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The expanding profile of Chinese international development aid has generated strong academic and policy interests. A growing literature has emerged on Chinese foreign aid's motivations, modalities, and impact. However, a significant lacuna remains in the domestic politics relating to this phenomenon. This gap is especially glaring in public opinion concerning China's growing foreign aid programs. By analyzing empirical data gathered from a variety of sources, including a well-established online forum, social media sites of two influential media organizations, and multi-year surveys of residents of Beijing, this paper presents a nuanced picture of what the Chinese public thinks of Chinese foreign aid and tests two popular explanations of public opposition to foreign aid—perceived budgetary trade-offs and more general dissatisfaction with government policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the concept of green nationalism in the authoritarian context of China, where the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has adopted the rhetoric of ecological civilization as a means of promoting environmental protection and securing global legitimacy. The authors argue that the CCP's performance legitimacy is closely linked to its ability to address environmental concerns in the context of climate change, and that the development of green nationalism is a rational choice for leaders seeking to maintain this legitimacy. However, the authors also highlight the role of actors such as social entrepreneurs, academics, and environmental NGOs in promoting green nationalism from the bottom-up. Using constructivist political theory, the paper explores how the intersection of different green narratives at various levels can be used to rethink the nation and make claims to legitimacy. Overall, the paper contributes to theory-building by providing a framework for understanding the complex relationship between environmental protection, nationalism, and authoritarian politics in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper unpacks the multi-level efforts to establish, promote and implement China standards in overseas contexts through an examination of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities of Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in Africa. Drawing upon document analysis of government policies, institutional guidelines and corporate reports from four case companies, as well as field research in Ethiopia, it identifies ways that Chinese corporate actors interpret, incorporate and initiate CSR standards through strategic planning and during overseas business activities. Analysis of both first-hand and secondary data shows the development of Chinese CSR standards is a co-production of international, national and local standards, which involves diverse actors and institutions and is driven by multiple considerations to fulfill commercial, political, social and diplomatic objectives for overseas companies and Chinese government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does the Chinese government define cybersecurity? Security in the digital realm has gained increasing prominence in recent years, both within China's domestic policy landscape and in its participation with global digital governance. However, the Chinese conception of this term is different from the Western one, and is embedded within the country's distinctive political, economic and technological context. Drawing on Chinese government documents, this paper will trace the evolution of how successive generations of Chinese leaders have identified digital security concerns, and how they have deployed institutional, regulatory and policy tools to respond to them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extant literature has not fully accounted for the changes underway in China's perspectives on the ethical risks of artificial intelligence (AI). This article develops a community-of-practice (CoP) approach to the study of Chinese policymaking in the field of AI. It shows that the Chinese approach to ethical AI emerges from the communication of practices of a relatively stable group of actors from three domains—the government, academia, and the private sector. This Chinese CoP is actively cultivated and led by government actors. The paper draws attention to CoP configurations during collective situated-learning and problem-solving among its members that inform the evolution of Chinese ethical concerns of AI. In so doing, it demonstrates how a practice-oriented approach can contribute to interpreting Chinese politics on AI governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Taiwan, where relations with China define the major political cleavage, voters have distinct preferences on the issue of independence. Do Taiwanese favor a symbolic or pragmatic approach to the Taiwan independence issue? What are the factors that account for their political preferences? We identify two types of voters, symbolic and pragmatic, according to whether their preferences on independence are conditional or unconditional on China's potential counter actions. Specifically, symbolic voters have unconditional preferences on independence, while pragmatic voters are more agreeable to independence under more favorable conditions. Using multiple wave data from the Taiwan National Security Surveys (TNSS 2002–2022), we investigate the individual- and macro-level factors and find that gender, age, education level, ethnicity, partisan strength, and economic growth rate shape the types of voters in Taiwan. This paper contributes to the study of political attitudes in Taiwan, and have important implications on the regional stability in East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Future international relations in East Asia are likely to be largely shaped by the maritime strategies and policies of various actors. This paper examines China's policy and behavior in maritime cooperation in the East Asian region in recent years, a topic that has been insufficiently understood. I suggest that while it is necessary and useful to take into account China's naval power, more attention to Chinese intentions and policy on East Asian maritime issues is warranted to arrive at a more balanced, and arguably more accurate, understanding of China's role in East Asian maritime affairs. This paper takes stock of China's changing perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors in maritime cooperation in the region. I describe China's new policy moves in the South China Sea and East China Sea. I also address some of the major Chinese concerns for further maritime cooperation in East Asia. I conclude that while a grand cooperative maritime regime is still not possible from a Chinese perspective, China is likely to agree to more extensive and substantive maritime cooperation in many functional areas, most notably in the non-traditional security arena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper depicts the transnational ethnic and religious ties between China and Southeast Asia and examines the cultural, political and economic implications for state–minority relations in Southwest China. It documents how transnational ethnic and religious ties facilitate cultural revival among the ethnic Dai people in Southwest China and examines the impact of Buddhist networks on local governance. In particular, it portrays the cooperative relationship between the Chinese state and the Buddhist Sangha on social issues such as HIV/AIDS prevention and care. The paper argues that the Chinese state is more willing to cooperate with transnational ethnic and religious groups when the latter can help improve local governance and generate economic development, under the condition that they do not challenge the state's ultimate legitimacy and authority. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, an attempt is made to determine the minimum living requirements (or poverty lines) of workers in China by adopting the Extended Linear Expenditure System. Comparison between the actual minimum wage levels implemented by the Chinese government and the estimated minimum living requirements in this paper reveal that, in early 2010, workers in 23 out of 35 sample cities were paid minimum wages below the estimated lowest poverty line. This group of workers is unable to afford minimum payments to meet basic living conditions for survival as their minimum wages were below the estimated survival line. To protect workers, the Chinese government is advised to address employee provisions for basic living needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human society faces a growing number of risks, including both natural disasters and risks that stem from human behavior. This is particularly true in China, which is experiencing rapid social, economic and political transitions. Since the 1970s, China's modernization process has been accompanied by the emergence of an increasing number of man-made risks, in particular environmental pollution, but until very recently, a risk management system did not exist in China. Society was woken up by a series of disasters and accidents, including SARS in 2003, followed by the explosion of avian flu and the chemical spill in the Songhua River in 2005. The last incident in particular finally kicked off the development of a national risk management system (specifically an emergency response system) in China. This paper analyses the status quo of the legislation, institutions and mechanisms for risk management in China and identifies opportunities and strategies for prioritizing and integrating environmental and health risks into the emerging system. The study concludes that although a series of alarming incidents have succeeded in putting risk management issues at the top of the public and political agenda, currently risk management in China can be characterized as reactive and compartmentalized, with a lack of prioritization and integration of policy efforts and resources. There is also a danger that the traditional state-centered approach may fail to create an effective risk management system, which requires improved transparency, accountability, and cross-sectoral coordination. The paper concludes with the proposal of strategies that might enable the environmental authorities to be more effective and reduce their marginalization and isolation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a comprehensive analysis of China bills introduced and passed in Congress in 1973-2005. Three important findings emerge. First, many more punitive China bills were introduced and passed in the House than in the Senate. Second, the two congressional parties agreed with each other most of the time on roll call votes related to China. Third, the major events in US-China relations largely determined the ebb and flow of China bills. Negative binomial regression analysis sheds further light on the dynamic of China policymaking on Capitol Hill. A Republican majority in the House facing off with a Democratic president brought about many more China bills. Also, there appears to be a significant gap between public opinion and congressional attitudes on China policy. Finally, the Tiananmen Incident has had a profound impact on Congress, making it much more active and punitive in China policy since then. I conclude the paper by briefly discussing the policy implications of my findings. Only in the case of Communist China has the Congress played a major role over a long period of time to confine narrowly the president's means of maneuver.1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the capacity of China's central state to control society and implement its policies at the local level, using as a case study the implementation from 1998 of a major policy initiative - 'closing the pits and reducing coal production'. The aims of this policy were to close down many of the TVE (township and village enterprise) mines, thereby ameliorating China's coal safety record, and to reduce output in order to balance supply and demand, thereby improving the situation of the SOE (state-owned enterprise) coal mines. The paper concludes that, despite some success, the state found it difficult to overcome resistance from a powerful coalition of local cadres, mine bosses, workers and farmers who depended directly or indirectly on the mines for their living. It therefore highlights continuing shortfalls in China's state capacity, particularly in situations where the state is trying to control or influence the distribution of economic rents as between different groups in society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent trend in policy scholarship is to explain policy changes and paradigm shifts by focusing on the features and interactions of policy networks. This paper aims to contribute to the current literature by exploring how policy networks affect policy paradigmatic change in China with reference to urban housing policy development. It is argued that both exogenous and indigenous factors can be attributed to the difficulties of paradigm replacement. The closed policy network in the housing field delimits the choices of policy instruments and hinders paradigmatic shifts. Contrary to mainstream studies, exogenous shocks are identified as serious handicaps to significant policy changes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper argues that negotiation and accommodation between the state and the media, with the latter having gained more bargaining power, should be considered in assessing the transformation of the Chinese media. It examines the discourses of media professionals on the coverage of the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake to reveal how they seized the opportunity presented by the well-received breakthrough in the coverage of the earthquake to bargain with the state for more autonomy. The purpose of the examination is three-fold. First, what drove the Chinese state media such as CCTV to risk breaking regulations? Secondly, how did the Central Government respond to the media-led breakthrough? Answers to these questions prepare the ground for the final one, and that is, how do media professionals bargain with the state for more autonomy? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of the excess demand for branch licences and the Chinese government's policy to effectively ration banking licences, this paper suggests explaining the allocation of branch licences by the objectives of the Chinese government rather than by the objectives of foreign banks. Consequently, it examines what factors determined the supply of branch licences to foreign banks in China at a micro level. This is in contrast with the existing literature that focuses almost exclusively on the demand for branch licences by foreign banks. To consider the supply of branch licences, we construct detailed data about each foreign bank's organisations in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigating how the PRC responds to democratization in Taiwan and Hong Kong, this paper argues that the Chinese Communist leadership has mainly developed three strategies in managing the complicated crises, including Beijing's own legitimacy crisis and the integration crisis of the Chinese nation, caused by the rise of offshore Chinese democracies. These strategies are: identity politics, sovereignty politics, and economic penetration. With 'identity politics', Beijing identifies 'identification with the Communist leadership' as the sole Chinese national identification, and utilizes the nationalistic passions of mainland and even overseas Chinese people against democrats in Taiwan and Hong Kong, by labeling the latter as 'separatists' or 'national traitors'. Further, Beijing defines 'sovereignty' in a way in which the 'central' government monopolizes all possessions of the nation, and excludes 'people's sovereignty' from the politics of national reunification or the 'one country, two systems' model actualization. While appealing to both 'soft power' based in 'patriotic nationalism' and 'hard power' embedded in national sovereignty, however, the Chinese regime also mobilizes business resources and opportunities provided by China's growing economic power and China's dominance in Greater Chian economic integration for its political purposes of curbing offshore Chinese democracies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies China's response to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic in 2003. It first assesses the current nature, structure and development of the Chinese infectious disease system, and then evaluates the state response to infectious disease epidemics. Turning to the role of non-state actors, it discusses their contributions to the state's efforts. Following a case study of Shaanxi province, it concludes that the SARS outbreak reveals the state's capacity to re-centralize power in the face of high-priority events. However, it also concludes that this government capacity alone, while necessary, is not sufficient to overcome SARS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the mid-2010s, China has experienced scores of cross-regional protests by claim-making groups, despite the Xi regime's tightening societal control. In this article, I examine this form of contention and differentiate three types of groups that make claims for rulemaking, rule-enforcement, and political reform. Then, I compare state responses to each type by focusing on three specific groups: veterans, investors, and leftist students. Instead of crushing all attempts at cross-regional mobilization, the regime has at times made concessions. It has been slow to resort to outright repression, especially when protesters have merely demanded policy change or enforcement. Although this repertoire of contention appears in only some of China's many protests, it is becoming more widespread and in some cases impacts government policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under China's one-party system, luxury consumption is an act that might have political consequences. The authors propose a game-theoretical model and conduct an empirical study to explain why the Chinese luxury market actually expanded rapidly at the height of Xi's anti-corruption and anti-extravagance campaign. The findings show that this outcome was an unintended consequence of changing patterns of perceived political risk in the context of the anti-corruption campaign. During the Hu-Wen period, a tougher local crackdown was a leading signal of a power struggle and was associated with growing distrust in politics, and therefore reduced luxury consumption. After Xi launched his anti-corruption campaign, a tougher local crackdown on corruption became a lagging signal of risk clearance and hence no longer suppressed luxury consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a detailed analysis of the policy design of the current fourth round of state-owned enterprise (SOE) corporate restructuring in China. This time, the state's efforts to improve SOE performance hinged on attracting private capital to take ownership shares in state firms—or so-called mixed-ownership reforms. The article relies on an analysis of policy documents, interviews with policy experts in China, and a case study of local mixed-ownership reform implementation in the city of Nanjing. It discusses implications of mixed ownership for corporate governance amid changing state–Party–business relations in China. It concludes that the reform agenda consolidates a hybrid political-economic system that organically blends planning and market modes of economic coordination, as well as public and private modes of ownership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the emergence of 'Chinese influence' as a conceptual touchstone of Australia's public policy discourse in 2017–2018. The People's Republic of China's (PRC) efforts to influence politics abroad had been well documented since the 2000s and cannot explain the timing of their securitization from mid-2017. It was through the formation of a securitizing coalition of intelligence officials, politicians, and journalists that the PRC as a source of existential threats gained policy traction. But as the coalition expanded from security agencies to politicians and the media, the scope of the threat expanded from an initial concern with PRC party-state activity to the securitization of a much wider array of state and non-state activities under the ambiguous label 'Chinese influence'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examination of newly available declassified US national security documents reveals that both Presidents Kennedy and Johnson actively considered preventive and preemptive war against China because of China's progress in developing nuclear weapons. This study yields significant conclusions for the broader historiography of the period and also for contemporary theoretical and policy debates. From the perspective of history, it is suggested that China's nuclear weapons program may be a neglected factor in explaining the US decision to fight the Vietnam War. Regarding international relations theory, the case suggests that asymmetric nuclear rivalries may be particularly prone to instability. The implications of this hypothesis for the contemporary debate about missile defense and US-China relations are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines popular nationalism and regime support in the Xi era by evaluating news comments from a major overseas Chinese website on the 2018 constitutional amendments removing presidential term limits. It finds that the event was not only contested among overseas and domestic Chinese, but also has alienated many nationalists who previously supported the regime. Even the subsequent pro-regime discourse is less focused on support for Xi or the regime, and more about distrust of the West and dissidents. However, some citizens have become less critical toward the regime out of the concern of external threats. The findings confirm the Xi Jinping effect on nationalist regime support, and show how China's international and domestic environments may activate nationalist sentiment differently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changing state–society relations in China have made it a challenge for the government to adopt unpopular policies that may incur blame and mass resistance. How can the Chinese regime adopt and implement unpopular policies when enforcement based on coercion is costly and undesirable? The article investigates property tax reform as a case to show how policy unpopularity and government strategies together resulted in a policy that failed to achieve any major policy goals. This study confirms China's governance transformation compromises efficiency with broader public values and shows the limitedness of incremental reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing studies of Chinese diaspora policies have mostly focused on the evolution and content of these policies, which tend to be confined within the realm of domestic politics. Against the backdrop of China’s increasing integration into the global economy, as well as its expanding interests abroad, this article goes beyond the existing frameworks in the studies of both domestic Chinese politics and diaspora relations by analyzing China’s diaspora policies from the angle of transnational governance. Relying on policy documents, relevant data from institutions involved, and interviews and participatory observation at both central and provincial levels, the article argues that a state-centered approach in which the Chinese overseas are ‘coopted’ neglects how the engagement with transnational social actors, especially the new migrants, alters existing state structures and how the actions of Chinese overseas are driven by various motives and interests. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

At the Third Plenary of the 18th Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, the Party announced a number of rural reforms. Commentators were quick to pronounce a win for farmers’ land rights. However, the broader commitment of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to deepening economic liberalization raises the question:can these reforms protect farmers’ rights in the event of land acquisition?The author draws on fieldwork, recent interviews and China’s documented history of land acquisition practice to identify four risks posed by these reforms: undervaluation, elite capture, exploitation and the expansion of the urban underclass. The article concludes that China’s steadfast resolve to expand capitalism in rural China is undermining its attempts to secure rural property rights. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Sub-national governments in China have substantial responsibility for policy development as well as for direct implementation of circumscribed policy options set out by higher levels of government, and much policy discourse emphasizes the importance of sub-national flexibility and creativity in policy implementation. Discourses of government innovation aim to encourage local initiative in policy formulation and solving of systemically-important policy problems, and policy experimentation/innovation are increasingly credited as important elements of the Chinese government toolbox in managing reform. Recent studies have tended to treat experimentation/innovation as systemic phenomena, and there are few analyses of how local governments respond to central ‘experimental’ policy frameworks and develop locally- or systemically-useful policy solutions. Given concerns around the capacity of local governments, this is highly relevant in understanding how locally-generated policy relates to systemic reform. The article presents a case study of a low tech and ‘second best’ reimbursement mechanism developed sub-nationally under the New Cooperative Medical Scheme, China’s rural health insurance framework, and its spread and incorporation into national policy. It argues for the importance of local government development of ‘appropriate’ policy mechanisms (jizhi) as underpinning central reforms and system adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Chinese public's domestic expectation is that its state will ensure a safe and affordable supply of food. However, in doing so, China has acquired large amounts of farmland abroad which has raised concerns among many developing countries. It has been argued that land grabbing in the developing world is a form of neo-colonialism. This role of a colonial power is in conflict with China's historical role, which presents China as a leader of the developing world. In order to bring these role expectations into conformity with each other, China has taken a more active role in global food security governance. It has brought food security to what is becoming the core of the global governance decision-making system, the G20. China's historical role, together with its growing economic power, has helped to push the G20 to understand the importance of food security. This has shifted the G20's understanding of economic global governance away from the traditional fields of banking and trade regulation toward understanding the developmental-oriented economic structure. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In contrast to the early campaign style anti-corruption strategy based on nationwide uniformity, disparate local integrity initiatives and programs have proliferated in China in recent years. Local innovation in managing government integrity has been encouraged by the Center. Drawing on the author's fieldwork in Guangdong, this article investigates the rationale behind such development and addresses the question of why the central leadership has become receptive to local initiatives in cadre management, an area where political conformity was deemed necessary by an authoritarian regime. It suggests that the strategic adjustment testifies to the institutional failure of the earlier anti-corruption regime that manifested in, inter alia, an acute agency loss problem. The emerging approach to integrity management nevertheless has paradoxical institutional roots. It indicates some new thinking by the central authorities on holding local governments responsible for integrity management. Just as clearly, the adjustment is also driven by the Center's concern about losing control and its desire to ‘manage’ government integrity under hierarchy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using a unique dataset based on a survey conducted by the Guangzhou Land Resources and Housing Administrative Bureau from November 2009 to January 2010, this article examines the sources and distribution of the hidden income of residents from different occupational backgrounds, taking into consideration their explicit income and other socio-economic characteristics. The results show that government officials not only had the highest but also the most stable hidden income, followed by employees in state-owned enterprises and employees in colleges or research institutions. Among government officials, those holding higher-level positions possessed more hidden income than those in lower-level positions. These findings have implications for China's labour market, taxation and resource allocation, and need to be taken into consideration in future economic and political policy designs and implementations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic rise of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) inevitably leads to a redistribution of power in the international system. Chinese leaders today accord a considerable priority to this group, and there are elements of realism, liberalism/institutionalism and constructivism in their approach. This article intends to study China's policy towards BRICS and examine the above elements so as to better understand how the Chinese leadership perceives China's role in the international system, and how it seeks to articulate its interests and enhance its influence. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

China's counterinsurgency strategy in Tibet and Xinjiang relies heavily on hard power and imposition. Well-functioning vertical coordination in the security sector of China's political system and assimilationist nationality dynamics combine to favour the use of force against ethnic groups that do not accept the political legitimacy of China's Communist Party. Transnational links contribute to China's difficulties with implementing counterinsurgency in Tibet and help China implement its strategy in Xinjiang. Development strategies aimed at improving living standards are crowded out due to a lack of horizontal coordination between civilian and security agencies and a bias towards unitary nation-building in Chinese nationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To curb price speculations and overheated investment in the real estate market, the mainland Chinese government has determined to tighten bank lending to the market in recent years, by resorting to administrative tools through specific real estate control policy. With hindsight, the market response seems to have invalidated the policy initiatives. This research is aimed at investigating the impediments to achieving the laudable policy objectives of using administrative credit controls. A series of research interviews with property practitioners unraveled prevalent evasive practices and illicit tactics adopted by developers to thwart policy effects. This study leads to a better understanding of the institutional backdrop behind the less-than-expected results of the real estate macro-control measures. To better steer the real estate market, effective monetary control requires both the government and industry to make concerted efforts and consistent headway towards a complete, transparent and responsive ensemble of institutional arrangements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While a small number of Uyghur communities had begun to settle in Germany already in the 1950s and 1960s, since the 1990s they have chosen Munich as their center of national and political activism in Europe and worldwide. By that time the Chinese had begun to apply pressure on the German government to restrict Uyghur activities and to monitor and intimidate them and their German supporters, also by using spies and collaborators. As a democratic country Germany rejected the Chinese demands, although refusing to admit former Uyghur Guantanamo inmates. Despite occasional tension, Sino–German relations have not been affected by the presence of Uyghurs, some of them labeled as ‘terrorists’ by Beijing. My conclusion is that the Uyghur ‘threat’ has been deliberately inflated by China as a tool in its relations with other governments and that economic relations and technology import are far too important to spoil by persecuting Uyghurs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article explains China's multilateral approach towards regional and global financial institutions in the early twenty-first century. Challenging the dichotomous views of ‘eventual assimilation’ and ‘systemic conflict’, the article argues that China's strategic behavior suggests neither one-way assimilation into an American-centered liberal order nor a collision course with the United States and its Group of Seven (G-7) allies. China seems intent on exploring both global and regional options lest it should limit the range of strategic options available to itself. China has been pursuing a risk-averse counterweight strategy, that is, developing regional financial institutions and thereby avoiding overdependence on G-7-centered global institutions while maintaining collaborative relations with those global institutions. Such behavior will facilitate the emergence of a more fragmented and multilayered form of global financial governance in the post-global crisis world. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Over the last two decades, Taiwan has weathered two global financial crises: the Asian financial crisis of 1997–1998 and the sub-prime loan crisis of 2008–2009. Each time the island's economy emerged from the crisis relatively unscathed. Many of the elements that constitute Taiwan's economic resilience have been fostered through entrenched institutional arrangements and established policy orientations over a long period. Taiwan managed to retain the bulk of these long-running sources of economic resilience despite the tremendous external pressures exerted by neo-liberal policy advocates to dismantle these ‘out-dated’ policy thinking and practices in the name of reform during the decade-long interval between the two crises. Taiwan was able to cope with the 2008–2009 global financial crisis thanks also to a more enabling regional environment created through stronger cooperation among Asian economies and under a new awakening among the East Asian policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Party control over higher education in reform-era China has been a relatively neglected topic in the extant literature. Seeking to remedy this neglect, this article focuses on an aspect of the topic that has remained unstudied in Western scholarship: namely, the post-1989 regime's efforts to strengthen and professionalize political education (PE) in universities by intensifying the ‘disciplinary construction’ of PE. The article finds that these efforts have been partially successful in meeting the regime's objectives. The training of PE teachers has been considerably professionalized; PE courses have become more attractive and effective; and more students tend to accept the Party-sponsored views and policies taught in PE courses, and to support Party leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines recent trends in the evolution of elite Chinese foreign policy discussions about the normative organizing principles that should ground contemporary international politics. It finds that a pragmatic emphasis on sovereignty, albeit as a right which is flexible and far from sacrosanct, still maintains a core position within Chinese thinking in this regard. However, at the same time, a surprising reconstitution of an old world view has begun to take shape in China. More specifically, the tianxia (all-under-heaven) concept has emerged as a new reference point for some Chinese deliberations on the normative structure of international relations. While such a perspective is still of secondary importance within Chinese international relations circles, its emergence suggests that a potentially far-reaching, if still inchoate, reconsideration of international order is underway in China. Moreover, such a development may have broad ranging implications for the security dynamic that takes shape in Asia in the coming years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydropower represents an important alternative form of energy in China, a country that currently uses coal to supply 78% of its electricity. However, evidence from large hydropower projects in China shows that the socio-economic and environmental costs of hydropower development are substantial. Construction on the first of the 13 planned dams on the Nu River began in the summer of 2008, and villages are already beginning to be displaced. Based on fieldwork in the area, we find that the local resettlement policies infringe upon the national regulations governing resettlement caused by major infrastructure development. This infringement includes high prices for resettlement homes, forcing villagers to leave agricultural production, a lack of programs for long-term economic development, and a lack of transparency in decision-making processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The widely touted concept of the 'Beijing Consensus' (BC) suggests that China's economic success violates conventional theories of development and offers developing countries an alternative vision to the Washington Consensus (WC). Although ambitious, the original conception of the BC is not up to the task of being a worthwhile competitor to the alternative model from which its name was coined, not because of the WC's apparent worthiness, but rather because the BC is a misguided and inaccurate summary of China's actual reform experience. It not only gets the empirical facts wrong about China, it also disregards the similarities and differences China's experience shares with other countries, and it distorts China's place in international politics. In spite of these weaknesses, the BC is nevertheless a useful touchstone to consider the evolution of developmental paradigms, compare China's experience with that of others, identify the most distinctive features of China's experience, and evaluate its significance for the development prospects of other countries and for international relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the patterns and changes in public perceptions of domestic income inequality in Hong Kong in the past two decades and explains individual variations in these perceptions. It found that the perceived seriousness of income disparities had been persistently high, while the perceived unjustness of income disparities showed a fluctuating trend. Our findings lent partial support to the structural position thesis that the privileged groups are less likely than the underprivileged groups to consider existing income disparities to be serious and unjust. Nonetheless, the popular understanding of poverty is still biased towards 'individual' explanations, and this perhaps explains why the government is less willing to tackle the economic and political foundations of poverty in Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Officially, there were 650,000 people living with HIV in China in 2005.1 The Chinese government has pledged to keep the total under 1.5 million by 2010. The study argues that China must emphasize non-epidemiological factors as mutually-reinforcing factors sustaining the disease. The fight is entwined with profound economic and social transition. Government and civil society have engaged with the principles and agencies of global HIV/AIDS governance. But HIV intersects with normative regimes addressing issues of humane governance in the widest socio-economic and political sense. Based upon primary and secondary research, the study reviews the evidence of the HIV/AIDS challenge facing China, considers the nature and quality of the national response, and evaluates the relationship of global and national regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While Taiwan continues to enjoy a liberal, consolidated democratic regime, citizen discontent continues to be directed at regime, government, and the governing. Identifying the scope and degree of dissatisfaction is an initial step in ascertaining whether discontented citizens might be more or less amenable to destabilizing change at the regime level or more procedural changes at the government levels. Taiwan's 2004 elections topped off four years of mud slinging, legislative gridlock, and a number of serious battles over constitutional jurisdictions and powers. This research note compares survey items from the Taiwan Election and Democratization Study (TEDS) surveys taken in 2001 and 2003 to measure levels of support for a democratic regime and governance within this environment. As party and ethnic identification are key cleavages on Taiwan, this study seeks to establish the relative strengths of the association between partisan and ethnic identification and attitudes towards regime and government. The main findings are: (1) dissatisfaction with regime and governance are more strongly associated with partisan identification than ethnic identification; (2) there exists a surprisingly low satisfaction and commitment to democracy; and (3) alienation from government exists at a moderate level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is an introduction to the special section of articles that analyze the gendered modalities of policy and institutional change in rural China and examine how women are engaging with, and affected by, those changes. In two consecutive issues, eight articles examine changes in policies and institutions relating to rural development, village-level politics and property rights, marriage migration and urbanization. Through their individual case studies, the contributors elucidate how gender is integral to the conceptualization and implementation of policy and institutional changes in rural China; how those changes are altering the status, rights, resources, goals and arenas of action of different categories of rural women, thereby reinforcing or altering gendered constructs; and, finally, how women's actions are triggering further policy and institutional changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the Chinese government's efforts to deal with rampant speculation and foster the growth of a real estate industry in China. Shift from administrative allocation to market-based transactions; Real estate boom; Regulation in the real estate sector.