Search

Summary: Fermented vegetables are nutritionally beneficial and promote good health. China possesses abundant raw vegetable materials and has a longstanding history of fermented vegetable production. However, the traditional process of vegetable fermentation heavily relies on individual producers' experience and knowledge, resulting in inconsistent flavours, variable quality, and the potential generation of harmful substances. The utilisation of lactic acid fermentation starters can effectively inhibit pathogenic bacteria during the fermentation process, enhance product flavour, reduce nitrite production, improve functional and nutritional value, as well as extend shelf‐life. This article comprehensively reviews factors influencing vegetable fermentation; diverse functions performed by lactic acid bacteria throughout the fermentation process and assesses the current industrialisation status of vegetable fermentation in China. It serves as a valuable reference for promoting high‐quality development within the fermented vegetable industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the "double carbon" target was proposed in 2020, emissions reduction has become the focus of the Chinese government's work. Industrial development is a crucial factor contributing to the increase in carbon emissions. Therefore, implementing carbon reduction in the industrial sector is an important part of China's goal of "double carbon." In this context, this paper uses a three‐stage data envelopment analysis model to calculate the green total factor productivity (GTFP) of 18 industry sectors in Shanxi Province. The results show that: (1) the external environment has influence on the GTFP of energy revolution reform pilot area industrial sectors, and the efficiency value of two industries is overestimated before excluding environmental factors; (2) the industry difference of GTFP is significant, among which pharmaceutical manufacturing industry has the greatest promoting effect on GTFP, and ferrous metal mining and dressing industry has the greatest inhibiting effect on GTFP; (3) there is a serious redundancy in R&D investment of energy revolution reform pilot area in China, and only six industries belong to zero redundancy. (4) To reflect the GTFP of various industrial sectors more clearly, this paper divides four industries: "Double‐high" industry, "High‐low" industry, "Low‐high" industry, and "Double‐low" industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Development zones constitute a special type of place‐based policy that has been implemented worldwide. As an essential economic development engine, Chinese National Economic and Technological Development Zones (NETDZs) are perceived as a successful example. However, few studies have looked into the channel effects at work in development zones concerning industrialization and urbanization, despite the crucial nature of such effects with regard to sustainable development of development zones. Following a brief description of NETDZs and their theoretical mechanisms with urban economic performance, industrialization, and urbanization, this study used a simultaneous equation model to generate empirical evidence of the impact of the establishment of NETDZs on urban economic performance and its channel effects through industrialization and urbanization. The results confirm that NETDZs exerts a positive and significant impact on urban economic performance, and NETDZs also show indirect influence in urban growth through urbanization. Although significant and positive intermediation of industrialization remains invalid, foreign direct investment and investment in fixed assets are still crucial in Chinese industrialization. Both industrialization and urbanization play an important role in Chinese urban economic development. Meanwhile, compared with eastern regions more influenced by urbanization, industrialization still acts as a major impetus in inland China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is undergoing important reforms in its welfare system, and some scholars agree that a new 'social policy era' took place in the 2000s–2010s. Although welfare development theories—typically, the industrialisation thesis and the power resources approach—are well established in social policy research, welfare change and its determinants in China are still poorly understood in international literature. Making use of official statistics at the provincial level, this study examines whether industrialisation is associated with welfare development in China during the 'social policy era' (2000–2019). We contribute to welfare development literature by, first, measuring welfare effort in China while addressing comparability issues (the 'dependent variable problem'); and, secondly, testing the industrialisation thesis, amongst others, through a fixed‐effects time‐series‐cross‐section data analysis on provincial‐level statistics covering 30 provinces during 20 time points (2000–2019). Results show that the industrialisation theory is indeed important for welfare development in China, but several less‐developed provinces also experienced substantial improvement in their welfare spending irrespective of their local revenues, suggesting that redistribution at the level of the central government and political reform are increasingly important topics for future welfare studies in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the considerable constraints of karst rocky desertification on the production and life of the locals and the regional economy, few studies have been conducted on areas with karst rocky desertification with the aim of exploring the balance between ecological governance and industrial development. In light of the promotion of featured advantageous industries to ecological governance and industrial development, this study aims to explore the mechanism of industrial revitalization in areas with karst rocky desertification to provide theoretical support for their industrial revitalization. Based on actor‐network theory, this paper presents a case study of Bashan village, a typical area in Guizhou province, China, with karst rocky desertification, to clarify the course of development of its Zanthoxylum bungeanum industry and propose a mechanism for its revitalization. The findings identify the main actors of the revitalization of the Z. bungeanum industry and reveal the driving forces behind it. Moreover, the study found that the industrial revitalization model is a bottom‐up process, which suggests strong endogenous dynamics. Through the revitalization of the featured industries, the results of the management of rocky desertification are transformed into economic output, which improved the livelihood of farmers and consolidated the effectiveness of management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In global pattern reconstruction, ecological civilization construction and integrated urban–rural development in the new era as well as outlining a new framework for rural development and promoting efficient operation of the coordination mechanism for rural development are urgently required. This paper considers three northeastern provinces of China as an example, attempts to analyze the relationship between the subsystems of rural development, and examines the coupling coordination mechanism of population, land, and industry money in the four‐dimensional system. It explores the evolution path and defects of rural development in Northeast China under the background of transformation from a systematic perspective. We found that the coupling degree of "population‐land‐industry‐money" in rural Northeast China is high, while the coordination degree is low. The degree of spatial and temporal differentiation of the coupling coordination degree gradually increases, and the rural development of each province is highly unbalanced. The results also indicate that the main reasons for the low level of the coupling coordination degree are improved land development levels, a relative shortage of labor force, backward industrial development, and increasingly weak rural investment levels. Finally, this paper illustrates that the main solutions to rural revitalization are stimulating rural investment through policies and promoting the revival of agriculture, with financial support as the starting point, before establishing the linkage and mutual feed development of "population‐land‐industry‐money" in rural areas. The results will help countries, especially developing countries, to further consider methods toward achieving rural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of the mechanism of rural economic restructuring is the basis for promoting the optimal restructuring of the rural economy and society as well as for reviving the countryside. We conducted a case study of Gongyi, a typical region experiencing rapid industrialization in inland China and systematically reviewed its economic restructuring process over the past 40 years after China's reform and opening‐up. On the basis of identifying spatial interfaces in Gongyi, we analyzed the influence of these spatial interfaces on the rural economic restructuring in Gongyi using geodetectors. The study showed that the influence of different types of interfaces has had a temporal evolutionary effect, the influence of a single human interface was higher than that of a natural interface. With the different stages of economic development, the influence of the interface is also differentiated. The influence of multiple interfaces increased after superposition, and the superposition of different types of interfaces constituted different patterns of rural economic restructuring in Gongyi. Overall, the influence of physical spatial interfaces on rural economic restructuring has decreased. Therefore, greater attention should be paid to the influence of abstract spatial interfaces in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Insects are the largest biological group on the earth, characterized by high biodiversity, easy rearing, and large populations. The utilization of insects in China has a long history and some insect species have contributed to the formation of characteristic industries. Insect products, such as silk and honey, are already familiar to the public; however, many beneficial insects and their products are not well known to most people, for example, lac insect and lac, gall aphid and Chinese gallnut, and insect wax. A new industry featuring the utilization and industrialization of insects has been rising in China. Chemically, insect products are used as raw materials; agriculturally, insects are utilized to pollinate crops for better yield; natural enemy insects have been reared to control pests; insect protein may be used for human food or animal feed; medicinally, chemical compounds may be extracted from insects as active ingredients for pharmaceutical usage; and ornamental butterfly has been applied in travel sightseeing. Insects' new purpose and function will be exploited as they gain recognition for their resources. This paper reviews insect industrialization in China and discusses the prospect of insect commerce in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aluminum production is a major energy consumer and source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The regional transfer of the primary aluminum (PA) industry, which mainly consists of the processes of electrolysis and aluminum ingot casting, is currently an important international trend in aluminum industrial development. However, the changes in GHG emissions from aluminum production for such transfers are unclear. This study has established a life cycle assessment model of aluminum industry based on regional transfers in the context of China, determined the GHG emissions of PA and secondary aluminum (SA) production, examined the GHG emission changes of PA production based on regional industry transfer between the years 2007 and 2017, and explored seven driving factors that affect GHG emissions in the aluminum industry. GHG emissions per unit PA and SA production in China decreased by 18.6% and 6.3%, respectively, but the total GHG emissions from aluminum industry still increased by 2.2 times between the years 2007 and 2017. The driving factor analysis showed that the major positive effects of GHG emissions from China's aluminum industry from 2007 to 2017 included the production scale effect of SA and the energy structure effect. Existing regional transfers (between the years 2007 and 2017) did not deliver significant annual GHG emissions reductions. Currently, Xinjiang, Henan, Shandong, and Inner Mongolia are the main PA production provinces in China, although regional transfers have been implemented. This study provides a basis for the improvement and sustainable development of the aluminum industry, suggests policies for regional aluminum development, and proposes a beneficial layout of the aluminum industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is no better place to explore the relationship of industry enclaves to urban life than China, where traditional danweis (work units) have coexisted with new foreign direct investment enclaves. Here we draw on original interviews with workers at Wuhan Iron and Steel Company (WISCO) and Foxconn in the city of Wuhan to examine industry enclaves old and new in terms of their spatial arrangement, work, institutions, and social life and identity. The article is one of the first to integrate urban and economic geographical perspectives on the subject of enclaves. It provides evidence of similarities and contrasts in the spatial arrangement of work, institutions, life and identity centred on industry enclaves old and new. These contrasts reflect wider relations between the state and the market and between social subject and commodified labour in China. In conclusion, we identify several research directions concerning the scale, diversity and reach of urban enclavism in China and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sample entropy can be used to investigate the complexity of precipitation series. However, the randomness of similar tolerance selection may lead to inaccurate results. To solve this problem, the distinction degree theory was introduced to optimize the similar tolerance of sample entropy, and a specific reference frame for the optimization process was provided. The optimized sample entropy was used to study the spatial differences in precipitation complexity and the possible causes from the perspective of the monthly precipitation (MP) and extreme daily precipitation (EDP) in Heilongjiang Province, China. The results demonstrated that the MP and EDP in Heilongjiang Province both had unsteady complex fluctuation characteristics and the optimal similar tolerances of the sample entropy were 0.24 and 0.13 times the standard deviation, respectively. The complexity of the EDP was higher than that of the MP, and their fluctuation ranges were 1.641–2.268 and 0.433–0.870, respectively. The complexity of the MP in the study area could be spatially represented as a basic pattern, which gradually decreased from east to west. The spatial distribution pattern of the EDP complexity indicated that the northern part was higher than the southern part. Altitude was the common influencing factor of the MP and EDP complexities, and it had a greater impact on the spatial pattern of the EDP complexity. Potential factors influencing the spatial difference in MP complexity also included changes in precipitation intensity, water area and residential and industrial land areas. Except for altitude, industrial economic development level may also affect the complexity of the EDP. The results may improve the application of sample entropy in climate system complexity measurements and could provide guiding significance for revealing the spatial variation of precipitation complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We test the hypothesis from the theory of ecologically unequal exchange that agricultural exports to China are related to increased forest loss in low‐ and middle‐income nations exporting to it. We do so by analyzing data for 75 low‐ and middle‐income nations using ordinary least squares regression. We find support for our hypothesis that flows of agricultural exports from low‐ and middle‐income nations to China are related to increased forest loss in exporting nations. We also find that a country's total agricultural exports, proximity of forest to infrastructure, and protected areas tend to increase forest loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study revisits region‐specific determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Eastern, Central, and Western China using econometric and spatial analyses. It uses a data set covering 31 Chinese provinces and autonomous regions spanning the period 2005–15, together with panel data regression. Our statistical results show that in Eastern China, FDI is significantly associated with bilateral trade, orientation towards the service industry, industrialisation level, and availability of strategic assets in the region. In Central China, FDI is mainly pulled by availability of the domestic market and strategic assets in the region. In Western China, FDI inflows are mainly determined by natural resource endowment, industrialisation level, and regional innovation and production effectiveness in information and communication technology industries. Our analysis also reveals the impact of FDI in China's regional development and its capacity to hollow out the three Chinese macro‐regions. Our findings for China lead us to suggest that those governments seeking to attract FDI should not solely rely on it to facilitate local economic development and should make use of local circumstances in combination with FDI to boost their economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing upon a panel dataset on China's state‐owned construction land supply at the prefecture level, this paper adopts the spatial panel data model to investigate the existence of spatial dependence in the mechanisms behind China's urban land expansion from 2004 to 2014. The empirical results show that China's urban land expansion has been mainly influenced by a quadruple process of urbanization, industrialization, globalization and decentralization. The strong existence of spatial dependence in China's urban land expansion can be reflected by the significant coefficient estimates of the spatial lags of both the dependent variable and independent variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study exposes and maps a hitherto little‐known dimension of China's urban geography – that of shrinkage, directly affecting one in 10 of its cities. Urban shrinkage is revealed to be a growing concern for the most populous country on earth, with the absolute number of shrinking cities rising by 71% from 164 in the 1990s to 281 in the 2000s. By developing its own definition of the city as an urban area (UA) in the Chinese political‐administrative context, this paper builds a morphologic taxonomy of China's shrinking cities. This reveals the overall net population loss across Chinese shrinking cities more than doubling since 1990, reaching 7.3 million inhabitants in 2010. Sixty‐eight Chinese UAs, mostly in north‐eastern China, are found to have been shrinking continuously since 1990. Despite the multifaceted and entangled make‐up of urban shrinkage, the paper identifies four distinct causes of this geographical phenomenon in China: (1) state‐incubated reindustrialisation and economic restructuring, impacting upon 63% of all shrinking UAs; (2) the country's new economic geography, with the underlying centripetal forces of agglomeration pushing around 34% of all shrinking cities towards marginalisation; (3) state‐propelled demographic change, leading to natural population decline in 26% of Chinese shrinking cities; and (4) state‐sponsored mega‐shrinkage, responsible for urban population loss in almost 20% of all the cases. This study further provides a theoretically informed reflection on the peculiarity of shrinkage in China and its public policy implications. This study exposes and maps a hitherto little‐known dimension of China's urban geography – that of shrinkage, directly affecting one in ten of its cities. The paper also identifies four distinct causes of this geographical phenomenon in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this article we analyse the conditions for industrial upgrading in the Chinese LED industry, which proactive local state policies and expanding domestic markets have greatly facilitated. State initiatives provoked overinvestment, but eventually led to the emergence of competitive domestic enterprises. Simultaneously, firms benefited from a growing domestic market on which they outcompeted foreign companies in mid‐price segments. The combination of these factors accounts for the peculiarly Chinese upgrading experience. Neither the resources provided by a new version of the ‘developmental state’ nor domestic market growth alone can explain the Chinese players' success. Based on these results, and given that the emerging economies have become the most important markets for certain consumer goods – a development that (local) industrial policies for industrial upgrading can influence – we provide further proof that it is necessary to rethink the export‐led upgrading paradigm in theories of globally dispersed production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Maritime industrial development areas (MIDAs) are spatial tools designed to accelerate economic growth in backwards coastal areas and thus alleviate regional disparities, and they have widely expanded in both developed and developing countries over the past sixty years. This paper reviews the global development of MIDAs in different historical periods and compares them with cases on China's Liaoning coast in terms of their structure, location, administration, national political‐economic climate and theoretical justification. The results indicate that although those countries have different institutional environments they seemingly once took the same path in their specific stages of development. However, the experiences of developed countries and other developing ones and the current dilemma of MIDAs in coastal Liaoning together demonstrate that MIDAs cannot achieve the policy targets anticipated by decision makers, especially during the economic transitions of China. This finding cautions backwards countries and their lagging areas, such as northeastern China, that the traditional pattern tried by the first developed countries may not be appropriate when the development tool (e.g., MIDAs) is examined in both the framework of international comparison and the socioeconomic setting of a specific country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: China has more than 1,500 industrial parks, which, collectively, play a crucial role in facilitating industrialization and urbanization. A key characteristic of these parks is that most rely on shareable energy infrastructure, an efficient configuration that can also deliver substantial and sustainable reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This study offers strategies for mitigating GHG emissions from Chinese industrial parks. We focus on extensive data collection for the 106 industrial parks listed in the national demonstration eco‐industrial park (EIP) program. In doing so, we carefully examine the evolution of 608 serviceable energy infrastructure units by vintage year, fuel type, energy output, and technologies of combined heat and power units. We assess direct GHG emissions from both energy infrastructure and the parks, and then identify the features and driving forces of energy infrastructure development in the EIPs. We also offer recommendations for ways to mitigate the GHG emissions from these industrial parks. The energy infrastructure stocks in Chinese EIPs are characterized by heavy coal dependence (87% of capacity) and high ratios of direct GHG emissions versus the total direct emissions of the park (median value: 75.2%). These findings establish a baseline from which both technology and policy decisions can then be made in an informed way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creative destruction is a key driving force behind industrial development. The continuing process of creative destruction provides an impetus to regional industrial renewal. Our analytical framework emphasizes the ways in which firm exit creates a stimulus for firm entry is complementary to the process of technological change and industrial renewal articulated by Schumpeter who pays attention to how new entrants bring in radical innovation and new products, making incumbents' products and technologies obsolete and forcing them to exit or catch up. Using firm-level data of China's industries during 1998-2008, this paper seeks to argue that the relationship between firm exit and entry has been constantly shaped by an assemblage of various factors, including not only firm characteristics, but also industrial linkages, and most importantly, national and regional institutional contexts, particularly in the context of China where a triple process of decentralization, globalization, and privatization has resulted in enormous spatial and temporal variations in the economic and institutional landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study estimates how highways affected industrial development in China's peripheral regions between 1998 and 2007, a period during which China experienced rapid growth in highway mileage. Highways between major cities pass through some counties but not others. Based on this difference in counties' access to highways, we conduct a difference-in-difference propensity score matching estimation, with the treatment variables being counties' highway connection status and their industrial performance before and after being connected to a highway. We find that highways promote industrial development in counties with higher output and greater investment levels. Moreover, highways have differential impacts across industries and regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the early 2000s, the 'race to the bottom' that typified the 'China price' and the model of export-oriented industrialization has been challenged by various factors, triggering another round of industrial restructuring and producing new economic geographies of production and employment in China. This paper provides a review of existing research on the new economic geographies of China's manufacturing industries. In doing so, we seek to show how critical engagements with China may help us 'theorize back' at the dominant discourses and theories in economic geography (e.g., global value chain, global production network, new regionalism, spatial fix, and labor agency theories). Specifically, this paper focuses on two strands of literature that have engaged critically with China and sought to remake the economic geography through new insights from China-one on China's new geographical and industrial dynamics and the other on the issue of labor agency and labor regime in China. We argue that the sheer pace and rapidity of regional dynamics in China provide a fertile ground for new conceptual development, methodological innovation, and empirical insights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been over a hundred years since the birth of research on Chinese geosciences history, which was accompanied by the continuous progress of Chinese geosciences. For hundreds of years, it has grown out of nothing to brilliant performance by several generations of Chinese geologists committing their hearts and minds with the spirit of exert and strive without stop to promote the process of China's industrialization and to produce the significant impact on serving the society. The study of Chinese geosciences history reflects objectively and historically the history of geosciences in China, which has recorded, analyzed and evaluated the dynamic process sitting in the background and clue of the history of Chinese geosciences development. The study of the history of geological science has roughly experienced two stages in China. The first stage is the study of individual researchers. It spanned approximately 70 years from the early 20th century to the end of the 1970s. The research contents were mainly based on the evolution of geological organizations, the development and utilization of individual mineral species, the history of deposit discovery and the research of geological characters. The main representatives are Zhang Hongzhao, Ding Wenjiang, Weng Wenhao and Li Siguang, Ye Liangfu, Huang Jiqing, Yang Zhongjian, Xie Jiarong, Gao Zhenxi, Wang Bingzhang and etc. The most prominent feature of this period is the accumulation of a very valuable document for the study of the history of China's geological history and lays a foundation for the exchange of geological science between China and foreign countries. The second stage is organized group study. It took around 60 years from the 1920s to 1980s. It includes the history of Chinese geology, the history of geological organizations, the history of geological disciplines, the history of geological education, the history of geological philosophy, the history of Chinese and foreign geological science communication, the history of geologists and etc. The most chief feature of this stage is the birth of academic research institute-the establishment of the Commission on the History of Geology of the Geological Society of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By comparing different historical narratives of the Third Front Construction that was built as a home-front defensive industrial base against the threat of war from both the Soviet Union and the United States in the 1960s, this paper aims to explore a particular aspect of China's socialist history in a relational manner that contrasts but also connects past and present, archives and subjectivity, top-down and bottom-up perspectives. It is part of a larger effort to understand the complexity of China's socialist history and its relation to the present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a paper of two parts. The first suggests a number of questions concerning agrarian change in capitalism, grouped by their concern with social forces and dynamics internal to the countryside, rural-urban interconnections internal to the 'national', the contributions of agriculture to industrialization likewise within the 'national' and those 'external' determinants grounded in capitalist world economy. The second part draws on the papers in this special issue by Chinese scholars, to argue the continuing relevance of questions about commodification, differentiation and accumulation from below and from above, in agrarian change in China today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the mid-2000s, rural development and politics in China has entered a new phase that revolves around what the central government calls 'agricultural modernization'. Transforming the once-dominant smallholding, family-based agriculture has become a focal point of the government's programme of rural rejuvenation, where a range of economic changes unleashed by urbanization and industrialization also converge. We argue that in this new context, agrarian change has become the key vantage point from which to study rural China. We review key contributions of the papers in this special issue and highlight their insights on rural differentiation, land politics and rural livelihoods. We discuss how studying the ' Chinese path' of agrarian transition can contribute to ongoing debates on key themes in agrarian studies, including both the agrarian questions of capital and of labour, and how agrarian political economy offers unique perspectives on the overall processes of capitalist development in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the effects of policy instruments for developing viable eco-industrial parks (EIPs) in China. We analyzed the root of China's national EIP program and inventoried the general instruments available to local authorities to shape and promote eco-industrial development. Empirical research conducted in Tianjin Economic-technological Development Area and Dalian Development Area led to the activities and actions conducted by local authorities. A quantitative method, technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution, was adopted to reveal the effects of policy instruments for comparative analysis. We conclude that the planned EIP model is useful in the early stage of EIP development, and, subsequently, it should be combined with a facilitated model to achieve long-term goals for eco-transformation. To this end, the policy package of economic, regulatory, and voluntary instruments should be integrated and tailored in alignment with the local situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Deng Xiaoping's market reforms have unleashed an irresistible drive towards urban expansion in China over the last three decades. Yet despite the relentless expansion of urban boundaries and the rapid growth of a property market in China, land transactions that involve the surrender of land leases by Chinese peasants are conducted in an unstable institutional setting. Increasingly, people are questioning the existing regulatory framework for rural land transactions, with the result that an institutional void is threatening to open up. This article focuses on one of the most important spontaneous efforts to fill this void in recent years: the Nanhai land-based shareholding cooperative experiment in southern China. This is a story of institutional change at the grassroots level. The article identifies the source of institutional entrepreneurship, evaluates the dynamics of the insider-driven process, and explains how and why the experiment is failing. An ineffective monitoring mechanism, growing conflict over the allocation of returns, a changing social landscape, and pecuniary temptation all play a role, while the ad hoc nature of the experiment also fails to instill the confidence and stability necessary for long-term investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the rapid industrialization and urbanization of China, an estimated 252 million farmers have migrated from impoverished rural areas to prosperous urban regions, seeking off-farm employment. In China, these are referred to as migrant workers. Workers' compensation insurance law represents one of the most vital formal institutions for Chinese migrant workers. Through in-depth interviews with migrant workers and employers, the authors find that instead of making a formal claim based on workers' compensation insurance law, most injured migrant workers adopt informal channels (e.g. bargaining, negotiation, threats, violence) to receive compensation from employers. Even when migrant workers are insured in accordance with the law, they may be denied legal insurance compensation and thus turn to informal private settlement. Generally, the amount of compensation acquired by means of informal private settlement is significantly smaller than that awarded in the case of legal insurance compensation. This practice reveals that, like some other formal institutions in China, workers' compensation insurance law is merely a symbolic ornament, window-dressing for the public, which are referred to as 'ornamental institutions'. In the way they are designed, set up and funded, these ornamental institutions can easily prove illusory since they conceal an anarchic world wherein diverse informal channels of social actors emerge, which reflect the reality of Chinese society. Therefore, only through deep empirical research, like this study, can one see beyond the facade of modernity in contemporary China, observe the reality of social actors, and reflect upon the functioning of ornamental institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper aims to provide empirical evidence on the extent and possible channels of tax competition among provincial governments in China. Using a panel of provincial-level data for 1993-2007, we find strong evidence of strategic tax interaction among provincial governments. Tax policy is approximated by average effective tax rates on foreign investment, taking into account the tax incentives available to foreign investors. In line with the predictions of the theoretical tax competition literature, we also highlight the impact of each province's characteristics (including its size and level of industrialization) on the strategic interaction with its neighbors. Finally, the paper explicitly identifies the establishment of development zones as an important conduit for tax competition among provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major programme of health reform was announced in 2009. China is growing fast, and is beginning to engage with the international social policy community to discuss and review the consequences of rapid industrialization. As a specific part of social policy, health policy shares some of the characteristics of a policy area driven by the consequences of industrialization, but it also has its own particular features. This article reviews the general relationship between state and citizens in the health field by way of an introduction before focussing more specifically on Chinese patterns of health inequalities, and the pressures for reform. The 2009 reform of health policy and its dynamics are then presented, and the article concludes that there has been a deterioration in Chinese health policy, which threatens to undermine the benefits of economic growth for Chinese people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although industrialization first occurred in England, it is thought that China, not England, may have been the world leader in technology at the time. Yet, China did not industrialize until 150 yr after England and nearly a century after less advanced European countries. This represents a puzzle because two-sector neoclassical growth models, such as Hansen and Prescott (2002) , that accurately match industrialization, require that more technologically advanced countries industrialize at an earlier date. I find that a model that accounts for cross-country heterogeneities in population density accurately predicts the timing of industrialization in China. ( JEL F43, N10, N30, O11, O14, O41) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The household registration (hukou) system in China, classifying each person as a rural or an urban resident, is a major means of controlling population mobility and determining eligibility for state-provided services and welfare. Established in the late 1950s, it was initially used to bar rural-to-urban migration. After the late 1970s reforms, an inflow of rural migrant workers was allowed into the cities to meet labor demands in the burgeoning export industries and urban services without, however, changing the migrants' registered status, thus precluding their access to subsidized housing and other benefits available to those with urban registration. While there have been many calls for reforming this system, progress has been limited. Proposed reforms have attracted increasing academic and media attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the statement of environmentalist Lester Brown on the economic and environmental condition of China. He states that the country has a large potential grain deficit that overwhelms the export capacity of the U.S. due to a rapid growth of industrialization and population. He adds that the country is facing a daunting challenge of meeting increasing water demands while protecting the environment and ecosystems from damage.

As one branch of industrial ecology, the ecoindustrial park (EIP) concept is being accepted and implemented in many parts of the world. In order to pursue a sustainable industrial development, China's government is forging this concept into a new strategy of industrial development and regional practices. This article aims to depict a picture of current China's experiences on EIP. It first presents two stages of EIP development at national level. Then more details at individual level are provided by three cases studies, that is, Dafeng, Lubei, and Nanhai, in which three points are addressed: (1) the industrial and environmental backgrounds of EIP projects; (2) specific resource sharing; and (3) benefits and challenges in these projects. The case studies show that the government acts as a key role player, facilitating multiple functions in the development of EIP projects. The case studies also suggest that many factors including holistic, economic, social, and technical aspects need to be taken into account to develop a successful EIP project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informal housing and industrial developments in the so-called urban villages have been key features of the recent Chinese urbanization. In this article we will examine the development of urban villages in one of the most dynamic Chinese cities — Shenzhen. The article first reviews the urbanization and migration process in the region and the emergence of urban villages. It then examines informal housing, commercial and industrial developments in these villages. We analyse the politics of village urbanization and highlight the important relationship between migration and informal village development. We emphasize the contribution made by urban villages in providing affordable housing and jobs for the low-income population during the rapid urbanization and urge cautious consideration with regard to hasty and large-scale redevelopment of these villages. We conclude that the development of urban villages is a very important part of the urbanization process. Résumé L’habitat informel et les aménagements commerciaux et industriels dans les villages dits urbains constituent des caractéristiques essentielles de la récente urbanisation chinoise. Cet article examine le développement des villages urbains dans l’une des villes les plus dynamiques: Shenzhen. L’article revient d’abord sur les processus d’urbanisation et de migration dans la région et sur l’émergence des villages urbains. Il s’attache ensuite à l’habitat informel, ainsi qu’aux aménagements commerciaux et industriels, dans ces villages. La politique d’urbanisation des villages est analysée, mettant en évidence le lien important entre migration et aménagement informel des villages. L’étude souligne que les villages urbains fournissent des logements accessibles financièrement et des emplois à la population à faible revenu pendant la phase rapide d’urbanisation, et insiste sur les précautions à prendre vis-à-vis d’un réaménagement précipité et à grande échelle de ces villages. La conclusion met en avant combien le développement des villages urbains est important dans le processus d’urbanisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Insecta is the biggest group of animals on earth. The insects are thought to be one of the biggest biological resources that have not been fully exploited by humans. China is one of the earliest countries to exploit insect resources in the world and has been the top producer for over one thousand years of many insect-related industrial products, such as silk, insect wax and Chinese gallnuts. The exploitation and industrialization of insect resources in China is generally classified into four different levels. The first level is the direct utilization of insect bodies and their secretions, the history of which can be traced back for thousands of years. This level includes the culture and utilization of the silkworm Bombyx mori, the Chinese honeybee Apis cerana cerana, the Chinese white-wax scale Ericerus pela, the Chinese gall aphid Schlechtendalia chinensis, and the lac insects Kerria spp. Additionally, numerous other insects are typically used for Chinese traditional medicines and food, such as Eupolyphaga sinensis, Opisthoplatia orientalis, Aspongopus chinensis, Martianus dermestoides, Polyrhachis vicina, Hepialus spp, Vespa, Hydrillodes repugnalis, and Tenebrio molitor. Pollinators ( Megachile rotundata, Osmia cornifrons, O. excavata) and ornamental insects like butterflies, katydids Gampsocleis grafiosa, and fighting crickets Scapsipedes micado are also among the insects included in this level. Accordingly, a related industry is insect-breeding, including sericulture and apiculture, which lays the basis for all insect industrialization. The second level is the utilization of insects as enemies of pests and insect pathogens for biological control. The enemy insects, including the egg parasites tricogramma Trichogramma spp, the seven spotted lady beetle Coccinella septempunctata, the Chinese green lacewing Chrysopa sinica, and Anastatus sp. could be produced in large scale. The insect pathogens that have been extensively used for commercial biocontrol in China include Helicoverpa armigera Nucleopolyhedrovirus (HaSNPV), Ectropis oblique Nucleopolyhedrovirus (EcobNPV), Spodoptera exigua multicapsid nucleopolyhedrovirus (SeMNPV), Autographa californica multicapsid nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV), Plutella xylostella Granulosis (PxGV), Pieris rapae granulosis (PiraGV), and Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). Related industries include the biopesticide industry and the enemy insect production industry. The third level of utilization is the extraction and synthesis of insect materials with diverse bioactivities. Some insect pheromones and hormones extracted from insect bodies or chemically synthesized have been used for insect pest control and for regulating the silkworm breeding. Toxins from honeybees and wasps have been used in medicine. Some insect materials from the larvae of honeybees, silkworms, tasar silkworms, and houseflies have been developed into health products. The fourth level is using the insects as bioreactors to produce peptides for medical and veterinary uses. Hundreds of foreign genes have been successfully expressed in the insect cells and larvae. The hGM-CSF expressed in silkworm pupae is commercially available. In this article, we review the culture and utilization of important industrial insects in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we address two major questions. First, the question of whether China and India are displacing the African manufacturing export from the third market. Second, whether there is an evidence of shifting comparative advantage from China and India to Africa. We employed a gravity model with a panel data using 13 African exporters of clothing and accessories for the period 1995–2005 to answer the first question. To answer the second question, we used a flying-geese model and estimated Spearman's rank correlation coefficients on indices of the revealed comparative advantage vectors of the African exporters and China and India for the same period. Both the gravity and flying-geese models predicted similar outcomes. We found that there is strong evidence that China has been displacing African manufactures from the third market while India has been complementing it in the early years of the study. However, the overall third market impact of China and India has been that of complementarity in the later years of the study period. This result is found to vary across countries. Furthermore, we found evidence of shifting comparative advantage from China and India to Africa as the flying-geese theory predicts, South Africa being the leading goose followed by Kenya. The major implication of the study is that, in the world where China and India are reshaping the global economic order dynamically, the outcomes of the traditionally received wisdom of trade liberalization and industrialization policies through export promotion may be uncertain and requires strategic thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the start of the so-called development race sixty years ago, China, showcasing revolutionary socialism, and India, boasting parliamentary democracy, had close similarities in economic structures and levels of development, but striking differences in terms of cultural cohesion, institutional flexibility and political orientation. The outcome of the race is unambiguous: the question is not who won, but why and how? It is argued here that a wide margin had already opened up in China's favour by the time of the systemic or policy-regime switch-points, 1978 in China, and shortly thereafter in India. The author seeks explanations for this differential performance in the divergent institutional configurations of the two societies and economies, especially in the rural sector in the pre-reform period, and highlights the contrast between the power of the Chinese mass mobilization mode of transformation and the persistent institutional rigidities and obstacles in the Indian case. Post-reforms, processes of ‘pervergence’— an emerging congruence in negative social features — appear to dominate over tendencies towards conventional convergence. The author reflects on the historical significance of the two development paths: did Nehruvian state-led planned development and Maoist socialism serve essentially as pioneers of capitalism, leveraging the re-launching of the two once-powerful Asian giants back into the global capitalist game on dramatically revised terms of engagement? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The restructuring of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) is a central aspect of their reform in transitional China. This study traces the processes by which large industrial SOEs in Lanzhou are reorganised externally and expanded internally, and analyses their effects on regional industrial development. The study is qualitative, based on enterprise surveys and their historical documents. The paper demonstrates that the reorganisation process was government-pushed, and that the government also played some role in the diversification and performance of large SOEs. In addition, the diversification of large SOEs in Lanzhou was subject to market conditions and SOE-specific factors, and the influence of the national reorganisation policy on industrial development in Lanzhou was linked to the product and scale structure of local enterprises. As such, the study calls for a context approach that analyses the reorganisation and diversification of large enterprises in transitional China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1990s, the introduction of a market economy and the process of rapid urbanization have been accompanied by a new urban poverty related to lay-offs and unemployment as well as by large-scale rural–urban migration, which is different from the traditional urban poverty of the ‘Three Nos’ (no relatives or dependants, no working capacity and no source of income). This article focuses on new urban poverty in China under market transition and discusses the causes of poverty creation. Instead of considering Chinese new urban poverty only as a result of market mechanisms, it argues that the state as the manipulator of institutions and policies does matter in the creation of new urban poverty, and that the cleavages between the old and new institutions further intensify it. Specifically, the following aspects of the creation of new urban poverty are examined in detail: the adjustment of industrial policy, the reform of state-owned enterprises, evolution of the household registration system, and the transformation of the welfare state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In the 1970s, as the now compact, mature economies in East and Southeast Asia were industrializing, their governments had claimed that they saw no need for the kind of welfare programmes developed in Western “welfare states”. Notwithstanding this claim, a study of social welfare development in these economies in the last three decades, particularly when Hong Kong is taken as an example, shows that they have gone for universal social welfare, largely as a result of the growing prosperity and the rising expectations of the people. This trend has, however, been reversed since the start of the Asian financial crisis in the latter part of 1997, with the resultant slowing down of the economy, rising unemployment and surging fiscal deficits. Governments of the compact, mature economies in East and Southeast Asia found that they must rethink their social commitments and in order to return to balanced budgets, the former selective approach is now adopted by concentrating social welfare resources on the most needy people. While it is not in dispute that there is a close and positive relationship between industrialization and social welfare, the case of the compact, mature economies in East and Southeast Asia shows that as they are more vulnerable to world economic vicissitudes, the relationship may not be as steady as it has been in the Western industrial states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last two decades, social and economic changes in transitional economies have produced many new outcomes. In this article, I examine seine of the ways in which China's transition has produced gendered outcomes and highlight evidence of these outcomes. I argue that during transition the state has shifted its goals to economic ones, but unlike capitalist economies it still has at its disposal instruments of social control. Peasants are made more vulnerable and must rely on migrant work for survival, but their low institutional status relegates them to outsider status in urban areas. These circumstances, together with socio-cultural traditions that constrain women's mobility and endorse stratifications, have enabled the development of a labor regime that fosters segmentation and division of labor. Peasant migrants' reliance on social network further reinforces segregation in the urban labor market. Using multiple sources of macro-level and field surveys, I examine both quantitative and qualitative evidence of gender segregation and division of labor. The findings show that a high degree of gender segregation among rural-urban migrants exists in the urban labor market, that peasant women's urban work opportunities are short-lived, and that upon marriage women migrants are relegated back to the village and to the 'inside', in part to sustain gender division of labor as a household strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deals with the special economic zones and industrialization in China. Discussion on the infrared ideology; Construction of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, from where the Chinese Suburbia originated; Aims of the Law of Transfer of Land-Use Rights.

The author analyzes five anthropogenic driving forces of land-use change in China: population growth, urbanization, industrialization, changes in lifestyles and consumption, and shifts in political and economic arrangements and institutions. The intention is to demonstrate the broad range of factors other than biogeophysical conditions that will affect future land-use patterns in China. A first set of statistical data was collected to analyze these demographic and socioeconomic trends. The author also includes new estimates on China's cultivated land area, indicating that it is more seriously underreported in official statistics than previously acknowledged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Atmospheric pollution in China comes mainly from human activities such as urbanization and industrialization. Such activities have become more prominent in the last 10 years, and in urban and industrial areas air pollution is typically a coal-smoke smog. (2) Air pollution monitoring indicates that in 22.2% of sixty-four cities the second grade National Air Quality Standard for sulphur dioxide (24-h mean concentration 015 tug m-3) is exceeded by 30%. The 24-h mean concentration of total suspended particulates in all. cities exceeds the second grade National Air Quality Standard (0mg m-3) by 97%, whilst nitrogen oxides are below the second grade standard (0.3 mg m-3). The quality of air in most cities continues to deteriorate. (3) Simulation studies on the effects of air pollution typical of some urban and industrial areas on local crops and vegetables suggested that ambient concentrations of sulphur dioxide and fluoride could reduce the growth and yield of crops. by 5-25%. (4) Fumigation studies on the physiological and biochemical responses of plants to air pollution demonstrated a reduction in chlorophyll content; inhibition of photosynthesis; increases in potassium leakage, stomatal resistance, respiration and proline; and increases in superoxide dismutase and peroxidase activities as the concentration and exposure time of sulphur dioxide and fluoride increase, Preliminary studies on the injury mechanisms of sulphur dioxide indicate that free radicles participate in the course of injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's reform practice over the past decade goes well beyond social transformation theories. While China's social transformation shares certain common features with that of other countries it has unique characteristics: the transformation of social structures was carried out with the transformation of the economic system, while the whole social transformation process showed a tendency to spread from rural to urban areas. The new experience of China's social transformation has attracted the attention of scholars from various disciplines across the world, especially sociologists and economists. Industrialization is a necessary condition for modernization. The transformation from a traditional to a modern society in essence is the transformation from an agricultural to an industrial one. After organizational changes in rural administration and occupational changes among the rural residents are taken into consideration, the actual number of urban residents still showed a substantial increase, the proportion of the total population accounting for about 30 per cent.

In this review, the author summarized the current status, challenges, and strategies in China in the development of transgenic plants and its commercialization. Based on sets of successful examples and data achieved from execution of the National Special Project for Transgenic Plant Research and Commercialization in the last five years, the priorities and key directions were put forward for the future development of transgenic plants in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the rapid industrialization and urbanization in China focusing on its need of minerals in the mid-21st Century and mineral ores' relation to energy conservation.