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In the existing literature on foreign direct investment, it is often assumed that multinational corporations and their direct investments reduce institutional differences among economies. Building upon this assumption, those influenced by management studies and mainstream economics see multinational corporations as an agent that upgrades local business conventions to global standards. Geographers do not usually accept this convergence theory and claim differences among host economies prevents convergence in business practices. The difference between these groups of scholars is that the non-convergence camp acknowledges the resilience of local business practices while the convergence camp does not. The papers comprising this special issue question this shared assumption of foreign direct investment as a cause of convergence. As outlined in this introductory paper, and explored in detail in the following papers, we pay attention to the simple fact that the foreign direct investment is from a company or individual whose business practices are inherently influenced by their experiences of business in the nation or region of origin, and these experiences indelibly influence, to varying degrees, their local operations in investment destination. Once we accept such an obvious fact, recent debates on variety of capitalism and related literatures on the developmental state, welfare regime and other concepts all become relevant to understanding of the local operation of foreign-owned businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Declining levels of trust in the media in Western democracies have drawn the attention of political scientists, but much less attention has been paid to East Asia. This paper sets out to examine the logic behind media trust in three different types of regimes in East and Southeast Asia: countries with, partial, and no press freedom, respectively. Our findings show that while respondents' trust in government and support for socioideological control of the government have consistent and significant associations with their media trust across all 12 countries, Internet usage, online political participation, support for media censorship, and patriotic belief have different associations with the variable being studied as the degree of press freedom varies. The findings indicate that citizens are well aware of the role mass media plays in the political system and thus their trust in the media reflects the expectation‐perception gap of the government‐media relationship accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two new species of the thread-legged bug genus Ademula McAtee & Malloch, 1926 (Hemiptera: Reduviidae: Emesinae: Emesini, formerly Ploiariolini) from China, A. callipennis, new species, and A. corniculata, new species, are described and illustrated in the present paper. COI barcodes of these two new species and an updated key to the Oriental species of Ademula are provided. The distribution of Ademula in East and Southeast Asia is briefly discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

East Asia offers a fertile ground for applying dominant theoretical perspectives in International Relations and understanding their relevance and limitations. As this region has seen much conflict and cooperation historically and is re-emerging as a key theater of great power competition in the 21st century even when states maintain high levels of economic interactions, our understanding of the regional order will be enhanced by the theoretical tools available in the larger mainstream IR perspectives. The existence of a peculiar regional order of no war, yet a number of simmering disputes (along with high levels of economic interdependence) can be characterized as cold peace which deserves an explanation. The paper applies two variants of realism—balance of power and hegemonic stability – and the key arguments in liberalism to analyze the cold peace in Northeast Asia and normal peace in Southeast Asia from a historical perspective. It finds both grand theoretical approaches have partial applications for understanding the East Asian order. A hybrid approach is more valuable to better explain regional order during diverse time periods and different sub-regions of East Asia. Although the presence of both hegemony and balance of power can prevent major wars for a period, they do not help resolve the pre-existing disputes. Deepened economic interdependence mitigates some spiraling tendencies as states fearful of losing too much economically do not escalate crises beyond a point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The state of the natural environment of the marginal seas of the Northwest Pacific is largely controlled by the interaction of the atmospheric and hydrophysical processes. Tropical cyclones (typhoons), originating in the tropical zone of the Northwest Pacific and over the South China Sea basin, occupy a special place among atmospheric processes. The main destructive impact of typhoons falls on Southeast Asia. However, a significant number of are moving to the Russian Far East. The region of the South China Sea plays a significant role in the formation of tropical cyclones. This determines the importance of studying hydrometeorological processes not only in the Far East, but also in the South China Sea, and the need for cooperation between Vietnamese and Russian scientists. The main hydrodynamic structure of the western South China Sea is the Vietnamese Coastal Current (Western Boundary current), which depends not only on the seasonal monsoons but also on typhoons. The paper presents the results of joint Russian–Vietnamese studies of the dependence of the vertical structure of the Vietnamese Coastal Current on the Pacific tropical cyclones that form in the South China Sea. The study is done with numerical modeling. The period from April to June 1999 was used for modeling, provided with the necessary field data. The simulation results showed that, in general, the structure of water masses depends on the trajectories of tropical cyclones. In all cases considered, the Vietnamese Coastal Current is not a single flow, but represents a zone of eddy structures of different directions. An exception is the only situation in the condition of a tropical cyclone in the central region of the South China Sea when this current acquired the form of a single continuous flow directed from north to south only in the 200-m layer. The general patterns of changes in the dynamic structure of the Vietnamese Coastal Current for all the considered tropical cyclone trajectories include the following: areas with water transport in the northern direction prevail on the surface, while the rest of the water mass continues to flow generally in the southern direction. This transport of surface waters may be due to the influence of the emerging summer monsoon, and the rest of the water mass, which is less exposed to the still weak atmospheric processes of the monsoon type, continues to flow in the winter regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diatom records in tropical settings have been used to appraise paleomonsoons throughout the Quaternary period due to their ubiquitous presence, rapid response, and preservation in sediments. Despite this, diatoms have been rarely used to assess the Asian monsoonal climate. As the Asian monsoon comprises the Indian and East Asian subsystems, it plays a significant role in global hydrological and energy cycles. Keeping global climate in mind, we reviewed the dynamics and causes of Asian monsoon variability (covering major records exclusive from the tropics) on different spatial and temporal scales using diatoms as a proxy record. The data have been compiled from 50 papers spanning fresh and marine sediment archives, covering entire monsoon regimes, predominantly from Southeast Asia. This study classified the data based on various geological periods ranging from the Pleistocene Epoch to the Holocene Meghalayan age (600 ka −300 a BP). Diatom proxies indicate fluctuating hydrological conditions and varying monsoon intensity throughout the Quaternary period and show regional scale coherence for specific climatic events. Diatom records from both inland and marine sediment archives indicate a wet and warm period during the mid–Pleistocene (590–300 kyr) and a cold climate and weakened East Asian monsoon during 300–140 kyr. Through the late Pleistocene period (75 to 15 kyr), monsoonal conditions were intense, wet and warm during the interglacial stages and weaker and dry during glacial stages across South and East Asia. During the Last Glacial Maximum (24.5–18 kyr), the monsoon significantly weakened with cold climatic conditions in southern Asia, and increased precipitation across East Asia. A majority of the published records witnessed an enhanced Asian monsoon and a warm and humid period towards the early to mid–Holocene, with a decline in the monsoon after the mid–Holocene accompanying intermittent intense wetter conditions. Diatom records from the sediment archives at many geographic locations hold signatures of extreme events such as the Younger Dryas cold event around 13.3–11.3 kyr BP, the Medieval Warm Period around 1.3 to 0.8 kyr, and the Little Ice Age in between 0.6 and 0.3 kyr. Further, we indicate that several sites from different monsoon-dominated geographic-climatic zones should be re-investigated with high resolution across spatial and temporal palaeoclimatic periods (including existing databases) with careful diatom taxonomy to strengthen a climatic reconstruction of this monsoon-dominated region of Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Herein, we present a comprehensive list of fishes in the Red River basin. • We verify the use of two fish fauna analyses to identify characteristic taxa. • The TFFA and VFFP methods were compared; the TFFA reflected the main fish taxa. • The VFFP results indicated the taxa representative of the Red River basin. • Data from fish fauna analyses should be used as indicators to plan fish preserves. The composition of fish fauna in the Red River basin was analyzed based on 288 fish species belonging to 138 genera, 53 families (subfamilies), and 14 orders, using the Traditional Fish Fauna Analysis (TFFA) and the Value of Fish Fauna Presence (VFFP) methods. The TFFA and VFFP methods allow for a ranking of the taxa according to commonality and uniqueness of the taxa to the river basin; however, both methods provide different, complimentary results. Based on the results from the TFFA method, 15 families (subfamilies), including 85 genera and 219 species, were identified as the main fish taxa in the Red River basin. Based on the results of the VFFP method, 17 families (subfamilies), including 89 species and 52 genera, were highlighted as representative families (subfamilies) and genera in the Red River basin. Overall, Cypriniformes was the most abundant order, followed by Siluriformes and Gobiiformes. Although the Red River basin is geographically situated in Southeast Asia, it had obvious characteristics of East Asian fish fauna rather than Southeast Asian fish fauna. Therefore, the Red River fish fauna can be considered the boundary between the fish fauna of Southeast Asia and East Asia. This paper further detailed the indexes and calculations of the TFFA and VFFP methods. The authors proposed using the results of the TFFA and VFFP methods as indicators for planning fish preserves as well as discussed the specific methods related to using these indicators to plan and establish fish preserves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]