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This paper attempts to address an imperative topic in Asian economic development: the relationship between China's economic expansion and Asian economic growth. It tries to answer the all important query, whether China's economic ascent is a threat or an opportunity for the Asian economies. Due to the size of its economy, its openness and the rapidity of its GDP growth, China is swaying the individual Asian economies as well as the regional economy. When a significant-size economy is growing almost three times as rapidly as the global economy, the neighboring economies cannot possibly expect to remain impervious. Various issues are analyzed in the paper, including foreign direct investment inflows and impacts, regional production networks, plausible scenarios for China and the remaining Asian economies, and strategy for coping with China's rapid development. Although some Asian economies and some sectors will face adverse effects—short- or long-term—of China's rapid growth, the apocalyptic predictions are grossly overdone. For the most part, the impact of China's rapid growth can be mutually beneficial. This is the conclusive idea of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interaction between two perspectives—China as a world factory and Chinese business knowledge—has been complicated by the ever greater tensions generated from the national—China—and the transnational actors—Chinese—in understanding the economic driving force behind the real meanings of the rise of China. The construction process of the rise of Chinese economic power puts the state in direct contact with regional and global economic/political changes. On the one hand, Chinese business knowledge, identities, economic and political interactions also give rise to the notion of network building and sub-regional development, which help transcend country-specific relations. On the other hand, the notion of the rise of China is still being re-constructed through the interplay between regional and global political economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is now a substantial literature on various aspects of contemporary Chinese urbanization. There are, however, few recent studies of Chinese cities which examine social change and social interaction at the level of the urban neighbourhood. This paper seeks to fill some of this gap in current knowledge. It draws on a social survey of three contrasting neighbourhoods undertaken in Guangzhou in the Pearl River Delta, one of the most economically dynamic and rapidly urbanizing areas in the world. The paper explores inter alia the meaning of neighbourhood, sense of local belonging and community, and patterns and incidence of mutual assistance. The paper reflects on the extent to which market reforms are transforming patterns of local social interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Of all the Chinese societies, Taiwan witnessed the first peaceful and democratic power transfer in 2000. With the coming to power of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), new political opportunity was opened up for environmentalists, who had been aligned with the DPP for more than a decade. Did the regime change provide a better milieu for synergy between environmental activists and state officials? Was a better style of environmental governance possible under the DPP government? These are the main questions this paper tries to raise and answer. A puzzle has been found here. While environmentalists have gained important access to policy decision-making, pro-development counter-mobilizations were also on the rise, and government policy shifted to a more pro-business stand consequently. This paper argues that this paradox resulted from the weakened state capacity, which simultaneously empowered environmentalists and could not resist business's lobbying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the security challenges from several perspectives, the first and perhaps most important being the geo-strategic reality that Taiwan will always be only 90-odd miles from mainland China. This irreversible fact means that Taiwan will always be in the shadow of growing mainland power. The paper then briefly comments on how PLA modernization, largely focused on the 'Taiwan issue' does pose real challenges. The paper addresses some of the issues surrounding how the ROC is addressing its defense, and contrast, unfavorably, the lack of ROC military focus compared to what is going on in the mainland. The paper also makes an attempt to assess opportunities from a security perspective. The key question is opportunities for what? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper it is argued that Taiwan succeeded in developing by deviating from the currently popular 'Washington Consensus' strategy in specific ways. In particular, it developed investment strategies that have now reached a crucial 'Schumpeterian' phase. This has important implications for high and information technology sectors. Following Schumpeter we assume that innovation in specific firms can have economy-wide effects. Models based on this idea can be shown to have multiple equilibria. The idea of a positive feedback loop innovation system or POLIS is formalized by picking an appropriate sequence of equilibria over time. It is shown that POLIS has empirical relevance by applying the formal model to an actual economy. Recent financial crisis in many Asian countries, most notably South Korea, seems to have reversed the conventional wisdom regarding the East Asian 'miracle'. This paper applies the concept of a POLIS to show that neither the current view that the miracle was a mirage nor the earlier contrarian view that the growth was a result of factor accumulation only is correct. Ultimately technological transformation--in particular the creation of a positive feedback loop innovation system is what makes the difference between sustained growth and gradual or sudden decline. Although various problems remain in both the real and the financial sectors, the successes of Taiwan in building the preconditions for an innovation system are worth examining. Upon careful examination of Taiwan's system of innovation within the above Schumpeterian model it is found that of all the 'miracle' economies Taiwan has the best chance of building a POLIS in the near future. Because of Taiwan's strength in building a POLIS, the PRC can also benefit from continuing contact with Taiwan through trade and FDI from Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the political economy of making China's exchange rate policy, with a focus on the post-Deng reform period. First it analyses the structure of elite economic policymaking, especially on exchange rate policy, pinpointing core policymakers in that structure. Second, the paper analyses the roles and responsibilities of key economic ministries, and explains how the ministries' changing roles and responsibilities in the transforming economic environment of the reform period have affected their relative influence and the positions they pursue on exchange rate policy. Results of the analyses are then applied to explain the RMB devaluation policy in 1989 and the no-devaluation policy during the Asian financial crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fifteenth congress of the Chinese Communist Party inaugurated a sweeping reform that has been transforming the ownership of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Though a term 'common ownership' was the official name given to the scheme, it was regarded as a coded reference to privatization. If this is true, given the size of China's economy, this is probably the most ambitious privatization plan ever in the world. Bearing in mind that for nearly half a century the Chinese economy has remained based on the dominance of the state sector, it is understandable that the scheme had a shocking psychological effect at home and abroad the moment it was officially declared. For some people, China's privatization foretold a crusade. As a matter of fact, it ignited political debate at home and also sparked speculation abroad about the political tendency in China. From the academic perspective, it is of interest to figure out whether the scheme is privatization; if yes, how a decision could be made to privatize in the context of one of the few remaining socialist countries. One aim of this paper is to give an explanation to the paradox from the political-legal point of view. The paper argues that privatization is a natural result of the strategy for modernizing enterprises. However, the paper observes that the political and particularly the legal climates are not prepared for the privatization scheme, which poses a substantial restriction on the scheme. Then, the paper argues that the worth of the privatization scheme that has been proceeding in China does not lie in the novelty of its common ownership suggestion, but in its representing a near consensus on the Chinese leadership to push forward the experiment already undertaken over the preceding years. Finally the paper ends by predicting briefly what can be expected of the scheme and how meaningful it will be. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Guangdong is the province one step ahead in China and Guangzhou is the city one step ahead in Guangdong.' Being one of the most economically active cities in China, Guangzhou citizens have generally experienced improved living standards and a better quality of life since the economic reform started in the late 1970s. What is also true is that economic modernization has changed the social structure, allowing far more social mobility in the post-Mao society. Nowadays, people living in Guangzhou have more job choices in a relatively free labour market. This paper is set in such a socio-economic context to examine the job preferences and work ethics of Guangzhou citizens, with particular reference to what changes have taken place in people's work values after the adoption of a market economy in the mainland. The paper is based on our current research projects conducted in the Guangzhou area to examine how socio-economic changes have affected people's value orientations and is confined to discussion of whether people living in Guangzhou have changed their attitudes towards work in the 1990s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's strategic ambition and security strategy have attracted a great deal of international attention lately, and there is disagreement about China's intentions. Clearly, the Chinese could help clear up many misperceptions about their strategic ambitions simply by publishing a national security document like those published by the United States and other powers. Without the presence of such a document, there will always be questions about strategic capabilities and intentions that will lead to unproductive speculation. Fortunately, Wu Baiyi's paper helps us to better understand China's current, and possibly future, security strategy along with its historical context. Colonel Russ Howard generally agrees with Wu Baiyi's findings. He agrees with Wu's interpretation of Beijing's security goals and tasks in the paper's first section, though he differs from Wu on China's ability to achieve them. Colonel Howard also considers Wu's historical analysis in the second section basically correct. Also, Colonel Howard views Wu's description of China's current security challenges to be 'a refreshing departure from other—more homogenous—descriptions'. However, he does not agree with Wu's generally optimistic view of the international security landscape. Finally, Colonel Howard agrees with Wu Baiyi's conclusions: China's security strategy is much more than its diplomatic strategy. A comprehensive security strategy architecture, as Wu correctly points out, includes not only a diplomatic component but defense, political, and economic components as well. At present, Beijing's leaders have in effect adopted the old Clinton campaign slogan, 'it's the economy, stupid', which recognizes that economic growth is more important in achieving China's security strategy than were the diplomatic and military initiatives of the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessing the prospects for democratization in The People's Republic of China has been a mostly normative exercise over the past 20 years. Newer empirical work has focused on public opinion and the implications for a democratic transition but this literature is still in its infancy. This paper focuses on the distribution of public opinion in Beijing with respect to a direct, close end question about the respondent's most important value. Among the choices were political democracy and individual freedom. We hypothesize that if younger, more educated and wealthier people are more likely to select either of these options as their most important value then, over the next few decades, there would be increasing public pressure for democratization because of generational replacement and the expected increases in both wealth and average levels of education in China over the same time span. While there are some indications that in the future Chinese public opinion will be more favorable to a transition towards democracy, on balance the results of this paper provide scant evidence that the future will lead to increasing public pressure for democratization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most interesting phenomena in contemporary international relations is the growing role of local government entities in forging and intensifying cross-border interactions in the social, economic and cultural arenas. Lamentably, this aspect of international relations, which I conceptualize as local liberalism, has not received sufficient scholarly attention. This paper attempts to fill in the gap by describing and analyzing how local liberalism has played a role in China's relations with Southeast Asia. The paper argues that local governments in Yunnan and Guangxi have played an important and positive role in cementing the relations between China and Southeast Asia. The paper suggests that debunking the China ‘black box’ to examine the different units in China, including the sub-national governments, may provide more useful insights for our understanding of China–Southeast Asian relations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The PLA's role in Beijing's foreign policy-making process is a closed book but it is a key research topic in our study of Chinese diplomacy. This paper argues that generally the PLA abides by a fine division of labor with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) in managing Beijing's international pursuits. The civilians are in charge of China's generic foreign affairs and daily diplomacy. The Central Military Commission (CMC) is responsible for security/military-related foreign affairs and defines the bottom-line for employing force in conflicts. Institutionally the PLA's role is more directional than detailed and is often behind the scenes. This complicates our research of the subject matter, as the line between this division of labor is thin over many diplomatic issues. Often times it is hard to demarcate where Beijing's normal diplomacy ends and where security/military dynamics begin. This paper adopts a two-layered analysis on civil–military interaction on foreign and security affairs: the broad consensus of CCP–PLA leaders on CCP regime stability at a time of drastic domestic change and world pressure; and the PLA's directional role in China's security/military-related foreign affairs under a generic civilian guidance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reviews the perceptions of the CA states (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) towards the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and conceptualises the CA states' motivations and concerns in engaging in cooperation within the SCOvis-à-visChina. The message that this paper aims to deliver is that, for the majority of the CA leadership and public, China within the SCO represents the CA states' ‘other’, with decolonising but increasingly dominating features. These perceptions of China in the CA region elucidate the ways in which China's involvement in Central Asia has a paradoxical and contradictory impact on the potential for the SCO to move beyond functionalism and towards the creation of a broader SCO identity. Consequently, the future of the SCO may be more limited than the West fears and Central Asia hopes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article explores the magnitude, motivations, and mechanisms of the globalization of Chinese finance for energy. Like the national development banks and export-import banks of industrialized countries before them, China's policy banks have provided large amounts of financing to Chinese energy companies to enter global energy markets. What is more, China's two global policy banks, the China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China, now provide as much energy finance to foreign governments as do all the multilateral development banks combined. This paper outlines the extent to which Chinese energy finance has become globalized and examines the state priorities and institutional pathways that drive the globalization of Chinese energy finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aggregates the state of India–China economic relations with a specific focus on trade at the borders. It explicates the potential for economic activity at the border regions to generate self-sustaining and/or externally linked local development for both countries. By an examination of the existing trade and investment policies and practices, it shows how geographical contiguity is yet to be transformed into opportunity along the India–China border, a practice consistent both with the history of these regions as well as with the blueprints being drawn up for the future of these regions. Informed by the Liberal school of IR theory, the paper studies border trade through the paradigmatic optic of being an important, yet underutilized, avenue of dyadic interaction, and makes a case for upgrading the status of border trade in the overall schema of bilateral trade relations between India and China. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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]

Based on first-hand field research data, this paper explores the construction of a ‘Farmers’ City’ in Wenzhou in the early 1980s. It studies the actors, their relationships, and the institutions, and proposes a ‘state–society interdependence model’. It concludes that the spontaneous, bottom-up urbanization process initiated by farmers as described in the texts was actually the win–win result of an interactive and interdependent relationship between the farmers and local government. The reasons are: (1) the actors, including the local government, the specialized farmers (zhuanye hu), and the other farmers, collectively owned, controlled, and obtained the resources; (2) in terms of the mobilization-response process, the close patron–client ties between the farmers and local government formed a strong interdependent relationship; and (3) in terms of the institutional reforms, the folk interests and demands were always a reference point for the local government. The farmers and their government were partners, participants, and practitioners in grassroots institutional reform. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Decentralized governance is often viewed as an effective way to improve public services and government accountability. Many also document the negative dimensions of fiscal decentralization, especially in transition economies; thus, the combination of decentralization and centralized control has gained currency in some countries in recent years. Based on first-hand data and other documentary sources, and using civil service remuneration as an example, this paper attempts to explore how decentralized governance works in China and what hinders decentralization from performing better. The findings show that Chinese centralized control over expenditure in public sector remuneration primarily serves to enhance ministry control. Local bureaucrats, meanwhile, exploit better remuneration to boost their personal interests. This paper argues that political commitment rather than central transfer is greatly needed for utilizing the benefits of decentralized governance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper we provide an overview of China's human capital strategy and educational achievements over the last two decades. While everyone acknowledges China as an economic superpower, very few are aware of or realize China's notable achievements in education as well as its internationalization of education. Since 1978, the landmark for the foundation of the Chinese modern higher education system, China has made tremendous strides in education both domestically and internationally. While China maintains 10% growth in GDP, albeit with a GDP per capita at a low level for a developing country, it is also producing serious scholars and a tremendous amount of scholarly output; more and more Chinese students are seeking higher education abroad; and international students are showing a rising interest in receiving education in China. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper argues that China's global expansion and calls for its use of soft power are provoking an ideological crisis which is becoming one of the most critical challenges of the present time. Revolutionary ideology legitimated the rule of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for 60 years, but it has become increasingly at odds with the rapid socio-economic development that began 30 years ago. This paper examines four aspects of contemporary Chinese culture: first the discrepancy between the CCP's ideological rhetoric and its pragmatic policies; second, the fragmentation of the state, the intellectual elite, and the grassroots population in terms of cultural expressions and values; third, the consumer culture which has unleashed materialistic desires; and finally, the emergence of a ‘post-80s’ generation urban youth culture amidst these tension and contradictions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines how debates in the media are providing the discursive conditions for, and thereby giving impetus to, diverse strategies of ‘so-called primitive accumulation’ in China. Taking as its empirical referent Chinese news and journal articles on land enclosure, the paper analyzes three frames in which policy entrepreneurs craft varying class positions for land-losing villagers. Grounded in different ontological premises, problem diagnoses and recommendations centering on the adoption of either a statist, neo-collective or liberal rural land regime, and backed up by evaluations of local policy experiments, the frames illustrate the diversity of ideational, political and institutional configurations that could facilitate the separation of peasant producers from the land, place land-losing villagers in different relationships with the state and capital, and sustain accumulation. In foregrounding these debates over land-losing villagers' future class positioning, the paper aims to offer a corrective to the historical determinism implicit in contemporary analyses that characterize enclosure in China as simply one national manifestation of homogenous, global neo-liberal projects of ‘accumulation by dispossession’ or ‘gangster capitalism’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The massive worldwide protests initiated by China's angry youths (Fen Qings) over biased reports on the Tibet issue in the West in 2008 and perceived unfriendly actions toward China's Beijing Olympic Games shocked the world. Although scholars and the media have shown great interest in China's Fen Qing phenomenon, there is no serious scholarly research. Based on interviews, investigative field trips, and an exhaustive web search, this paper explores the Fen Qing phenomenon. Through an analysis of three cases, namely, the anti-CNN Web, the Han Han phenomenon, and the ‘69 Holy War’, it distinguishes three types of Fen Qings: nationalistic, China-critical, and resentment-venting. These Fen Qings vary in the people who constitute them, the causes of their anger, and their targets. The paper places the Fen Qing phenomenon in the broader context of China's socio-economic transformation and its relations with other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Many scholars have examined how human capital, geography, etc. have shaped patterns of ethnic inequality in China. This paper studies the role the state plays in producing inter-group disparities in China. It discusses the link between the state and minority threat and explains how the linkage produces ethnic variation in entry into the Chinese Communist Party. Data are drawn from two surveys (N = 3,619) on Han Chinese, Hui, and Uyghurs conducted in two Chinese cities in 2001. Controlling for background characteristics removes the Han–Uyghur difference in CCP membership attainment. In contrast, no similar patterns are found when Han Chinese are compared with Hui. This contrast is explained with reference to state reaction to ethnic variation in perceived group threat. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper tries to explore the opportunities for and challenges to forging a partnership between China and the United States in the twenty-first century. It explains why China has become more adamant in protecting its core national interests and argues that China's core concerns over Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang should be accommodated as this affects Beijing's trust with Washington. Meanwhile, it argues that the two countries should expand their cooperation in areas of common interests, such as promoting peace, stability and denuclearization on the Korean peninsula; securing strong, sustainable and balanced global economic growth; and creating a new global environmental protection regime. The paper also highlights some of the major challenges to partnership-building between the two countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper studies the market reactions to corporate philanthropic giving in response to the 12 May 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan, China. Based on a sample of 136 Chinese listed companies, our results indicate a significant and positive seven-day cumulative abnormal rise in the share prices of those companies making donations compared to those not making donations. Both timeliness and the amount of philanthropic giving generate significant market reactions, confirming Godfrey's assertion that corporate philanthropy can be perceived as a genuine manifestation of firms' underlying desire to raise their market values. However, when the sample firms are divided into two groups, government controlled and non-government controlled, Godfrey's assertion is challenged by our empirical results which show different market responses to the two different types of companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 5 July event in Urumqi inspired rethinking about Beijing's policy towards Xinjiang. This paper will examine Beijing's interests in Xinjiang from historical, political, economic and security perspectives, and the challenges Beijing faces in pursuing and protecting its interests. By examining the tensions between the Han and ethnic minorities, especially the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, the paper argues that the Xinjiang issue involves China's core interests and the most serious challenge Beijing faces is how to cope with ethnic tension in a highly sensitive region surrounded by big powers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the rise of China, Southeast Asian countries and Australia have begun shifting towards an accommodation policy. Robert Ross examines the accommodation policy in South Korea, Mochizuki discusses Japanese accommodationists, and Manicom and O'Neil show some evidence of Australian accommodation of Chinese strategic preferences. The scholarship has, however, narrowly focused on and overestimated the role of security. Through a study of the origin, process, structural conditions and impacts of accommodation policy, this paper broadens the concept of accommodation to capture its multiple meanings and practices. It finds that a selective accommodation policy and strategy toward the rise of China developed in Australia is a sign of the changing power relations under which the mainstream paradigms of containment and engagement, hard balancing or bandwagoning, have proved inadequate to the task of dealing with China, and that economic interdependence has driven the politics of accommodation in Australia and several Asian countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The central government's pouring of money into the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) or other Tibetan autonomous areas is apparently not really easing the tension in these regions. In response to Western criticism of the Chinese government policy in Tibet, President Hu Jintao says that the Tibetan problem is not about ethnicity, religion, or human rights, but about national unity or integrity. In fact, the Tibetan problem is about all of these things, and they are intertwined with one another. This paper attempts to understand each of them from an institutionalist perspective and to see in what way such an understanding of the problems may help solve them. Specifically, I first explain new institutionalism. Then I analyze the following problems from mainly a sociological new institutionalist perspective: (1) sovereignty and autonomy; (2) ethnicity and human rights; and (3) culture and religion. Finally I look at the possibility of social change under the institutionalist constraints. It is true that much research has been done on the Tibetan issue and the solution of it, but rarely do we see an institutionalist analysis. I hope that such an analysis will shed light on the understanding of the problem and help avoid the scene we see in the quote at the start of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates the role that children play in the migration decisions of Chinese women. The presence of children of various ages is hypothesized to affect the timing of migration, the length of migration, and the nature of migration in terms of who goes along. In addition, we also investigate whether the sex of the children affects migration decisions. Results indicate that whether one's husband ever migrated has a positive effect on migrating before childbirth. Return timing is strongly linked to the age of the child. Many mothers return to rural areas around the time that the child begins formal schooling. We also find that women who have given birth to a boy are significantly less likely to migrate after childbirth but more likely to take the boy with her if she does migrate. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates the roles of excessive investment and compulsory saving in causing China's great famine during the period of 1959-1961. China initiated its ambitious industrialization campaign in 1958 under the false illusion that the agricultural sector would be able to provide sufficient savings. When the illusion proved to be false, a large number of industrial projects were left incomplete. However, since the economic returns for completing the half-done projects were high, central planners maintained high levels of grain procurement and urban labor force to complete these projects, even when famine became widespread. In addition, some political factors also contributed to the insufficient response by the central planners to the famine. The high grain procurement enforced by the State, compounded by other factors such as weather calamity, caused the most deadly famine in human history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing literature on transnational activism highlights the contention between the targeted state and the advocacy actors, and the leveraged politics enabled through a third party. Based on an empirical study of transnational activism related to AIDS prevention in China, this paper argues that when the targeted government is not susceptible to inter-governmental pressure or international media exposure, external advocacy actors do not cease to be relevant to domestic politics. On the contrary, their role becomes more crucial under such conditions in terms of both immediate adjustments of practices at the community level and accumulative effects on long-term policy changes. This study has found that international non-governmental organizations and private foundations have employed various types of methods to strategically engage Chinese governmental agencies and officials for urgent relief delivery and opportunity of policy advocacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

This paper examines definitions of Chinese corruption. While many Chinese corruption studies have argued that Chinese corruption has its own unique features, our review of definitions of Chinese corruption featured in current academic literature reveals that most definitions in use are similar to the general definition of corruption: abuse of public office for private gains. Valuable as it is, such a general definition does not adequately specify the actors, behavior and motives in Chinese corruption. This paper argues that actors in Chinese corruption are not limited to employees in the public sector but also include any Chinese state functionary engaging in public activities. In addition, corrupt behavior refers to both economic (embezzlement, misappropriation of public funds, and bribery) and disciplinary corruption (violation of social norms and the dereliction of duty) that are damaging to public interests. In doing so, this paper finds that even behavior such as the dereliction of duty and violations of social norms, that is not motivated by private gain, is regarded as corruption in China. We also discuss the political nature of this broadly defined Chinese corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the historical institutionalists' emphasis on the effects of ideas on policy making, this paper focuses on the importance of economic ideas and ideologies on China's trade policy making with regard to the signing of the WTO agreement with the United States in 1999. The paper argues that trade liberalization in China was a result of top Chinese leaders' embrace of neoclassical economic ideas which conceive a small role for the state in the marketplace, mainly as the regulator of the macro-economic environment and as the enforcer of the rule of law, rather than as a major player in the marketplace. Top Chinese leaders' socialization with neoclassical economic ideas enabled them to forge a political consensus to link state-owned enterprise (SOE) reforms with speedy WTO accession and led to China's major concessions in WTO negotiations with the United States in 1999 which were inconceivable just a few years ago. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows that the contagion effect brought about by the global financial crisis has given rise to a series of individual and family problems. This result is strongly supported by theoretical and empirical evidence. It also points out that family law in China, despite revisions to it over the past decade or so, appears to be inadequate to address the issues on marriages, among other things. Several approaches for reducing the negative impacts on individuals and family units have been proposed. Firstly, family mediation is found to be useful for stemming the social consequences arising, for instance, from separation or divorce. It is found to be especially useful during an economic crisis. Given the extensiveness of the problems and that even 'good' family law has its limitations, broader public policy solutions seem to be warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the first 30 years of its existence, the People's Republic of China (PRC) committed itself to making atheist Marxism the fundamental ideology of the country, depriving the Chinese people of their constitutional right of religious liberty. Since 1979, new policies, regulations, and legislation impacting religious freedom have been created and implemented. This paper proposes an unconventional framework for understanding China's religious policy. It attempts to explain the evolution of this policy through an analysis of the party's changing view of religion; the nature of its new religious policy and law; and the function of its supervision of religion. It calls for the consideration of the validity of a distinctive Chinese model in religious affairs similar to that which has evolved in economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to further an understanding of Chinese politics through a focus on ideology and hegemony. Drawing on the writings of Antonio Gramsci and Henri Lefebvre, the paper examines the nature of ideological domination held by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and generates three implications. First, Gramsci's theory of hegemony can be applied more broadly to build a socialist regime, particularly in China where the party of the proletariat and its allies have been in a quandary over how to consolidate its ruling position after capturing political power. Second, the party needs to incorporate mass consciousness into the battlefield of politics so as to attain or maintain its hegemony. Third, the ideologies of revolution and reform are formulated to embed the CCP's beliefs into people's consciousness and to acquire consensus which is essential for the CCP's hegemony in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared with other ethnic groups, Chinese immigrants have a low profile and their voices, contributions, sufferings and needs are not widely recognised. This paper argues that the vulnerability of Chinese migrant workers is related to the poor working conditions in ethnic workplaces and the social isolation they experience, and that these two problems are interwoven. The data were obtained from an empirical survey involving 28 Chinese- and Italian-owned manufacturers in the textile, garment and leather sectors in the Veneto region of northern Italy, selected to enable comparisons to be made between conditions in Chinese-owned and Italian-owned businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although China and the US are starting their fourth decade of energy cooperation, it is only recently that there has been a concerted US effort to create a framework for US-China bilateral energy relations. The past 30 years have witnessed many successful energy projects that have lacked follow through and institutionalization, often becoming 'one-off' exercises that duplicated previous projects. Recent initiatives intend to establish long-term linkages between US and Chinese energy bureaucracies, linking energy efficiency, energy security, and environmental issues. The US is nesting the bilateral relationship in global and Asia-Pacific multilateral energy and environmental regimes, and is also using bilateral agreements as mechanisms to promote domestic energy and environmental reform. This paper will examine US-China relations in the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate and the Five-Country Energy Ministerial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher education (HE) in China has been transformed from elite to mass education over the last decade due to commercialisation and funding reform. Many questions have been raised regarding the impact of HE expansion on social justice: what are the implications of the distribution of HE resources on regional inequality? How does it influence different social groups in terms of access to HE? What are the financial implications on different regions and social groups as a result of the funding reform? Based on the official data by region in 1998 and 2006, this paper aims to address these questions and describe how HE has changed over time, both spatially and inter-temporally. Our research results suggest that HE reforms have disadvantaged poor people in impoverished regions despite the availability of HE opportunities for them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines China's transformation from different perspectives, including economic, social and political, and discusses how these transformations are linked to the country's open-door policy. The paper argues that the most powerful driving force behind China's rapid transformation is its openness. At the domestic level, openness creates an institutional environment in which different existing factors reorganize themselves, thus providing new dynamics for change. At the international level, openness links China and the world together, and the interplay between China and the world produces an external dynamism for China's internal changes. Openness, however, has led to social injustice. Society often becomes the weakest link in the process of globalization and opening up; therefore, it must be defended by all means and in all major policy areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are claims that China's influence on ASEAN is direct in that she has encouraged more exports to flow into her huge markets and changed trade flows amongst member countries. Demand and supply are deemed to have therefore become more China-centred. This paper looks at the plausibility of China as a 'factor' that influences bilateral intra-ASEAN trade flows through demand (exporting country) and supply (partner country). The key finding of the study is that China's trade association with the region increases intra-ASEAN exports. China is therefore the most practical choice for the ASEAN+1 FTA to initiate deeper trade integration within the region. China, as the 'core' country of the ACFTA can provide complementarities in the export performance of ASEAN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has become part of the global trend of solidarity and networking among grassroots non-governmental organisations across national borders. This paper examines the social and political implications for Chinese green civil society from the activities in the country by international environmental NGOs. Following a historical, statistical and geographical profile of transnational civil society's penetration in China, it investigates closely the material and ideational benefits received by Chinese activist organisations from transnational collaboration, against the complex and often nebulous interactions between Chinese NGOs, their global partners and the government authorities. The paper argues that transnational civil society's presence and achievements in China have helped legitimise and strengthen the burgeoning civil society in the country, and this is meaningful beyond the environmental field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the rise of China as an emerging great power has been widely perceived across the world. How has the rise of China been represented over time in the Western news media? Has the image of China as a rising power had any impact on the country's soft power? These questions remain unanswered but answering them is of great significance in helping us understand the impact of the news media on the transformation of international politics in the information age. This paper conducts a longitudinal study to examine the nature of Chinese coverage and explores how the image of a rising China—economically, politically, regionally and globally—has been represented in three transnational newspapers in Europe. It further argues that the Western media coverage of China's rise is as a soft power, which, to some extent, has an impact upon China's foreign relations. [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 examines the subjective evaluation of the changes and continuity in status of civil liberties and political rights by ordinary people in China. Our analysis, based on survey data, reveals that an absolute majority of people believe that both civil liberty and political freedom in China have improved significantly since 1979. To verify the validity of the survey findings, we analyze the contents of People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party in 1976, 1978, 1988 and 2002. We found that People's Daily, the most conservative newspaper in China, published an increasing number of critical articles about the government. Its criticism not only challenged individual officials but also the fundamental development strategy adopted by the CCP. In content analysis, we also trace how four key terms—democracy, freedom, human rights, and religion—were employed in People's Daily. The analysis shows that the official rhetoric appearing in People's Daily exhibited a steady positive trend in describing these terms. We conclude our discussion by analyzing those who are more likely to perceive civil liberties and political rights as improved over time in China. The analysis reveals that those with a better education and a higher income are more likely to perceive positive changes in Chinese society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates why some energy decisions are made faster than others in a reformed and globalized China. This investigation uncovers five factors that determine whether a proposal becomes a decision in the Chinese political system: (1) associated benefits of the proposed decision for other policy problems; (2) presence of a consistent 'issue champion'; (3) strength of mobilized and united 'veto players'; (4) vertical and horizontal support; and (5) clear policy preferences of the central leadership. The paper argues that the Chinese decision-making process has become increasingly consultative, iterative, and participatory and that it is also increasingly prone to deadlock, inaction, and paralysis. Thus, the Chinese decision-making process is increasingly similar to that of the United States in the era of reform and globalization. While the capacity of the Chinese state to make and implement distributive policies has remained largely unchanged, reform and globalization has weakened its capacity to make and implement redistributive policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of whether or not the current regime in China is sustainable is one of the key questions of interest to specialists on Chinese politics today. The authors of this paper contend that the CCP government has actually strengthened its hold on power in recent years, rather than weakening it, as so many analysts predicted. The paper uses CCP propaganda work in the current era as a lens to consider why this might be so and utilizes the term 'Popular Authoritarianism' to describe China's new political order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's non-intervention policy has long been criticized for prolonging the rule of many authoritarian regimes. Myanmar has become one of the classic examples. As China is expected to become a responsible great power, her behavioral patterns have aroused many concerns. This paper aims to re-interpret China's non-intervention policy. While explaining various constraints on China's capability to intervene in the Myanmar government, it shows how China is making efforts to seek a new intervention policy in dealing with countries like Myanmar. It argues that China's insistence on a non-intervention policy does not mean that China does not want to influence other countries such as Myanmar. To assess Chinese leverage and its non-intervention policy toward Myanmar as well as to supplement the current limited academic discussion on Sino-Myanmar relations, in this paper we first examine Chinese leverage in Myanmar through Burmese local politics, such as the power struggle between the central government and local rebel governments. Second, we disaggregate the Chinese interests in Myanmar into different levels (regional, geo-strategic and international) and discuss how these interests affect China's non-intervention policy. Third, we argue that China has indeed tried to intervene in Myanmar politics, but in a softer manner that contrasts with the traditional Western hard interventions, such as economic sanctions and military interference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]