Search

Recently the Chinese government has been actively collaborating with nonprofit nongovernmental organizations to provide social welfare services to older adults at the community level. The role played by NGOs in facilitating governance has only recently gained attention in the literature on Chinese NGOs and urban governance. Addressing this gap, the paper advances geographers' understanding of State–NGO collaborations in facilitating urban governance in the Chinese context using fieldwork in Beijing and Shanghai on the provision of community eldercare services as an example. It also explains the political control of these NGOs and their changing role in the eldercare market. We argue that collaborations between the state and NGOs in China have gradually transferred eldercare services to the NGOs, and led to a fragmented welfare system, which, as a consequence, has facilitated entrepreneurial urban governance. The paper sheds light on community-based organizations, their collaboration with local governments, and how they have become not only welfare providers but a significant site for social control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The philosophy of sports is a relatively young discipline in China which we argue, can be divided into four stages of development over the past four decades. This paper attempts to map the history of this development and provide an indication of how Chinese sport philosophy has contributed to the global development of research in this area. Stage one (1980–1985) focused primarily on ontological issues such as the nature of sport philosophy and the definition of '体育' (Chinese pinyin 'tiyu', a term refering to sports, physical education and other physical activities). Stage two (1986–1996) saw an expansion of research and publications in sport philosophy that encompassed a variety of topic areas, including ethics and aesthetics. Scholars also began to introduce foreign works into their own research as well as turning to the traditional Chinese bodies of thought such as, Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, to explore philosophical issues in sport. The third stage was a period of relative stagnation (1997–2003) until Chinese sport philosophy expanded steadily, arguably thanks to the awarding of 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Over the past 15 years (the fourth stage), Chinese sport philosophy has made further contributions in ontological, ethical and aesthetic study of sports, which is shown in the increasing number of new doctoral dissertations, books and journal papers published. However, it still faces challenges. In recent years, there have been fewer conferences or symposiums on sport philosophy which has led to a decline in academic exchanges, resulting in a divided focus of resources rather than progression within a common community of academic interests. For this to be rectified, there needs to be greater opportunities for academic exchange and dialogue as well as the creation of professional associations and journals for Chinese sport philosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

\nPlain Language SummaryThe Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has evolved from its ambitious beginning into a framework focused on high-quality development (HQD), emphasizing environmental sustainability and people-centered development. This study examines to what extent these new directives are implemented in the context of China’s overseas economic zones (OEZs), employing a multi-actor-influence model to analyze the complex interactions and challenges inherent in these projects. Focusing on the Vientiane Saysettha Development Zone (VSDZ) in Laos, our analysis identifies three primary institutional challenges: fragmentation between the central and local governments in China, structural constraints imposed on Chinese businesses, and inadequate cooperation between Chinese and host country actors. These challenges underscore the complexities of translating Beijing’s top-down policy into effective action on the ground. The paper concludes with a discussion of the broader implications of these findings for the BRI’s future development.This study examines Beijing’s recent strategic shift in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) towards high-quality development (HQD), focusing on sustainable environmental practices and enhancing local livelihoods. Our policy analysis confirms Beijing’s commitment to these goals. However, challenges arise due to the BRI’s decentralized implementation and the varied influences of multiple actors from both China and the host countries. We explore these challenges through a detailed case study of the Vientiane Saysettha Development Zone (VSDZ) in Laos, identifying three key issues: fragmentation between Chinese central and local governments, constraints on Chinese businesses, and inadequate cooperation between Chinese and host country actors.Our study contributes in three significant ways. First, it adds to the discussion of Beijing’s transition towards HQD and the BRI’s global influence through a review of Chinese policies and an analytical model elucidating the realities of BRI implementation. Second, it theorizes that outcomes of BRI projects are shaped more by local circumstances and stakeholder actions than by policies alone. Finally, it suggests potential measures to help realize HQD within the BRI framework in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's borderlands have received increased investment and policy attention since Beijing formally launched the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013. This special issue, comprised of four research articles and a photo essay, is designed to provide a timely intervention into the growing literature seeking to situate and assess this important policy campaign. Drawing on extended ethnographic fieldwork in China's southwestern, northwestern, and northern borderlands, the contributing authors analyze recent borderland transformations against the backdrop of the BRI. However, by shifting the analytical focus to prioritize voices and events in borderlands, the papers de-center Beijing-centric discourse on the BRI, and provide urgent reminders of region-specific geographies and histories. Taken together, the papers underscore the persistent social complexity of borderland situations, revealing intricate processes of resistance, adaptation, and muddling through, while highlighting continuities and ruptures associated with the present moment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The micropolitics involved in urbanising land is yet to be well illustrated in urban and development studies. With the case of Dahongmen in Beijing, this paper explores the governing techniques for dealing with land transformation to uncover the nature and conduct of the state in weaving together land and urban questions. Recognising the power of discourses in enacting actions, this paper focuses on two performative moments of the state in reassembling land for the urban process, corresponding to social (re)ordering and economic mechanisms respectively. Both moments are critical since new ideas, concepts, and calculative rationales are invented to reassemble land into the intermediator of the urban process, whereby the state renews its identity and authority. The state, seen from the perspective of performativity, is more like a process (with structural effects) where certain utterances are made and repeated to incorporate multiple actors in land assemblages for the urban political economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As long as maps produced by the official Chinese state mapping agency at scales larger than 1:1,000,000 remain inaccessible, Soviet General staff maps provide the best alternative. Although toponyms are given only in cyrillicized form, vernacular script equivalents may be found on pre-1945 Japanese military survey maps as well as on some maps of the US Army Mapping Service (AMS). A unique feature of the Soviet 1:200,000 map series is the accompanying spravka or descriptive text on the reverse of each sheet, probably constituting in aggregate the most detailed description of China ever compiled. Soviet General Staff plans of Chinese cities include 'objects' of military significance, many of which are omitted or not identified on any other mapping. This paper presents translations of the spravka from a representative sheet of the 1:200,000 series and from the city plan of Beijing, together with an evaluation of the reliability of their content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigating a Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) project in Myanmar, this paper contests the proposition that China's state-coordinated investments are, by nature, more accommodating to local people's demands than Western investments. Tension between Myanmar villagers and the Chinese state-owned enterprise (SOE) in a copper mine project does not square with Beijing's "inclusive globalization" narrative. Drawing upon extensive semi-structured interviews with stakeholders in a Sino-Myanmar copper mine project, as well as other secondary data, this study finds that the Chinese SOE's operation was reactive to the ebb and flow of social resistance and the government's pressure amid the host country's democratization in the 2010s. Reforms were more likely to occur when the Chinese SOE observed more domestic constraints in its operation environment. It showed less incentive to improve its business practices when societal actors failed to display strong resistance, and the host government did not care about its legitimacy. Despite Beijing's efforts to craft an image of itself as a responsible power, conflicts in the BRI project should not be simplified as the SOE's defiance of the state's regulations. They are rooted in the state-centric foreign policy that systematically overlooks societal actors in state-coordinated investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A variety of forms and practices of citizenship in China has been well studied, but, unfortunately, studies on industrial citizenship are missing. Moreover, while there has been a growing literature on Chinese workers and their relationship with management in the last decade or so, most of it has focussed on protest and litigation rather than on deliberation and industrial citizenship. This paper fills the intellectual gap by applying T. H. Marshall's idea of industrial citizenship to workplaces in China and examining it through a case study of a workplace deliberation experiment. The workplace deliberation experiment showed that, first, workplace deliberation in China can be seen as a form of industrial citizenship and "participatory management", which still retains an element of hierarchy, but falls short of the radical idea of industrial democracy and unionism. Second, workplace deliberation improved management practices but still faced significant obstacles, such as asymmetric power relationships and the control characteristics of industrial relations. Though Chinese industries are institutionalizing more workers' voice input, Beijing nevertheless forestalls the Polish style of an independent trade union, thus workplace deliberation can be seen as a part of its authoritarian empowerment strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the country with the largest population of older people, while still being a developing one, China is confronted with huge challenges in seeking an optimum response, which is high on the agenda of policy makers in Beijing. This paper makes the case for a radical new strategy on ageing which substitutes an ageing-oriented paradigm for the previous passive, instrumental and economistic ones. We first present an overview of the trend of Chinese population ageing, compared with already aged societies, followed by a summary of its impacts on the social welfare system associated with old age. Then we outline an alternative WHO influenced policy paradigm, active ageing, focusing on health, participation and security. In the light of this new approach, more active policies on ageing are called for, which are rooted in a comprehensive understanding of population trends, draw on international experience and conform to Chinese conditions and traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how returnees' repatriation speed and irregularity affect FDI knowledge spillovers. Using a unique dataset of high-tech Chinese firms located in Zhongguancun Science Park in Beijing from 2007 to 2013, we find that returnees are vital in improving local firms' absorptive capacity and disseminating FDI externalities. Our empirical results show that returnees' high repatriation speed positively contributes to the local absorption of FDI knowledge spillovers, whereas repatriation irregularity dampens it. This research highlights the time-based attributes of returnees' repatriation as a new factor of absorptive capacity when learning from FDI knowledge. It thus provides a more integrated viewpoint on the relationship between returnees and FDI spillovers. Our findings have important implications for policymakers and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past 5–10 years, a growing number of Chinese scholars and policy experts have sought to theorise the 'development' of other peoples and places in the Global South. These intellectual efforts include building temporal frameworks for describing development processes, and often, an implicit set of directives for effecting positive change. Drawing on eight months' fieldwork in Beijing, this paper examines the representational practices of depicting development and its temporal dimension that have been mobilised in the ongoing production of Chinese international development thinking. In particular, it is concerned with the ways in which temporal distance and proximity have been constructed to provide a theoretical and moral justification for China's intensifying geopolitical and economic preoccupations. We argue that more than a system of explanations, current Chinese thinking contains and expresses a recalibrated will to geopolitical power, which has had a conditioning effect on the enframing of the meanings and relations of development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism industry might be affected by pollution, discouraging current tourism and damaging destination's image, which compromises future arrivals. This paper quantifies the impact of air pollution on inbound tourism analyzing the case of Beijing city, China. Applying a standard tourism demand function, short-run and long-run impacts are explored in a VECM framework. Results show that air pollution had negative effects on tourist arrivals in the long-run, but not in the short-run. Also, there is a long-run causal relation between air pollution and inbound arrivals from most source countries, while air pollution does not Granger-cause a short-run tourist arrivals decrease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although zoning has great potential in coordinating regional development and destination management, it is challenging to derive an optimal zoning method in the historic district. To address this challenge, this paper proposes a zone division method attempting to balance tourists' and residents' spatial demands and realizing urban historic area sustainable development. A 3-zones (Tourist active zone, Local community zone, and Buffer zone) plan is put forward based on a case study of the Qianmen area in Beijing, China. Then zone extraction is conducted with two kinds of big data, Points of Interests (POI) and Mobile Phone Signal (MPS). The Thiessen polygon-based method to divide the tourists' concentrated area and a fishnet-based density method to distinguish the area of residents mainly living are used to help identify borderlines of different zones. A survey map for tourists and residents is used to verify the zone extraction results. Subsequently, zone management strategies are suggested for different zones improvement. This discussion contributes to overcoming the traditional methods' defects in subarea-scale research with scientifically sound and practical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits China's recent experiences of hosting three international mega-events: the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the 2010 Shanghai World Expo and the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games. While maintaining a critical political economic perspective, this paper builds upon the literature of viewing mega-events as societal spectacles and puts forward the proposition that these mega-events in China are promoted to facilitate capital accumulation and ensure socio-political stability for the nation's further accumulation. The rhetoric of a ‘Harmonious Society’ as well as patriotic slogans are used as key languages of spectacles in order to create a sense of unity through the consumption of spectacles, and pacify social and political discontents rising out of economic inequalities, religious and ethnic tensions, and urban–rural divide. The experiences of hosting mega-events, however, have shown that the creation of a ‘unified’, ‘harmonious’ society of spectacle is built on displacing problems rather than solving them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese children with an urban household registration (hukou) normally attend subsidized preschools for three years prior to primary school. This is an experience available to relatively few of China's many millions of migrant children whose families are registered as rural residents but choose to migrate to urban areas. This paper presents research, in the form of a case study, which examined an informal playgroup for rural-registered migrant children whose parents worked in a Beijing market. The playgroup was established by volunteers to provide an affordable, though limited, alternative preschool experience for migrant children. The original programme was derived from community concepts that initially underpinned the 'Sure Start' intervention in the United Kingdom. In the paper, survey data is utilized to determine if an informal playgroup can be a positive alternative in a context where migrant children have little capacity to access the preschool programmes available to their urban counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a governmentality approach to examine the political history of human–canine relationships in the People's Republic of China, focusing on the evolution of household dog regulations in Beijing. In doing so, it ties the micropolitics of human–canine relations to transformations in political, economic, and social governance and ways of thinking about and acting on the interactions between human and nonhuman animal species. An examination of successive waves of government regulations reveals a shift from top-down authoritarian approaches to governance toward a greater recognition of (circumscribed) individual responsibility and self-governance, which is emerging under the organizing framework of "social credit." This government-managed rearrangement is contributing to the rise of new understandings of human–canine interactions as co-constitutive relationships based in citizenship rights and obligations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper establishes a diagnostic model for assessing the rationality of size structure of urban agglomerations (UAs) in China. The model is designed to determine from a three-dimensional index including size distribution index (SDI), size compactness index (SCI), and size efficiency index (SEI). The spatio-temporal pattern of size structure involving the studied 19 UAs and its implications are explored. The results indicate that size structure of China's UAs advanced from a low rationality development stage to a moderate rationality development stage in 1995-2015. Among them, the SDI and SEI were reasonably high, and the SCI was relatively low. Spatially, the high rationality UAs were distributed across eastern China, while the low rationality UAs were located in western China. UAs with positive size structure possessed typically a dual- or multicenter urban structure, while UAs with negative size structure usually presented as a single-center structure. The evolutionary trajectories of rationality of size structure of UAs can be summarized as four different stages. Our findings suggest that, in addition to consolidating the status of national-level UAs, the development of regional-level UAs should be promoted. Also, the fostering focus and direction should be oriented toward an UA with dual- or multicenter spatial structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eileen Gu received a widespread public attention as an American-born snowboarder that won 3 medals in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics representing China. Building on the conceptual and historical frameworks of sports and nation-building, and taking Eileen Gu as a case-study, this article analyzes through critical discourse analysis how Chinese mainstream media portrayed Eileen Gu's image and her Chinese identity. The results show that during the 2022 Beijing Olympics, Chinese media constructed Eileen Gu's Chinese identity through a pluralistic approach: her success is connected with national pride, Chinese food, family relations and kinship, friendship, excellence in study and Chinese totems. We conclude that in the context of sport being an important vehicle for China's nation-building, this country is expanding the boundaries of Chinese/China through sports storytelling and the naturalization of athletes, linking sporting success to the 'rejuvenation of China'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first part of this paper describes, for China, province-level variation in the year in which below-replacement fertility was achieved. The second part, also based on province-level data, is a multivariate analysis of the effects of (1) fertility policy, and (2) economic and social development on fertility in the year 2000. In 1975, only two provinces—Beijing and Shanghai—had below-replacement fertility, but by 2000, 29 out of 31 provinces had below-replacement fertility. Among these 29 provinces, 22 had a total fertility rate (TFR) below 1.7, and 20 provinces had a TFR below 1.5. The main findings from the cross-sectional multivariate analysis of province-level variation in the TFR are that (1) depending on the measure of economic and social development used, between 33 and 42 percent of the effect of the one-child policy on the TFR, as measured by policy TFR, is actually due to development, and (2) the effect of policy TFR on TFR, after development is controlled for, is 38 to 50 percent less than the effect of development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the retail rent dynamics of two Chinese cities, Beijing and Shanghai. We use an error correction modelling framework to estimate long-run equilibrium relationships and short-term dynamic corrections. The study period covers 1999–2012. We also run tests to examine the presence of structural breaks. The empirical results suggest that both supply and demand significantly affect retail rents for both cities in the long run. However, in the short term, the change of rent responds to change in income for Shanghai market. Both markets have a rapid speed of adjustment, especially Shanghai market that is more price and income elastic. The results shed some light on the behaviour of retail rent adjustment processes in one of the largest and fast growing emerging markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the transformative process of female vendors in the Silk Street Market, Beijing. They are female internal migrants hailing from a wide range of provinces including Anhui, Heilongjiang, Zhejiang and the city of Shanghai. The Silk Street Market has undergone a transformation beyond recognition from a makeshift open air market into an iconic place of modern Beijing located in the Central Business District. This global-meet-local marketplace not only provides female vendors with a living but also serves as an arena where they learn how to create upward mobility and thus contribute to the well-being of the family. Despite the obstacles of low educational attainment they manage to acquire everyday cosmopolitan skills enabling them to survive and flourish in the postmodern competitive urban jungle of Beijing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The rise of authoritarian great powers has raised questions about the dominance of the liberal democratic model and has led to a perception that the relative balance between democracy and authoritarianism is shifting. Consequently, there is increasing interest in and concerns about the diffusion of alternative ‘models’ of political and economic development. Given that China's impressive economic development has led to growing military strength and geopolitical prestige, evaluating perceptions of the legitimacy, effectiveness, and applicability of that country's model of ‘illiberal capitalism’ is a good place to start. This paper evaluates whether the ‘China Model’ or ‘Beijing Consensus' is gaining traction internationally through a content analysis of eight years of US and non-US media sources. It finds that concerns about the beginnings of an anti-democratic ‘reverse wave’ are exaggerated and that at the present time there does not appear to be a decisive shift in favour of a model of authoritarian-capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In China, there is a growing group of ‘migrant children’, who reside in the city but do not have full rights to access education. Many have been granted a chance to study in public schools after the policy change, but they continue to have lower educational outcomes than the local students. To understand the inequality, this paper examines the educational goals of migrant families in Beijing. Based on the field interviews, it shows that even migrant children who aspire to attain higher education are nonetheless ‘blocked’ by discriminatory examination laws and limited resources. Their subjective outlook is derived from objective conditions and concrete experiences. Their family of origin determines the types of resources available to them, and thus plays an important role in the formation and justification of their educational goals. A realistic assessment of their chances of achieving their aspirations leads them to have lower expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper argues that Beiijing's handling of the Xinjiang and Uyghur issues at the domestic, regional and international levels is characterised by a number of contradictions. Domestically, the July 2009 unrest suggests that China's longstanding approach to Xinjiang is at risk of failure due to the contradictions inherent in the logic that underpins Beijing's strategy. Regionally, Beijing faces a contradiction between its growing influence on the governments of Central Asia and the ambivalent attitude of Central Asian publics towards China. Internationally, the major implication of the July unrest has been to signal the internationalisation of the Uyghur issue whereby it has become a significant irritant in Beijing's relations with a number of major Western states, including the USA and Australia. It has been Beijing's own approach to Xinjiang domestically and its handling of the Uyghur issue in its diplomacy that has contributed to the internationalisation of the issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rising auto ownership in China brings significant urban and environmental challenges. Since China is still in the early stages of motorization, there are opportunities to introduce alternatives to personal vehicle ownership. The authors conducted a survey with 800 Beijing residents, collecting data on transportation patterns, automobile ownership, environmental attitudes, and carsharing response. Fifteen of those participants were selected to complete an in-depth questionnaire discussing how they would use carsharing services. This paper assesses the potential for carsharing systems within Beijing, China, based on this exploratory study. While the results suggest that carsharing models integrated into existing transit networks could become an important mobility option within China's rapidly growing cities, further study is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feng J., Zhou Y. and Wu F. New trends of suburbanization in Beijing since 1990: from government-led to market-oriented, Regional Studies. Since the 1990s suburbanization has been continuing in China along with the deepening of market transition. The process of suburbanization has gone beyond purely government-initiated relocation of households and polluting industries. Based on the newest population census, this paper identifies some major new trends of suburbanization in Beijing. The new round of suburbanization has been driven by the construction of suburban villas and affordable housing, rising private car ownership, the decentralization of industry, and the development of large suburban shopping malls and retail parks. Passively relocated households are no longer the dominant source of suburbanization. Suburbanization in Beijing has evolved into a new stage of more market-oriented development in the suburbs... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental protection efforts commonly make use of two types of government interventions: command and control policies (C&C) and market-based instruments (MBIs). While MBIs are favored for their economic efficiency, visible prices on pollution may generate political backlash. We examine whether citizens are more likely to support policies that tend to obfuscate policy costs (C&C), as opposed to MBIs, which impose visible costs. Using conjoint experiments in Beijing and New Delhi, we examine support for 'policy bundles', including both C&C policies and MBIs, aimed at limiting air pollution from vehicles. In both cities, increasing fuel taxes (a MBI) reduces policy support. However, pledging revenue usage from fuel taxes to subsidize electric cars or public transport eliminates this negative effect. Furthermore, individuals with a lower evaluation of their government respond more negatively to MBIs. MBIs may be economically efficient, but are politically difficult unless policy-makers can offset visible costs through additional measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Professional Geographer is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In current conditions of late-modernity, nativism, localism, populism and racism are articulating as each other in Western European societies. In Asia's global city, Hong Kong witnessed revivifications of nativist and localist identities that were negotiated to counteract socio-cultural and political "Mainlandization" in the former British colony. The imaginative geographies underscoring political graffiti and civil disobedience wresting the right for political self-determination from Beijing during the anti-extradition bill (anti-ELAB) protests of 2019–2020 is retrospectively discussed in relation to frequent pro-establishment assertions that Hong Kongers ought to accept Beijing's sovereignty over the semi-autonomous region. The graffiti vignettes presented in this work express opposition towards the Mainland presence in Hong Kong, which illustrates underlying nativist sentiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's opening and reform process was constituted as a temporal phase of its Sonderweg, centered on the symbiosis with the West. It also included a centrifugal effect stemming from the "unipolar" appearance of the international system, yet temporalised differently from the retentional-protentional "now" of the symbiosis. China's symbiosis-phase can be defined as a modus vivendi, conducted on selective and partial integration through "reframing" and rendering its authoritarianism a guarantee for the sustainability of the selected symbiotic elements which in turn shielded the authoritarianism that Beijing de facto equated to "authenticity." However, a new temporal phase of the Sonderweg emerged when the centrifugal effect was transferred from its anticipatory horizon into the retentional-protentional field, as the main elements of the symbiosis faced erosion. This re-temporalisation engendered a systemic challenge through expansionism and promotion of the authoritarianism with a "multipolarist" discourse. The BRI appears as the most visible, encompassing and transformative content framework of this new phase. However, it faces three serious impasses: An inter-multipolarist one in the "Belt" area, a systemic one with the emerging reaction and mobilization of the democracies in the "Road" area and one pertaining to the viability of the BRI due to its conduct. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has become an increasingly important actor in the Black Sea Region (BSR), and this looks set to continue in the future. Beijing has actively engaged with all of the Black Sea states and has looked to invest largely, but not exclusively, in ports and infrastructure projects as part of its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This article examines Beijing's growing influence in the Black Sea and explores the effect this will have on the region. It will be argued that China's engagement is seen by some of the littoral states as an important way of balancing Russian influence in the region and Beijing's presence is likely to lead to a recalibration of Russian behaviour in the BSR. Chinese engagement in the Black Sea might therefore serve as a force for stability or at least encourage the continuation of the status quo, by limiting Russian revanchism, as Moscow will be increasingly sensitive to Beijing's interest and investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's policy toward North Korea's nuclear weapons programme represents an empirical and theoretical puzzle. Contrary to political relationship theory, Beijing has opposed its ally North Korea acquiring nuclear weapons. And contrary to power projection theory, a favourable asymmetry in material power has not resulted in Beijing being able to persuade, or otherwise coerce Pyongyang into terminating its nuclear weapons programme. To understand China's policy on the North Korean nuclear proliferation issue, the concepts of power and power projection need to be understood differently, in relational power terms. The relational view of power calls for the specification of scope, domain, the means, and the opportunity cost of alternative policy options. Once this is done, the limits and complexities of Chinese policy come into clearer focus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Having engaged in some two decades of irregular war, the United States now finds itself confronted by a resurgent China, determined to utilize asymmetric approaches to both strengthen its grip on power at home and reshape the international environment in its favor. Despite the parameters of Beijing's strategy having been clearly laid out, Washington has failed to respond in coherent fashion. This reality should be altered by constructing a revitalized approach upon the foundation already put in place through the country's long, extensive experience in irregular warfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information on tourists' spatio-temporal behavior is useful for destination marketing and management. GPS data collection, GIS and statistical analyses of survey data from a zoo in Beijing are reported. Results indicate that seven behavior patterns exist that are distinct according to demography and visit attributes. Tourist behavior is influenced by animal features (e.g. the number of animals, endangerment category, feeding habits and aggressiveness), the environment (exhibition openness and hygiene), and service facility attributes (e.g. retail facilities, toilets, recreational facilities and catering services). The findings provide insight into the behavioral characteristics of Chinese zoo visitors and factors that influence them. The results can be used to enhance environmental and exhibition design, visitor flow forecasts and tourists flow distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's mobility turn has created the world's largest public rail system, contributing extensively to citizens' economic, social, and spatial mobility. Concurrently, this technological transformation has introduced many opportunities for individuation, which could potentially challenge the social, collectivistic, and Confucian foundations of China's sociocultural and political ideology. While the notion that 'mobility produces culture' is readily accepted, research on train mobility in China is rare. In this study, we use Albert Bandura's Model of Triadic Reciprocal Causation to conceptualize mobility as agency. We employ Hermeneutic Content Analysis, a mixed methods framework, to study how this rapidly evolving mobility environment connects to the lives of 31 regular train users living in Beijing. Studying agency in China enables us to systematize the sociocultural models within which mobility practices are embedded and how they manifest. We find that our interviewees embed agentive practices in a cultural model that is intertwined with collectivistic aspirations of the country. Technological developments are thus integrated into existing sociocultural models and political expectations, contradicting existing debates on the fracturing impact of disruptive technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given China's political conservativism and limited social acceptance of sexual minorities, it is paradoxical to find that Blued, a gay social app headquartered in Beijing, has become the largest app of this kind globally. Informed by the social construction of technology perspective and based on a yearlong ethnography, this article identifies three major factors that have shaped the developmental trajectory of Blued: (1) work with the Communist Party of China to employ Blued as a health education platform; (2) switch in orientation from a hookup app to a social app; and (3) push for the commercialization and internationalization of the app. This article spotlights that the voices of users were missing in the development process and argues that, for Blued to continue maintaining its success, it must stop relying on the "I-methodology" in its design and development. Lastly, it contributes to the SCOT scholarship and social app studies by deciphering the role of the state in app development in the Chinese context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies revealed that experiences of stigma might negatively affect health service utilization (HSU) among young rural-to-urban migrants. Existing literature also suggested social factors including social capital might mediate such negative effect. However, data are limited regarding the mediation role of social capital among this vulnerable population. Therefore, the current study aimed to examine the associations among experiences of stigma, social capital, and HSU among young rural-to-urban migrants in China. A sample of 641 young rural-to-urban migrants was recruited through a venue-based sampling approach in Beijing, China. Participants were assessed on sociodemographic characteristics, experiences of stigma, and social capital in their urban communities. Self-reported frequency of physical examinations (regularly, irregularly, none) was used as an indicator of HSU. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed to examine the direct effect of stigma on HSU as well as the mediation effect of social capital. Among the 641 young rural-to-urban migrants, 32.3% (195/603) reported never having physical examinations while 50.6% (305/603) reported having them irregularly. The final model showed a goodness of fit (χ2/df = 1.7, CFI = 0.98, RMSEA = 0.03, WRMR = 0.74). Results of SEM revealed that both of the direct and indirect paths from experiences of stigma on HSU were statistically significant. There was a partial mediation effect of social capital on the association between experiences of stigma and HSU (delta z score = −5.49, p < 0.01). Rural-to-urban migrants had a low rate of regular HSU. Experiences of stigma were associated with decreased likelihood of HSU. Social capital in the urban communities could mediate the negative effect of stigma on HSU and played a mediation role between experiences of stigma and HSU. Therefore, to increase HSU among migrants, targeted interventions to reduce stigma and increase social capital at the migration destinations are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on ethnographic fieldwork in China and Georgia, this article traces the origins and describes current practices of post-Soviet tourist trading in Yabaolu Market in Beijing. While traders from across the Caucasus visit Yabaolu, my focus is on Georgian traders who today perceive themselves as biznesmeny. Focusing on a typical trade visit, the article explores the role of ethnic and kinship ties in the organization of this trade. It questions the notion of ethnic entrepreneurship and the idea that ethnic cooperation itself may serve a basis of trust and underpin traders' activities. Instead, the article illustrates how enduring transnational linkages are built on other forms of reliability and reputation. These are framed in the lexicon of friendship, as well as kinship and pseudo-kinship vocabulary, and facilitate commercial transactions between traders of different ethnic, social and religious backgrounds in an environment where state regulation and legal law enforcement are almost absent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Chinese views of North Korea's nuclear-weapon program during the Donald J. Trump administration. It shows that China has portrayed itself as a responsible country that promotes regional stability, unlike the United States, which has engaged in military brinkmanship with North Korea. Some Chinese foreign-policy experts have asserted that Beijing should back Pyongyang in the event of war because of their shared history of humiliation by great powers, while others have favored working with other regional partners. Another theme in Chinese discourse about North Korea is that Pyongyang is an impetuous, ungrateful regime that impedes Beijing's ability to attain its core interests of regional stability, economic development, and heightened global influence. This negative assessment of North Korea drove Beijing's endorsement of stricter UN sanctions in 2017. While Beijing has punished Pyongyang for its wayward policies, China responded favorably to North Korea's decision in April 2018 to stop nuclear tests and partake in international dialogue. Beijing seeks to help Pyongyang gradually disarm and develop its economy within a Chinese-led East Asian order. The article concludes by explaining how Beijing's recent, more positive view of Pyongyang is likely to affect its support for American efforts to dismantle North Korea's nuclear-weapon program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term 'satellite city' can be applied at multiple scales and with multiple meanings. In this article, the Chinese city of Shenzhen will be viewed both as a satellite city at the (mega)city-level, and as a city consisting of many sub-city satellites. In the first years after becoming China's first Special Economic Zone, Shenzhen developed as a satellite city not only of its neighbour Hong Kong, but also of Beijing, as the first zone of experiments with 'capitalism with socialist characteristics'. In later development stages the city has emancipated to also become a centre in its own right. At the same time, however, Shenzhen is a 'city of satellites', comprising many sub-centres that could also be seen as satellites themselves. After exploring Shenzhen as a whole as a satellite city of Hong Kong, Beijing and other 'external influencers', we will discuss three examples of different types of sub-city satellites: OCT, Shekou/Qianghai, and Guangming New Town. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the case study of Trinidad and Tobago, this article analyzes the process of reciprocal international socialization that allows Beijing to construct a cognitive and normative space conducive to a new regional order in the Caribbean which should be politically friendly, economically profitable, and socially open to its government, companies, and citizens. We argue that there has been a shift in the identity of Trinidad's state-society complex due to the influence of China's very visible political, economic, and social conditionalities. Their impact on political elites (which is reflected in government discourse and actions) and on the society at large (as shown by interviews with 30 Trinidadian nationals) is analyzed in order to show that Type I, 'role playing' socialization has been reached. However, frustration within Trinidad's society with the domestic effects of China's economic and social conditionalities clearly limits the potential for the evolution toward the more advanced Type II socialization exemplified, in the same region, by the Soviet-Cuban relationship. This suggests that, at least in the near future, key features of the Chinese approach incompatible with its self-proclaimed win-win nature will prevent Beijing from upgrading its status to that of a decisive socializer in the Caribbean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 2016 and 2018, Australia's perceptions of China underwent a significant reality check, with global implications. Australia has been a first mover in pushing back against Chinese foreign interference, including via new foreign influence and interference laws. The recalibration of Australia-China relations, and the events and policy debate that proceeded it, is instructive for other countries seeking to respond to the more assertive and coercive elements of Chinese foreign policy. This article sets out the drivers of Australia's reality check, presents a chronology of key events, and examines how Canberra can now move relations with Beijing forward under the conditions of the new normal that has been established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perceived destination image is rarely examined through the gaze of stakeholders other than visitors, in particular residents and tourism business operators. This hinders the comprehensive understanding of destination image and limits its practical implications for destination marketing and management. Therefore, this study proposes a multi-stakeholder approach to image evaluation to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the destination image and better inform destination planning and management. Taking Nanluoguxiang hutong tourism site in Beijing as an example, the image perceptions of residents, on-site business operators, and domestic and international tourists are compared. Questionnaire surveys with both types of tourists and semi-structured interviews with residents and business operators are the main research methods. Major between group differences are identified in the evaluation of the authenticity of this Beijing hutong area, its representation of traditional Beijing culture and whether or not it is a place in which to relax. Results demonstrate that visitors, residents and business operators share similar cognitive images of Nanluoguxiang as a traditional historical street and a special business street with Beijing character. However, the historical and cultural values of Nanluoguxiang are undervalued. Moreover, distinct differences exist between the actual motivations for visiting held by domestic and international tourists and their motivations as perceived by residents and business operators. Suggestions are made to better meet the expectations and desires of all stakeholder groups through the provision of participatory programmes and activities to enrich the visitor experience of hutongs and the hutong lifestyle while maintaining a boundary between tourists and residents' personal space to reduce unnecessary interruptions to residents' daily life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This narrative documentary study depicts two approaches of citizenship education (CE) in Beijing over the past decade—change through curriculum development, versus change through the international exchange of ideals and practices. It reveals the varied interests of CE designers and the tensions arising from competing approaches to CE. Analysis unfolds three dimensions of CE in Beijing, i.e. CE as a civic mission advocated by Chinese scholars, as a diplomatic platform for local government to showcase the city’s image building, and as an authoritarian agent serving to resist notions and terminologies associated with the state’s political enemies. Reframing the citizenship discourses into these three dimensions allows us to order, conceptually, how we approach the function of CE in Beijing. The case of Beijing illuminates the methods, tensions, and likely future directions of CE in other Chinese polities, such as Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

China's rise has been accompanied by a rise in nationalism. But what are the characteristics of this nationalism now being witnessed? Does it support China's constructive engagement with the international order, or does it seek to assert China's supremacy? These questions lie at the hub of a rapidly expanding secondary literature on the emergence of nationalism in China and its impact on China's foreign relations. What is, however, absent from the academic discourse is the voice of the Chinese people themselves. What are their perceptions of the nation-state, and how do these beliefs shape their views of China's relationship with East Asia? To address this gap, we conducted a series of large-scale surveys in Beijing between 2011 and 2013 on the twinned topics of domestic nationalism and international relations. Our findings, as reported below, represent an initial attempt to answer this final and, arguably, most critical set of questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We survey about 110 recently published studies on Sino-African relations, and put some structure on the documented issues before suggesting some solutions and strategies to the identified policy syndromes. The documented issues are classified into the following eight main strands: China targeting nations with abundant natural resources, focusing on countries with bad governance, not hiring local workers; outbidding other countries by flouting environmental and social standards; importing workers that do not integrate into domestic society and living in extremely simple conditions, exhibiting low linkages between her operations and local businesses, exporting low quality products to Africa, and the emergence of China hindering Africa’s development. We sum up the discussion by reconciling the Beijing and Washington Consensuses. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study is committed to understanding the tremendous changes that have occurred in China's media ecology due to economic reform and the growth of technology. Based on 146 in-depth interviews with journalists from 79 media outlets in four main cities, the current study provides a sufficient understanding of contemporary journalists in Mainland China. The authors summarise the social profiles, work conditions, political values and professional orientations of both traditional and online journalists, and examine how differences between journalists are contingent on the organisational form and geographical location of the media where they work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many stakeholders are engaged in heritage tourism at World Heritage sites, but local communities are among the most important and affected. The management structure and the nature of local communities influence how the latter are involved in heritage tourism. Community involvement can be categorised into participation in decision making and in benefit acquisition. This study examines and compares the management structure and the status of involvement at two places adjacent to the Great Wall in Beijing, China. Key informant interviews and questionnaire surveys were employed, supplemented by analysis of plans, and it was found that communities receive benefits from tourism despite their minimal participation in planning and management decisions. A two-dimensional framework comprising decision making and benefit acquisition is developed to position communities on these criteria, to evaluate community involvement, and to indicate areas for improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Social & Cultural Geography is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study empirically analyses the determinants of start-up firms in the Tsinghua Science Park in Beijing using survey data. More than 50% of firms are software and Internet related with CEOs has a strong technological background. It is found that firms that have their internal innovations grounded in their own competitive advantage show better innovation performance, while formal research and development collaboration with Tsinghua University plays only a marginal role. However, they benefit from informal connections with faculty members and access to students. Human resource management services by the Science Park management company are highly appreciated by tenant businesses. Finally, networking activities among tenants are found to be weak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]