at the expense of

Many people argued not only that Japan had figured out a better way to run its economy but also that its success came at least partly at the expense of naive Western competitors. （摘自諾貝爾經濟學獎得主Paul Krugman寫的《面對失靈的年代：克魯曼談金融海嘯》（The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008）一書）這句話裡面的at the expense of，是指犧牲天真的西方競爭對手？那是什麼意思？如果譯成「天真的西方競爭對手拱手讓出的」，意思會不會更清楚？