies in Asia and beyond. The SEZ’s were used to attract investments from multinational companies and to progressively undermine workers’ rights, social protection and secure jobs, as “efficient” sweatshops replaced “inefficient” state-owned companies especially in the export sector.