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A powerful new explanation of China's rise that draws from the business world to show that China is not simply copying established great powers, but exploiting geopolitical opportunities around the world that those other powers had ignored. Thirty years ago, the idea that China could challenge the United States economically, globally, and militarily seemed unfathomable. Yet today, China is considered another great power in the international system. How did China manage to build power, from a weaker resource position, in an international system that was dominated by the U.S.? What factors determined the strategies Beijing pursued to achieve this feat? Using granular data and authoritative Chinese sources, Oriana Skylar Mastro demonstrates that China was able to climb to great power status through a careful mix of strategic emulation, exploitation, and entrepreneurship on the international stage. This “upstart approach” — determined by where and how China chose to compete — allowed China to rise economically, politically, and militarily, without triggering a catastrophic international backlash that would stem its rise. China emulated (i.e. pursued similar strategies to the U.S. in similar areas) when its leaders thought doing so would build power, while reassuring the U.S. of its intentions. China exploited (i.e. adopted similar approaches to the U.S. in new areas of competition) when China felt that the overall U.S. strategy was effective, but didn't want to risk direct confrontation. Lastly, China pursued entrepreneurial actions (i.e. innovative approaches to new and existing areas of competition) when it believed emulation might elicit a negative reaction and a more effective approach was available. Beyond explaining the unique nature of China's rise, Upstart: How China Became a Great Power provides policy guidance on how the U.S. can maintain a competitive edge in this new era of great power competition.

By tracing the history of Yudahua from the late nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century, this study analyzes a successful inland business model among textile companies in modern China. The steady growth of this enterprise relied primarily on its strategy to focus on low-end markets and to locate new mills in underdeveloped interior regions. This strategy further allowed the enterprise to pioneer industrialization in its host localities, demonstrating a major social and economic impact on the local societies. At the same time, Yudahua's unique team leadership pattern—five leading families shared its ownership and management—made the business an atypical family firm and allowed relatively easy institutional departure from Chinese social networks and adoption of Western corporate hierarchy. Therefore, by the late 1940s, Yudahua had gradually developed into a fairly integrated business group with a unified management structure and routinized connections between its member mills, which differed noticeably from the loose alliances normally found in other early twentieth-century Chinese business conglomerates.

This book provides a platform of scientific interaction between the three challenging and closely linked areas of ICT-enabled-application research and development: software intensive systems, complex systems and intelligent systems. Software intensive systems strongly interact with other systems, sensors, actuators, devices, other software systems and users. More and more domains are using software intensive systems, e.g. automotive and telecommunication systems, embedded systems in general, industrial automation systems and business applications. Moreover, web services offer a new platform for enabling software intensive systems. Complex systems research is focused on the overall understanding of systems rather than their components. Complex systems are characterized by the changing environments in which they interact. They evolve and adapt through internal and external dynamic interactions. The development of intelligent systems and agents, which are increasingly characterized by their use of ontologies and their logical foundations, offer impulses for both software intensive systems and complex systems. Recent research in the field of intelligent systems, robotics, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and cognitive sciences are vital for the future development and innovation of software intensive and complex systems.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 30th International Workshop on Languages and Compilers for Parallel Computing, LCPC 2017, held in College Station, TX, USA, in October 2017. The 17 full papers presented together with abstracts of 5 keynote talks, 11 invited speakers and 4 poster papers in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 26 submissions. LCPC encourages submissions that go outside its original scope of scientific computing to diverse areas that are enable or enhanced by the power of parallel systems such as mobile computing, big data, relevant aspects of machine learning, data centers, cognitive computing, etc. LCPC strongly encourages personal interaction and technical discussions along the initial material.

This book gathers the proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Complex, Intelligent, and Software Intensive Systems (CISIS-2017), held on June 28–June 30, 2017 in Torino, Italy.Software Intensive Systems are characterized by their intensive interaction with other systems, sensors, actuators, devices, and users. Further, they are now being used in more and more domains, e.g. the automotive sector, telecommunication systems, embedded systems in general, industrial automation systems and business applications. Moreover, the outcome of web services delivers a new platform for enabling software intensive systems.Complex Systems research is focused on the understanding of a system as a whole rather than its components. Complex Systems are very much shaped by the changing environments in which they operate, and by their multiple internal and external interactions. They evolve and adapt through internal and external dynamic interactions.The development of Intelligent Systems and agents, which invariably involves the use of ontologies and their logical foundations, offers a fruitful impulse for both Software Intensive Systems and Complex Systems. Recent research in the fields of intelligent systems, robotics, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and cognitive sciences is essential to the future development of and innovations in software intensive and complex systems. The aim of the volume “Complex, Intelligent and Software Intensive Systems” is to provide a platform of scientific interaction between the three interwoven and challenging areas of research and development of future Information and Communications Technology (ICT)-enabled applications: Software Intensive Systems, Complex systems and Intelligent Systems.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 10th International Conference on E-Learning and Games, Edutainment 2016, held in Hangzhou, China, in April 2016. The 36 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 60 submissions. They are organized in the following topical sections: E-learning and game; graphics, imaging and applications; intelligent data analytics and visualization.