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Taking a spatially sensitive approach to evaluating China's quest of soft power, this paper conducted a media discourse analysis of European countries' perceptions of China's growing international influence in general, and its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in particular. Preliminary analysis reveals regional diversity in media coverage of the BRI that was partially caused by a country's position as a 'discourse leader', 'discourse responder' or 'discourse follower'. In terms of the contents, this paper noticed a huge discrepancy among the European countries towards the potential impacts of the BRI and China's rise in international affairs, and recorded a shift from a rather positive to a cautious attitude among the European Union's leaders. It is suggested that China's spatially blind approach to using soft power to promote BRI in Europe may be partly to blame for its limited success so far. [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]

As China grows in international importance and influence, more and more countries worry about how it will behave, and are preoccupied with the hard question of how to tame it. As a middle power Australia has sought ways to influence the thinking and behaviour of Chinese policymakers. The Australian approach to taming China represents an academically puzzling and politically intriguing case, which, unfortunately, has not been studied in detail. The paper has argued that the concept of taming offers significant intellectual advantages in its reconsideration of Australia's China policy and has called for Australian scholars and policymakers, to critically rethink unspoken and understudied Australia's taming practices and policies. To this end, this paper has proposed an experience-based theory of taming as a key research agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we review the empirical research on the value of auditing, audit independence, and audit fees published in Accounting Research and Auditing Research, the two premier accounting and auditing journals in China. We identify the main themes in the three areas and assess the consistency of the available empirical evidence on the topics we review. We also highlight the innovativeness of auditing studies published in Chinese language journals to English language readers of the global accounting academic community, before introducing the papers included in this Special Issue on Auditing in China. Finally, we identify gaps in the literature and suggest avenues to help promote further research in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there is a growing recognition of the Internet’s role in promoting environmental sustainability, the impact of social media use on low-carbon behavioral intentions remains poorly understood. Based on the survey data for 1,056 contemporary college students from 9 universities in China, this paper examines how social media use affects their intentions regarding low-carbon behaviors. An IV-Ordered Probit model is employed to account for the endogeneity issue and generate accurate estimates. The results indicate that, overall, the frequency of social media use has a significantly positive impact on college students’ intentions to adopt low-carbon behaviors, mainly by improving their subjective norms and perceived behavioral control. Additionally, considerable heterogeneities are observed among students of different genders and grades. Knowledge, concern, and belief regarding climate change also have a significant effect on behavioral intentions. Finally, this paper proposes several policy recommendations to enhance the effectiveness of social media in promoting low-carbon behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing significance of lifestyle migration provides a compelling opportunity for exploring the role that lifestyle migrants play in urban changes. This paper establishes lifestyle migrants as place-makers to comprehend their profound influence on Dali, a city in Southwest China. Three forms of place-making, namely creative, transgressive, and aesthetic place-making, are identified in this paper, which have forged connections between the online and offline worlds and transformed the city into an attractive place for developers, investors, and migrants, thereby giving rise to a distinct mode of urbanization (termed “lifestyle-oriented urbanization” in this paper). By characterizing this urbanization mode and the triad of place-making, this paper illuminates how lifestyle migration has sparked off socio-spatial rearrangements in a peripheral place and how these changes, in turn, have sustained lifestyle migration. Through this exploration, this paper highlights the importance of further research on the interplay between lifestyle migration and urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has recorded impressive economic achievements driving the structural transformation of its society. However, this transformation is marked by rising inequality, environmental pollution and stark provincial disparities. In 2015, the launching of the Agenda 2030 provided a common ground at the international level conceptualizing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This paper analyses the provincial performances towards the Agenda 2030 in the period 2015–19 by introducing the integrated sustainable development index cluster; convergence and econometric analyses are then used to explore synergies and trade-offs among SDGs. The empirical results capture the dynamics of sustainable development of China’s provinces and provide a clearer understanding of how policies may influence different the SDGs’ achievements, exploring the relationship between environmental versus different aspects of development. These results are used to draw policy recommendations that highlight the importance of identifying the appropriate mix of strategies to promote integrated sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking the critical political economy approach, this paper continues Dallas Smythe's and Yuezhi Zhao's inquiries into technological development in contemporary China. It examines the trends and struggles of the "BAT" model—named after the three most influential Internet companies in the country, Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent—in China's digital expansion, which has been intimately connected to transnational financial capitalism in the past decade. Reflecting on this expansion's all-encompassing socio-political consequences, a blind spot in the successful BAT story, the paper examines whether the BAT model is sustainable for China's social development and, if not, the opportunities and alternatives lie ahead. The paper argues, in view of BAT's financial and infrastructural turn, that how China's ICT sector could move beyond a capital-driven mode of growth and reorient technologies for public and social development is a critical epistemological question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable energy is the fastest growing energy source. China, the world's biggest energy consumer, is also the largest investor in renewable energy. Although it is expected that oil will continue to dominate the energy mix in China and in the world by 2040, a transition towards a renewable model in the energy sector is unfolding, which has also been acknowledged by international oil companies (IOCs). Then, how the Chinese national oil companies (NOCs) approach such a transition becomes important – to what extent their investment transform and what are the pressures and influences behind the transformation. This paper investigates the positions and decisions taken by the Chinese NOCs, through comparing the similarities and differences between these NOCs and IOCs. A neo-Gramscian theoretical framework that considers environmental governance through dynamics at material, organisational, and discursive levels is used to examine the Chinese NOCs' energy transition. We find that the Chinese NOCs' energy transition is determined by: materially, economic profits; organisationally, the administrative environmental governance structure that copes with the market competition against IOCs and other state-owned companies; and discursively, the political concept of ecological civilisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amyloid light chain (AL) amyloidosis is the most common systemic amyloidosis. The objective of this scoping review was to map the available literature on the diagnosis of AL amyloidosis in China. The published academic papers related to the diagnosis of AL amyloidosis were screened from 1 January 2000 to 15 September 2021. Chinese patients who have suspected AL amyloidosis were included. The included studies were categorized into accuracy studies and descriptive studies based on if the studies supplied the diagnostic accuracy data or not. The information on the diagnostic methods reported by included studies was synthesized. Forty-three articles were included for the final scoping review, with 31 belonging to descriptive studies and 12 having information on diagnostic accuracy. Although cardiac involvement was second top in Chinese patients with AL amyloidosis, a cardiac biopsy was rare. Next, we found light chain classification and monoclonal (M-) protein identification were essential methods for the diagnosis of AL amyloidosis in China. In addition, some combined tests (e.g. immunohistochemistry and serum free light chain, immunohistochemistry and immunofixation electrophoresis, and serum free light chain and immunofixation electrophoresis) can increase the sensitivity of the diagnosis. Finally, several adjuvant methods (e.g. Imaging, N-terminal-pro hormone BNP, and brain natriuretic peptide test) were important for AL amyloidosis diagnosis. This scoping review details the characteristics and results of the recently published studies on diagnosing AL Amyloidosis in China. Biopsy is the most important method for AL Amyloidosis diagnosis in China. In addition, combined tests and some adjuvant methods played essential roles in the diagnosis. Further research is required to determine an acceptable and feasible diagnostic algorithm after symptom onset. REGISTRATION: INPLASY2022100096 This scoping review details the characteristics and results of the recently published studies on diagnosing Amyloid light chain (AL) Amyloidosis in China. Biopsy is the most important method for AL Amyloidosis diagnosis in China. Combined tests and some adjuvant methods played essential roles in the diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Urban Policy & Research 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.)

Tourism is a rapidly rising sector that contributes significantly to economies. In this paper, we apply a bootstrap full-sample causality test, parameter stability test, and quantile-on-quantile approach test so as to examine the relationship between consumer confidence index (CCI) and outward tourism expenditure (OTE) for the period between 1998:Q1 to 2021:Q4. The results of the findings reflect that CCI tends to exert a positive impact on the OTE in most of the quantiles. This essentially implies that consumer confidence in China can act as a compound for outbound tourism expenditure in nature. Therefore, it can be affirmed that the OTE tends not to have an effect on the CCI, thus extending the implication that an alteration in the private outbound tourism spending in most likely to be insufficient for the modification of the factor of consumer confidence. To ensure the robustness of the results, we have employed the quantile-based granger causality to investigate the causal relationship in quantile between CCI on the OTE. The results of this study tend to educate the foreign tourism policymakers, while at the same time making forecasts of the tourism arrivals from China. Policymakers can then plan their tourism strategies, ideally including the CCI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the image of Taiwan (the Republic of China) in the Polish communist press in the mid-1950s. It focuses on the news coverage related to the two Polish cargo ships – the Praca and the Prezydent Gottwald – which were detained by the Taiwanese authorities in 1953 and 1954, respectively. Based on the press narratives and supported by declassified government documents, the paper analyses the impact of the Cold War conflicts and divisions on the detention of Polish ships and its coverage by the Polish communist media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most research in policy transfer studies focused on cases of policies originating from the 'Global North'. However, recently countries of the 'Global South' became sources of models. With the exception of a few studies, literature has not considered these developments. This paper aims at contributing to this direction, by proposing an agenda drawn from policy transfer studies as well as from the observation of Brazil's and China's engagement in policy transfer. This exercise helps highlight a series of aspects overlooked by the literature. Understanding their motivations, their timing and other important aspects related to these processes can shed new light on policy transfer phenomena. New research questions are introduced and illustrated by examples from Brazil and China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to reveal the emergence of the vaccine against COVID-19 and its influence on the stock markets. In line with this purpose, this study seeks answers to some questions, whether vaccination supports the recovery of financial markets or not, and in which direction the effect is similar in the context of developed and developing countries, considering the United States and China samples. Fourier-based cointegration and causality tests were used to reveal the effect of COVID-19 vaccination on stock markets in the paper, which used daily data between March-2021 and September-2022. According to the results vaccination rates triggered the stock market prices in the U.S.A.. Moreover obtained findings show that the Chinese stock market and COVID-19 vaccination act together in the long term during the data range examined. Finally, it seems possible to state that it would be beneficial for investors investing in both the U.S.A. and China markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Area Development & Policy 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.)

This paper estimates a knowledge production function to study the effects of local spillovers on the patenting activity and new innovation sales of Chinese firms during a period marked by rapid economic reform. We show that local spillovers expected to arise between co-located firms in related industries encourages firm innovation outcomes, especially among firms that diversify their core competencies into new related (versus unrelated) technological domains. Exploiting the gradual and spatially uneven economic transitioning process as a quasi-natural experiment, we find that the positive effects of relatedness on firm innovation are significantly larger in size following more intense market-oriented reforms. The results are potentially relevant for policy-makers in transitioning economies, highlighting for the first time the importance of firms' own diversification process and market-oriented reforms for encouraging innovation-enhancing technological related spillovers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International student mobility, taking place within the framework of globalisation, internationalisation and transnationalism, has attained much attention. This paper adopts the Intellectual Migration framework to further our understanding of mobility regarding international higher education. It simultaneously studies China-born students in both China and North America to empirically examine the propensity for student mobility across national borders and the determining factors behind the realisation of such mobility under the same set of geopolitical and international circumstances. The analysis is based on a set of cross-sectional surveys conducted in the 2017–2019 period that yields over 1600 data points. We compare the 'who', 'why' and 'where' aspects of migration between domestic students in China and Chinese international students in North America to delineate the factors underlying international student mobility. By highlighting aspirations and capabilities on mobility outcomes, this paper contributes to differentiating mobility between undergraduate and graduate students and the implications for social inequality. Our analysis also reveals the unequal spatial distributions of educational resources between intellectual gateways and peripheries, and by extension between the Global North and the Global South. The findings of this paper have policy implications on improving the quality, accessibility, and equity of higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land reform has been perceived to be a major avenue for poverty reduction, amid controversies regarding the impacts of land reform in developing economies. This paper demonstrates how China's land reform in the 1950s succeeded in reducing hunger and poverty. To be more specific, our paper constructs a theoretical model, deriving hypotheses with respect to the welfare effects of land reform in general. The hypotheses are then empirically tested using a unique data set from China. Our identification strategy of combining propensity score matching (PSM) with Differences-in-Differences (DID) estimations ensures the reliability of causal inferences and analytical results. The paper concludes that China's land reform in the 1950s significantly improved the welfare of peasants in terms of subsistence living while its effect on non-subsistence welfare was insignificant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the mid-2000s, the Russian Far East (RFE) has seen a revival of agriculture accompanied by rapid agrarian transformation that has taken a unique form because of the area's proximity to China. However, the existing literature either does not recognize Chinese presence or only studies it in terms of capitalist relationships transplanted directly from China and isolated from local realities. This paper seeks to remedy this oversight by exploring the influence of the multifaceted Chinese presence on RFE agriculture. We use the concept of social topology to demonstrate how different forms of economic life have not evolved as "Russian" or "Chinese," but instead present a bundle of capitalist and non-capitalist relationships that are continuously changing and rewriting themselves. We also explain the observed effect of China's simultaneous presence and absence in RFE's agriculture: Chinese agricultural practices are tightly embedded in local social networks and are loosely tethered to local infrastructure, but the Chinese presence also manifests in perceptions and imaginaries that influence and determine the strategies of the Russian state, agroholdings, and Russian farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks a deeper understanding of how principals strive for instructional leadership with organisational management strategies in China today. Drawing from 116 interviews of district supervisors and school principals from two regions, we first conduct qualitative analysis to map the dimensions and sub-dimensions of Chinese principal practices inductively, then compare them with extant conceptual frameworks designed to capture instructional leadership, learner-centred leadership, and organisational management. We find that the Chinese principal leadership conception and the Western frameworks converge on important aspects that cover curriculum, instruction, teacher professional development, and school climate. We also find that to reach instructional leadership effectiveness, Chinese school leaders use a distinctive set of management tactics that prioritise building tiered organisational structures, developing teacher leadership, responding to top-down mandates, and leveraging external networks. Our study contributes to the cross-cultural research of school leadership under different and dynamic social, political, and cultural conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates a large body of research for the purpose of sorting out the variety of data-sets, research methods, and findings that have emerged over the past decade concerning FDI productivity spillovers in Chinese industry. The review includes 16 papers, which together represent a striking range of data-sets, models, econometric strategies, and research results. After reviewing six dimensions of comparisons of the literature, the paper seeks to identify the common findings, explain why the differences are so extensive, and identify a set of guidelines for framing future research in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy consumption and environmental treatment have always been hot issues. This paper focuses on these two issues in China and attempts to investigate them based on the energy-to-environment (E2E) double-process. To achieve this aim, this paper first develops two E2E double-process models. Moreover, an empirical study is conducted to evaluate the E2E double-process efficiencies based on the data of 30 provinces in China. The results show that: 1)The E2E double-process efficiency in China is stable. However, this efficiency is low with large differences among individual provinces. 2)The values of the E2E double-process efficiency and the E2E energy consumption efficiency of China are similar, and both values are lower than that of the E2E environmental treatment. 3)The E2E environmental treatment efficiency has a potential driving effect in each province of China. 4)The intermediate output is used as a complete or partial input could significantly affect the E2E double-process efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an attempt to examine Eurasian globalization historically, this paper outlines three phases of globalization starting from 200 BCE to 1492 CE as Phase 1 and 1500 CE to 1999 CE as Phase 2 and from 2000 CE Phase 3. By historicizing the concept and the process of globalization, the paper attempts to provide a more global rather than a Europe-centred history of globalization and modernization. The paper builds on the idea of Eurasia and offers a new perspective of Eurasian globalization by pivoting on China's role in both Phase 1 and Phase 3 of globalization. The paper uses historical literature that has been not only critical of the Eurocentric view of the world but also provides a more connected view of global history. Concurring with Steger and James [2019. Globalization matters. Cambridge University Press] that globalization has not outlived its utility, the paper seeks to historicize and globalize the discussion of globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The soft power literature has indicated that American soft power use has been declining while Russian and Chinese soft power use has been increasing. Until now, the only way scholars could test such claims was to compare these countries' soft power rankings. This paper uses a new soft power dataset that can evaluate countries' soft power use. Using this dataset, this paper tests three hypothesis regarding China's, Russia's and the US' soft power use for the time-period of 1995–2015. The findings indicate that surprisingly the US is still using more soft power than Russia and China. The data analysis also reveals that the US is leading in economic soft power actions over China and in military soft power actions over Russia as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines artificial intelligence (AI) and sustainable development in China. The Chinese government has developed ambitious policies for global leadership in the field of AI and sustainable development. While China has made progress in several areas of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it is lagging behind in achieving the SDGs overall, and AI technologies can bolster its progress toward SDGs. Using the latest data of 193 countries around the world, the paper also analyzes the implication of AI on sustainable development both at the global and regional levels. Broadly, a strong positive relationship between the government AI readiness and progress toward SDGs is observed. When classifying the SDGs into four dimensions including economy, society, environment, and partnerships, government AI readiness is found to have a strong relationship with economy followed by the society dimension, whereas there are no clear relationships with the environment and partnerships dimensions. To fully harness and scale the power of AI to meet the SDGs, the Chinese policy maker should align the potential AI technologies to address its SDGs gap, and identify the priority or targeted areas and design appropriate business models and incentive structures for scaling viable solutions. AI technologies, when implemented strategically and properly, can accelerate China's progress toward SDGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a face-to-face consumer survey in six cities across China to obtain stated-preference data from a choice experiment, this paper examines consumers' preferences and willingness-to-pay for Fuji apple products' food traceability, certification and region of origin claims attributes. The results show that consumers are willing to pay a positive premium for food traceable attributes. The paper finds strong complementary effects between food traceable attributes. Besides, substitution and complementary effects between attributes vary over the sample cities. In addition, there is less overlap in the value of certain food attributes in some cities. These findings provide insights into the marketing management strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genocide is a series of long-term processes emerging from "states of emergency" to convert targeted groups and secure the nation. This paper builds on Critical Genocide Studies literature to historically contextualize China's "fusion" policy, a narrative of emergency officially explaining extra-legal internment camps and inter-generational separation in Xinjiang. Although China's policymakers traditionally frame "one-nation-one-state thinking" as Western colonialism, critical approaches to Chinese politics show the party-state frames ethnic identities through colonial binaries of backward/modern and savagery/civilization. How does the party-state's "historic mission" to overcome colonial "humiliation" promote colonialism? The paper analyses how routine, dehumanizing official narratives of identity and danger enable genocides, conceptualized as planned processes of social death by attrition. It argues that contemporary "fusion" policy interweaves cultural superiority and ethnocentric developmentalism, seeking to resolve China's "ethnic problem" and decolonize Xinjiang through social death of Turkic Muslims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A huge tourism loss has undoubtedly resulted from COVID-19, but few studies have attempted to quantify it. This paper presents a post-investigation of the loss of China's tourism revenue caused by COVID-19 in 2020. The natural trend theory is employed to estimate tourist flow in China without COVID-19, and the loss of tourism revenue induced by COVID-19 is computed by multiplying the decrease in tourist arrivals by the average expenditure. The results show that in 2020, the total loss of China's tourism revenue induced by COVID-19 is in the range of US $618,995,929,706 to US $665,682,125,283. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some observers expected a drastic change in the Philippines' diplomacy toward China when Rodrigo Duterte said goodbye to the United States in 2016. However, after six years, the Philippines has remained an allied partner of the United States. The Philippines' defense establishment bolstered its maritime domain awareness capacity thanks to financial and technical support from the United States. Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) maintained the award from the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) favoring the Philippines over China. This paper sheds light on the Philippines' policymaking process by framing the politics of grand strategy in an emerging state. The grand strategy is an intellectual architecture to clarify the general direction of foreign policy shaped by multiple state actors who are not limited by the foreign affairs office. Neither asymmetrical power relations nor presidential power can dominate the direction of the Philippines' diplomacy. The president, the DFA, and the defense establishment have developed institutional foundations to craft particular policies. Once they designed the grand strategy in the 1990s, successive policymakers did not remove it but rather incrementally changed it, especially in the 2010s, when they faced a series of assertive actions from China. In an emerging state with limited state capacity, Filipino policymakers do not always coordinate well with each other but still maintain a certain level of autonomy to create particular policies. Against the dominant framework of the weak state, this paper argues that Filipino policymakers demonstrate the state's capacity to achieve their policy goals, even with limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the development of the Chinese wood products development in the last 10 years, besides offering an overview about its forestry and specific export and import markets for the commodities, encompassing sawn wood and wood-based components. In the last decades, China's forestry and wood industry encountered an accelerated development. This progress resulted in China's emergence as the largest player not only in the global wooden raw materials, but also in the wood products market, and has become the largest exporter of value-added wood products. Since 2000, China has introduced modern industrial equipment for the forest products manufacturing and consolidated its trade marketing. It is likewise the largest importer of unprocessed or semi-processed soft-, hard- and tropical wood species. Moreover, China itself developed over the past 10 years into the largest importer of logs worldwide, a position traditionally held by the USA. Its imports are decreasing nowadays due to increasing restrictions imposed on wood exports by other countries. The national consumption of wood-based panel products in China increased steadily due to the higher purchasing power that determined a quick development of the furniture, flooring and construction industry. China is the largest producer of medium density fiberboard/high density fiberboard, plywood and particleboard, as well as container floors and wooden pallets; furthermore, one of the world's largest user and especially important producer of pellets. China has been the leading exporter of wooden furniture since 2004, overtaking the traditional European exporters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have investigated the factors that influence firms' decision engaging in government innovation programme, but some important horizontal factors have been largely ignored, such as the effect from industry peers. Based on signal theory and expectancy theory, this paper studies the role of industry peers who have obtained government R&D subsidies in raising awareness and motivation of other non-funded firms to engage in the same project. Using Chinese listed firms between 2008 and 2016 as the empirical sample, this paper introduces the awareness-motivation-capability (AMC) framework and uses the Logit regression to examine the associations between peer effects and strategy choice. The empirical results indicate that the number of funded firms in an industry and their superior performance have positive impact on non-funded firms to obtain government R&D subsidies, and these relationships are further strengthened by non-funded firms' innovation ability and profitability. This study makes contributions to literature on government R&D subsidies and peer effect by providing a view of imitation behaviour in innovation activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at providing a general picture of how the citizenship migration nexus currently unfolds in China and in the European Union (EU). Although China is a nation state and the EU is a supranational entity, both entities are characterised by internal and external politico-legal borders delineating two self-contained migration areas. Drawing on a definition of citizenship which transcends its usual national connotation, this paper will review and compare how different migration categories available to individuals on the move (citizens and non-citizens) come with differential accesses to citizenship rights within the two contexts. The comparison will show that in spite of different approaches towards irregular migration, welfare and humanitarian issues, current categories of migration within these two migration regimes converge in the way in which they grant differential access to citizenship rights based on the (assumed) economic worth of individuals on the move. The final part of this paper reflects upon the lessons that each system could draw from the other and postulates such convergence as an indicator of the correlation between the granting of citizenship rights and neoliberal imperatives in the governance of migration worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on data from more than 3000 small and microChinese firms, this paper studies the determinants of R&D spending, focusing on the entrepreneurs' attributes. The characteristics of an entrepreneur can be crucially relevant in determining investment by small and micro firms in a risky undertaking like R&D. Results show that male owners and college graduates are more likely to invest in R&D, while older owners are less likely to do so. Previous work and entrepreneurial experience contributed to the propensity to invest in R&D but work experience in the government do not matter. Regarding ownership attributes, individual owners are less likely to invest in R&D, whereas the effect of private ownership is statistically insignificant. Other than that, we find that higher firm sales spur R&D spending, with the influences of leverage and return on assets being statistically insignificant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Comparative Education 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.)

The study aims to investigate the impact of China's outward foreign investment (OFDI) in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Thailand (CLMVT). The motivation behind this paper is to examine a pivotal role in determining the macroeconomic factors in these five hosting countries as the "neighboring model" of China. Using panel data for China's outward to her five neighboring countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) for the period 2007–2019. This paper uses two different panel specifications models named correlation from classical statistics and Bayesian statistics where empirical results of this research qualify that China's OFDI is the main factor to have a positive influence on the macroeconomic factors in CLMVT. The GMS region is currently challenging the general FDI theory from the "neighboring model" of China's going global" strategy using OFDI as a pioneer for success for the small developing country namely, CLMVT. Many studies showed that the implementation of the "Belt and Road" strategy will help China increase investment in countries along the route, which will further promote the implementation of the "on going" strategy since 2013. We use panel data for China's outward to her five neighboring countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) for the period 2007–2019, measures the potential of China's outward foreign direct investment by using two different panel specifications models named correlation from classical statistics and Bayesian statistics. This research implements the core concept of Bayes' theorem. This theorem allows us to use a priori beliefs of probability to combine with evidence that it can be found (update every economic situation in CLMVT countries) then this method will have a new prediction of the posterior probability distribution. The posterior probability distribution will be received from the simulation algorithm once again. It would be calculated from the scope of every scenario that can be happening based on our belief in the future. The Bayesian correlation testing still confirms that the FDI inflow from China per GDP of CLMVT countries has the most play important role to drive the macroeconomic of these five countries' economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing literature has uncovered housing divergence between migrants and locals in urban China, but has neglected the increasing diversity of migrants' places of origin and its association with their housing opportunities. Based on a survey on the post-80s generation in Shanghai, this paper investigates the impact of residents' place of origin on their housing outcomes. The results suggest that access to homeownership is a function of the position of an individual's place of origin in the urban hierarchy. Shanghai locals are the most advantaged, followed by migrants from other centrally administered municipalities, provincial capitals and other cities at a higher position in the urban hierarchy. Migrants from market towns and rural areas, especially in underdeveloped regions, have inferior housing tenures and are shunned from homeownership. It implies that regional inequality is not fixed geographically but accompanies people's mobility. Similar to the concept of social origin, this paper elaborates on geographical origin and its role in the reproduction of social inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines China's engagement with Nigeria in the area of petroleum production and the need for harnessing local initiatives for petroleum refining. This is important because even though Nigeria is a major exporter of crude oil it remains an importer of refined petroleum products to meet domestic needs. With the aid of secondary data sourced from journal articles, books and reports of local and international organisations, this paper examines how China–Nigeria relations contribute to meeting the need for refined petroleum in Nigeria and how harnessing local initiatives can improve the situation in Nigeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the exponential growth of international students in China, understanding the advantages of studying there is under-researched. This paper investigates benefits of such study, using 30 semi-structured qualitative interviews with international students from Asia, Africa and Western countries enrolled at two prestigious universities in Beijing and Hubei Province. The analysis identified three sets of mutually inclusive economic-, social-, cultural- and educational-related benefits: employment prospects, learning Mandarin, and building knowledge, skills and experiences. The analysis illustrates the interplay of individual and external benefits, especially the contribution to the home country, through the employability lens. The paper contributes to new insights into important nuances of the key benefits of international education relating to career and employment opportunities in home and host countries, learning Mandarin for future trade dealings and acquiring business knowledge, investment skills and management experience to benefit countries of origin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global value chains have been a major means of manufacturing and trading goods internationally. Economic efficiency was the sole factor driving the proliferation of GVCs and the China-centered GVCs were established in a variety of manufactured products. In recent years, the China–US trade war and the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic have sent shock waves and disrupted smooth operations of GVCs, which has triggered the geographic restructuring of GVCs, in particular value chain diversification away from China. This paper analyzes the centrality of China in value chains and the vulnerabilities of GVCs exposed to the trade war and the pandemic. This paper provides comprehensive empirical evidence on GVC restructuring from different perspectives and discusses policy options that China could cope with the tide of the value chain diversification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite extensive studies on China’s soft power assets and strategies, the role of symphonic music within its cultural statecraft remains underexplored. This paper introduces the notion of ‘symphonic statecraft’ to examine the targeted and context-specific nature of China’s cultural efforts, focusing on how China adapts this globally recognized art form for its nation-building project. Using mixed methods, the study analyses awards from national composition contests between 1978 and 2012 and the programming choices of the China National Symphony Orchestra from 2006 to 2023 to reveal an environment shaped by selective state sponsorship that allows for artistic autonomy. The findings demonstrate a nuanced interplay between global influences and local interpretations, illustrating how China crafts narratives that interweave its enduring civilizational essence with contemporary aspirations. This evolving strategy absorbs increasingly diverse themes and moves beyond surface-level propaganda while maintaining strategic boundaries, reflecting the process of selective openness in China’s symphonic identity formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guest worker programs entail an intrinsic tension between control over workers' mobility and workers' agency. By drawing on the qualitative data from Chinese construction workers in Japan's Technical Intern Training Program (TITP), I illuminate the dialectical nature of the tension between control and agency. My findings suggest that labor recruiters and employers implement labor control, but their practices have the opposite effect of pressing workers to abscond or to do irregular jobs. Staying in the program is not an outcome of effective control, but a response to circumstances wherein revisions to Japan's immigration policy bring rewards while China's surveillance policies incur potential punishments. The control-agency dialectic suggests that the regulative focus should be shifted from workers to employers and recruiters. Incorporating approaches of spatiotemporality and relationality, I analyze how workers sustain relations with various actors through three interconnected temporal stages, and how the relational dynamics shape workers' varied mobility choices. Two features of the construction industry shape workers' circumstances and occasionally facilitate their mobility: the stratification of the labor force according to legal status and the subcontract system. The paper thus highlights the need to contextualise labor agency in changing state policies, relations with co-ethnics, and industry-specific features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of financial availability on illegal fundraising activities in China. By collecting 14,481 judgement documents from 2013 to 2019 in China Judgements Online and extracting data, we find that financial availability effectively reduces the amount of money invested, the actual loss and the number of related court cases. This effect remains robust under various robustness specifications. In addition, we find that the attention of investors can increase the negative impact of financial availability on illegal fundraising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractDrawing on in-depth interviews with 17 participants, this study explores the experiences of Chinese queer university students in managing their queer identity on campus. A range of strategies is outlined, including passing, covering, being implicitly out, and being explicitly out. This study also presents participants’ expectations regarding institutional support, as well as their ambivalence toward it. While participants expressed various expectations of university support, they simultaneously considered institutional support difficult or impossible due to the campus climate and broader political context. Informed by queer theory and the concept of heteronormativity, this paper engages in a queer critique of Chinese higher education, examining the manifestations of heteronormativity at both institutional and interpersonal levels. Situated within the context of Xi Jinping’s presidency, which has reinforced political control over higher education in China, this study examines the impact of intensified authoritarianism on the campus experiences of queer university students. In this challenging environment, the study highlights a unique facet of contemporary China, providing empirical insights into the power dynamics among queer individuals, educational institutions, and the party-state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how China’s propaganda system operates as an aspect of governance, especially how propagandists understand the public opinion they seek to influence. Understanding the concept of yuqing (public opinion conditions) is crucial for understanding propaganda in China. Yuqing is considered akin to the medical condition of public opinion (yulun). Hence, propaganda is treatment that the state provides to an organic social body of public opinion, which is subject to constant monitoring and treatment. The party-state is keen on establishing standards and norms about what a healthy and clean society should be. Thus, this paper argues that the propaganda system does not contribute to responsive authoritarianism by collecting grassroots information, but instead prioritizes cleansing public discourse in accordance with party-state logic. Furthermore, contrary to the belief that authoritarian propaganda focuses on demobilizing collective resistance and forcing compliance, China’s propaganda system disciplines the public by actively constructing discursive norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's influence in the global South has both material and ideational aspects. In the era of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), material aspects include trade in goods, infrastructure-building, and imports of raw materials and energy. Ideational aspects include political influence and attempts to diffuse Chinese norms, some of which differ from those enshrined in the so-called 'liberal international order'. This paper posits that China's norm diffusion in the global South is attempted via practice-based normative diplomacy which includes both discursive and non-discursive practices. In theory, Chinese norms are supposed to be co-constituted by partners in a process we call 'earning recognition'. In practice, the Chinese government expects partner countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to model their behaviour and discourse on the example set by the People's Republic of China (PRC) without significant contestation. Our analysis demonstrates that the PRC's normative diplomacy has achieved a degree of earned recognition and influence, in that actors in the global South have begun to alter their behaviour along the normative lines expected by Beijing rather than those enshrined in the Western-led liberal international order. However, Chinese discursive practices have not met with the same degree of recognition as non-discursive ones, leaving space for counter-initiatives from the Western powers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to distinguish between language-related ideologies, Ruiz (1984) proposed three language orientations, namely 'language-as-problem', 'language-as-right' and 'language-as-resource'. Although this typology has been applied to various countries and regions around the globe, relevant research in China, a multi-ethnolinguistic country, remains limited. Through a review of China's minority language policies and relevant literature, this paper explores the application of Ruiz's theory to the context of China and proposes two possible directions which can complement this theory. Firstly, the study found that there are different layers, complexities, and even contradictions under a broad/unified language orientation, and that minority languages can be simultaneously positioned as a 'right', a 'resource' and a 'problem'. Secondly, by investigating a particular ethnic minority language (the Nuosu Yi language), the study found that the written (literacy) and spoken (oracy) skills of the language can be positioned differently in language-in-education policies and practices. We therefore propose that a critical 'biliteracy continua' lens (Hornberger 2004) can provide further analytical nuance to the language orientations put forward by Ruiz (1984). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given that China and Türkiye are direct successors of former empires, i.e., the Qing and Ottoman Empires, they share common feelings of century-long Western humiliation, constrained maritime space, and unfinished territorial unification in modern times. However, the two countries chose divergent paths of modern national building, which result in their turbulent bilateral relations in the 20th century. While the old structural disagreements are not completely fading away, China and Türkiye have tended to build a more cooperative relations in 21st century as both of them struggle to adapt to the common challenges of neoliberal world order, which leads to more convergences than divergences in their second nation building process. Based on this historical comparison, this paper suggests that the nation building processes and its reflections on foreign affairs are the structural factor in China-Türkiye relations, which defined potential issues of cooperation and division between the two countries in different times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the backdrop of frequent international trade frictions, reducing external risks in export trade through industrial policies has become crucial for China's high-quality and steady foreign trade development. This paper examines the impact of development zone upgrading policies on the diversification of firm product exports by using a time-varying difference-in-differences model. We find that after the upgrading of development zones, the diversification of firm product exports increases by 2.13%, and concentration decreases by 1.33%. Moreover, this policy has a stronger impact on the diversification level of product exports for firms upgraded to customs special supervision areas, located inland, and engaged in general trade. These conclusions remain robust even after conducting additional robustness tests using alternative measures of the dependent variable, different identification methods for development zone upgrading, and controlling for other industrial policy effects. Furthermore, the upgrading of development zones improves export diversification through three main channels: enhancing firm innovation capabilities, optimizing management efficiency, and providing financial support to firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In June 2021, a girl named Du Meizhu revealed on Weibo (Chinese Twitter) of having been emotionally and sexually abused by the top-tier idol Kris Wu. The incident gained publicity over the month and climaxed in mid-July, when netizens started the hashtag #girls help girls# on Weibo. Rapidly topping the trending list, this incident led to heated discussions around the case and women's social status in contemporary Chinese patriarchy. Yet unlike its #MeToo counterpart, the hashtag had been taken down hastily within hours, cutting its practitioners off from further engagements. In this paper we nonetheless propose a more positive interpretation of the incident. Combining Massumi's affect theory with Foucault's heterotopia, we argue that Weibo users constructed themselves an affective heterotopia in the hashtag #girls help girls#. Through an affective textual analysis of the posts in the hashtag, we argue that while vulnerable to censorship, the affective force in this heterotopia is ultimately untameable to the discursive regime, potentially leading to concrete feminist ends. In so doing, we offer methodological insight for understanding online feminist discussions in the particular context of contemporary China, adding to scholarship that transcends the global North orientation in feminist theory and politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]