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Since the 2008 Beijing Olympic and Global Financial Crisis, the rise of China has been a key topic in the international arena. Capitals in the USA and Western Europe, as leaders of the West, have explicitly expressed their concerns, labelling China as a sharp power, a strategic competitor and a systemic rival. One concern repeatedly raised by Brussels, in recent years, is the potential of deepening the East–West division inside the Union by China's effort in reinvigorating its relation with countries in Central and Eastern Europe via the 16 + 1 cooperation mechanism. This paper devotes to map the impacts on China perception in the EU member states who are participants in the 16 + 1. Subsequently, it examines whether 16 + 1 has widened the East–West divergence in the EU. Applying public opinion survey data, it is found that the additional communication and cooperation provided by 16 + 1 have not constructed a united identity in Central and Eastern Europe. Basing on the identified differences among Central and Eastern European countries, this paper divides them into four categories: China-friendly, China-neutral, China-polarised and China-sceptic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the ever-increasing global temperatures, the long-term climate change trend has become an essential part of global investor strategies. Before dealing with the reduction of international direct investment caused by climate change, governments and enterprises should clarify the causal relationship between temperature change and international direct investment, as well as the impact mechanism. This paper empirically examines the impact of host country temperature changes on the probability and scale of international direct investment inflows using data on Chinese enterprises' foreign direct investment and the temperature of each host country from 2009 to 2019. The results show that a 1% increase in host country temperature decreases the probability of Chinese firms' FDI inflows by 5.92% and reduces the size of FDI by 2.60%. The host country's temperature change has a cumulative effect on inhibiting Chinese enterprises' direct investment. The mechanism analysis shows that high temperatures increase the number of meteorological disasters, causing economic losses and reducing economic growth rates, which in turn inhibit direct investment from China. The negative effect of host country temperature change on firms' location choice for international investment is more significant in manufacturing, non-state, and low R&D investment firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The geographic associations of brands and branding have been well demonstrated in the country-of-origin (COO) effect literature in that a product's COO has a branding effect and consumers have preferences for goods from specific countries. The aggregation of these preferences can lead to unique and asymmetric trading patterns between countries. In this paper, we extend the geographic associations of brands and branding to domestic trade and document that seller provinces have a branding effect and geographic preference asymmetries can arise within peer-to-peer trade networks such as Taobao in China. We find that while buyers in one province in China are willing to purchase goods from sellers in another province, it is often the case that the relationship is not reciprocal. This asymmetry in preferences persists after controlling for time-varying factors at both buyer and seller locations. Like brands, a location therefore serves as a quality cue and reputation mechanism for the unobserved attributes of sellers, products, and logistics services from that location. We then explore factors that might be correlated with these time-invariant preferences across provinces. We find that in addition to the gravity effect of distance and the home-bias effect, other factors such as dyadic trust; migration; similarities in ethnicities; occupations and education levels; and levels of marketization and rule of law are correlated with the asymmetries. Notably, these factors differ from those identified in a contemporaneous study of eBay in the US, in which religiosity and political ideology contribute to the differences (Elfenbein et al. 2018). We believe that the Chinese and the US experiences differ because the two countries differ substantially in social, economic, political, religious, legal, and commercial environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) provides a new opportunity for the continued deepening of economic and trade cooperation between China and countries along the BRI route. However, different business environments among countries have led to the problem of a low and uneven distribution of China's overall trade and investment efficiency in the countries along the route. Using the stochastic frontier gravity model, this study evaluates the efficiency of China's outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) based on the data of 47 countries along the Belt and Road route from 2013 to 2019. The empirical results indicate that the efficiency level of China's OFDI in countries located along the Belt and Road route is 43.39%, which suggests a regional imbalance. In terms of business environment factors, regulatory governance, civic discourse, government accountability, and regulatory quality in host countries have a positive impact on China's OFDI. The positive effects of the BRI have enabled Chinese enterprises to better face factors such as political instability, corruption and imperfections in the legal system when investing abroad. The findings and suggestions could help the governments and enterprises of the countries along the route improve the business environment in a more targeted manner, enhance the space for economic and trade cooperation, and promote the common development of the countries along the route. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Considering energy- and climate-related policies adopted, the European Union and the People's Republic of China are expected to be on the same trajectory of reducing pollution, aiming for carbon neutrality in 2050 and 2060, respectively. However, although they share a common goal of more sustainable development, their targets and means often collide. The main objective of the study is to identify the main similarities and differences in approaches to energy and climate policies in the European Union and the People's Republic of China, with special attention given to the scope, past, present, and future of Chinese investments in renewable energy projects in the countries of the Central and Eastern European region, and to reveal the prevailing factors of the (un)successful renewable energy projects in those countries eventually. The methods used are literature review and qualitative content analysis of the European Union's and the People's Republic of China's energy- and climate-related policies according to the prescribed indicators (from 2005 onwards) and in-depth exploratory desk research of cooperation in renewable energy projects between the People's Republic of China and 14 Central and Eastern European Countries (from 2014 onwards). Results: The study showed that despite the significant alignment of the European Union's and the People's Republic of China's energy- and climate-related policies on a normative level, renewable energy cooperation between the People's Republic of China and Central and Eastern European countries on a practical level is moderate. This state of play mainly results from political factors, such as rising levels of Sino-scepticism and the overall deterioration of the European Union–People's Republic of China relations. Conclusions: The study showed that political rather than economic or legal factors had a great impact on the Chinese presence in the domain of renewable energy in the countries of the Central and Eastern European region. However, the significant alignment of the European Union's and the People's Republic of China's energy- and climate-related policies and dedication to common energy transition targets offer room for improving renewable energy cooperation. Overcoming political and economic divergences imposes a condition for achieving better cooperation in the renewable energy domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China and ASEAN have strong ties and have become each other's largest trading partners. This article uses the gravity model and a novel method of analysis, based on massive event data provided by the Global Database of Events, Language, and Tone, to empirically analyse the impact of fluctuations in bilateral relations between China and ASEAN on bilateral trade from January 2001 to December 2020. An analysis of 1,204,126 event records concluded that the improvement of bilateral relations was beneficial for trade between China and ASEAN countries. China's export trade was more easily influenced by bilateral relations than its import trade. Compared to the one-way behavioural attitude of ASEAN countries towards China, China's one-way reaction to ASEAN countries had a greater impact on bilateral trade. China's trade dependence level with most ASEAN countries maintains a trend of steady growth, and trade relations show a positive trend. Therefore, China and ASEAN should maintain stable political ties, enhance mutual understanding, strengthen economic and political connectivity, take adequate measures to promote mutual trust, continue optimizing cooperation models, and promote high-quality and high-level sustainable development across the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on policy transfer between countries and organization has seen rapid growth. Whether framed in terms of policy transfer, institutional transplantation, imitation and emulation or copying policy models and ideas, a sizeable number of determinants for success have been identified to understand why such conceptual or institutional transfers grow out to become successes or failures in their countries or organizations of adoption. What is much less common is to describe such a process through the lens of participants inside this transfer. This paper is an attempt to do just that. It will tell the story of the higher-educational concept of Technology, Policy and Management from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands to Harbin Institute of Technology in China, studied by means of participatory observation. The keys and clues for successful transplantation from the literature will subsequently be compared with the experiences from this case, and additional lessons, some of which are specific to Western-Chinese mutual learning, are formulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article builds on recent archaeological theorizing about early complex societies to analyze the political anthropology of Neolithic and Bronze Age China in a culture-specific trajectory over the longue durée. Synthesizing the latest archaeological discoveries, I show that a series of successive declines, beginning around 2000 BC, took place throughout lowland China. This put an end to the lowland states of the Longshan period (2400–1900 BC) and provided the context for the constitution of the Erlitou secondary state (1900–1500 BC). Following the shift in "archaic states" studies from identifying "what" to investigating "how," I focus on the strategies, institutions, and relations that undergirded and sustained the Erlitou secondary state. I explore how heterogeneous lowland populations were reorganized after collapse, how a new collective identity was created through ritual and religious performance at the household level at Erlitou, and how Erlitou's ideologies, political system, and economic network were shaped by the upland polities and societies. Through a series of innovative practices, the Erlitou secondary state did not replicate the preceding Longshan states but instead pioneered a sociopolitical order that was repeatedly reenacted and referred to as a source of legitimacy in successive Bronze Age Central Plains polities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Countries become global leaders by controlling international and domestic transactions connecting geographically dispersed production stages. We model global trade as a multi-layer network and study its power structure by investigating the tendency of eigenvector centrality to concentrate on a small fraction of countries, a phenomenon called localization transition. We show that the market underwent a significant drop in power concentration precisely in 2007 just before the global financial crisis. That year marked an inflection point at which new winners and losers emerged and a remarkable reversal of leading role took place between the two major economies, the US and China. We uncover the hierarchical structure of global trade and the contribution of individual industries to variations in countries' economic dominance. We also examine the crucial role that domestic trade played in leading China to overtake the US as the world's dominant trading nation. There is an important lesson that countries can draw on how to turn early signals of upcoming downturns into opportunities for growth. Our study shows that, despite the hardships they inflict, shocks to the economy can also be seen as strategic windows countries can seize to become leading nations and leapfrog other economies in a changing geopolitical landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Full mobilization and effective use of climate aid is of great importance for the low carbon transition of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries. This study utilizes the two-step system generalized method of moments model to evaluate the effects of climate aid on carbon emissions reduction and the impact mechanism through energy structure optimization. The panel data of 93 Belt and Road countries from 2000 to 2018 were used for empirical analysis. Results show that climate aid has a significant reduction effect on the carbon emissions intensity of BRI countries, and the dominant component of climate aid, i.e., mitigation aid, corresponds to better carbon emissions reduction benefits than adaptation aid. The impact mechanism demonstrates that the climate aid has dual carbon emissions reduction effects in BRI countries which have an intermediate energy structure. It indicates that climate aid not only directly reduces carbon emissions by increasing carbon reduction resources, but also indirectly reduces carbon emissions by promoting renewable energy and optimizing the energy structure. The results evidence the theory of environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis and channels of climate aid effects. Practical implications from the current study include that more climate finance support should be provided to BRI countries by developed countries, the effectiveness of climate aid should be improved by investing in projects with significant carbon reduction like renewable energy, data monitoring and performance evaluation of climate aid should be strengthened, and China should take its role and make more contributions to the low carbon transition especially energy transition of BRI countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we are witnessing a surge of nationalism throughout an ostensibly globalized world. In this article, we focus on the "narrative battle" over COVID-19 that has escalated between two competing major powers – China and the US. Guided by a cultural sociological approach, we reveal the meaning-making processes behind the narrative battle through in-depth, hermeneutical reconstruction of the "reactive performance" of each country, as articulated in political speeches and mass media. We point out that, in the Chinese narrative, the country emerges from a "century of humiliation," becoming a major world power that will no longer be subject to the "bullying" of the West. In the US narrative, even though Trump initially highlights the country's "very good" relationship with China, as the storyline unfolds, China is blamed for the global pandemic, assuming again the role of a dangerous actor on the world stage. Our research shows that the current reactive communicative mechanism is not only unsustainable, but also dangerous in times of crisis. We suggest that recognition of the narrative battle and acknowledgement of its performative function in the public sphere is the first step toward mutual understanding and meaningful dialogue between these two world powers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent surge in property values in China has been similar to the surge in the U.S before the crash in 2007. This raises concerns about whether China is destined to have a crash as well. We estimate similar models of property values for the two countries, in order to compare price dynamics side by side. We find little in common between them. In the U.S. the adjustment process appears prone to "bubbles" in the sense of strong momentum, but Chinese prices have been generally mean reverting, without momentum. This suggests that the recent price rise in China has had more to do with scarcity than with irrational exuberance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of China's financial openness and economic growth on consumption of fossil fuels was analyzed for a panel of ten Latin American countries, throughout 34 years (from 1980 to 2014). An autoregressive distributed lag in the form of unrestricted error correction model was used as the chosen econometric methodology. The results showed that the financial openness, as well as the economic growth of China, increase the fossil fuels consumption in the long-run, while the economic growth of Latin American countries increases the energy use in the short- and the long-run. Moreover, the empirical findings of this research have significant consequences to the local government's appraisal of the relationship between financial openness, China's economic growth and consumption of fossil fuels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Central and East European (CEE) part of the Eurasian landmass is often overlooked in the conversations on contemporary geopolitics. Yet, owing to China's relations with the CEE countries, the region has been subject to growing strategic attention. This article offers a brief overview of the history of this relationship by focusing on the "17+1" mechanism. Nestled within the broader Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the "17+1" has provided a unique regional arrangement for extending Chinese influence in the sixteen CEE countries. The article inquires whether there is something else than the instrumental economic reasoning for the willingness of CEE countries to partner with China. The analysis detects three distinct strategic narratives motivating the participation of CEE states in the "17+1" mechanism. The study concludes with an enquiry on China's preparedness to respond to such identity geopolitics not only in the CEE region, but throughout the vast expanse covered by the BRI initiative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document proposes a new indicator to assess countries' sustainability. The indicator synthetises measures of economic and ecological efficiency. In other words, we assess the ability of countries to use resources to produce the maximum possible amounts of goods and services while keeping production activities' impact on the environment as low as possible. The measure of ecological efficiency is the ecological reserve/deficit (ERD), which is based on the concept of ecological footprint. The new indicator is computed using the data envelopment analysis (DEA) model, a well-known non-parametric technique that delivers measures of productive efficiency by comparing outputs to inputs used in production. We modify the standard DEA model in two ways. Firstly, we allow for negative input and output data. Secondly, to increase DEA discriminating power of countries, we compute anti-efficiency measures. This allows us to obtain a ranking of countries based on the best and worst performances. Results show that the new efficiency indicator is valid and that high ERD positively influences the ranking of countries. Introducing anti-efficiency provides more plausible results and a more accurate ranking, for example high-polluting countries like China previously economically efficient are now ranked as low efficient when sustainability is taken into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]