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The Afro-Sino engagement supports the study of international relations beyond the framework of a West-centric narrative. Ken Kamoche's fictionalisation of African immigrants in China, and Ufrieda Ho's narration of the vicissitudes of Chinese communities in South Africa, contemplate the consequence of the Africa–Asia engagement on the human condition. While the attendant political apparatuses in the African continent and China laud the mutual benefits of engagement, Kamoche and Ho, by focusing on issues of transmigration, displacement and belonging, identity-formation, and so forth expose the acute Sinocentrism and Afrocentrism that impede the seamless establishment of migrant communities in both geopolitical spaces. The principal objectives of this essay involve a close reading of Kamoche and Ho's novels to focus on the non-state participants of the Afro-Sino relations, and to discuss the emerging transnational, migrant literature that is at once African and Chinese. Ultimately, this essay suggests the formulation of a literary subgenre to embrace the Afro-Sino literary imagination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1970s, a continuous exchange of information about conservation between Europe and East Asia has greatly influenced approaches to the treatment of paper objects as well as the tools and materials used. This knowledge is often disseminated and absorbed in a purely practical manner, stripped out of its wider cultural context. However, what is considered 'appropriate' treatment is closely linked to how a particular culture has historically interacted with artworks and arguably the lack of broader cultural perspectives can lead to misguided assumptions in the evaluation of those practices. This article reflects on the differences between European and East Asian cultures of paper conservation. By taking into consideration the relevant cultural, philosophical and historical contexts, the article aims to explore how approaches to conservation, as well as to the profession itself, have developed in these two different parts of the world. It further encourages paper conservators to reflect on their own training and practices while offering an understanding of how these approaches can sometimes be mutually exclusive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a case study of how the Renminbi won the currency war in Shanghai between 1949 and 1950. This case study supports the proposition of chartalism and MMT that money is a creature of the state, and in two ways deepens our understanding of the role of the state in the sovereign currency system. First, taxation is not the only way to drive money. The Shanghai government also drove money by supplying goods. Second, the outcome of a currency war depends on many historical factors, and the government plays an important role by changing the conventions that shape people's monetary behavior. The Shanghai government adopted anti-inflation policies to transform the conventions of valuing commodities and metallic currencies over paper currencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is highly concerned about its global image and is thus increasingly active in promoting itself globally. The most prominent and most controversial tool of China’s global image management is the Confucius Institute (CI). Launched in 2004 to introduce Chinese language and culture globally, CIs are normally joint ventures between Chinese and international universities, and are partially funded by the Chinese government. These close links with official China have raised concerns about their aims and have triggered heated debates about their intentions. While proponents describe CIs as a benign instrument of cultural exchange, critics define them as the propaganda arm of the Chinese Communist Party. This paper provides empirical evidence related to these debates as it critically engages with the actual content CIs present to their audiences by analysing internal work reports from 50 CIs in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. The paper outlines the specific narratives CIs present to global audiences and finds a clear agenda to present an apolitical version of China by emphasising elements of traditional Chinese culture and mostly avoiding controversial political topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the results of published research into China's urban planning history since 2011. A total of 1,057 articles were selected, including 198 theses, 465 journal papers, and 394 conference papers. It provides quantitative statistics and analysis of the literature, using CiteSpace to conduct a bibliometric analysis of the data. Based on quantitative analysis and supported by the literature, this paper qualitatively concludes and summarizes the research hotspots and evolution of Chinese urban planning history from five dimensions: planning practice, system construction, thought and theory, figures, and discipline. The achievements delve into the exploration of motivations and mechanisms, planning ideology, methodology, practice subjects, and preparation process based on a staged review of the historical process of practice and a summary of its characteristics, which shows a process from partial to holistic and fragmented to systematic in general terms, contributing to the formation of a complete planning history research system. A comprehensive analysis of quantitative statistics, knowledge mapping of literature, and important research content reveals the characteristics of research into the history of Chinese urban planning over the past decade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper identifies major themes and recommends preferred strategies in Australia’s engagement with the world. These themes and strategies relate to geopolitics, economics and the ‘new international agenda’; there is also a more specific focus on Australia’s Pacific island neighbours and Timor-Leste. There is a strong emphasis on perceived Australian national interests throughout the document. The geopolitical discussion is primarily ‘realist’; economically the document is pro-globalisation; the discussion of the ‘new international agenda’ involves an Australian-oriented pragmatism; there is an assertion of Australian leadership in the South Pacific. With some minor criticism, Labor has accepted the general direction advocated in the White Paper. The document is thus indicative of the likely future direction of Australian foreign policy. Lack of US response indicates declining US engagement with Australia and the Asia-Pacific or Indo-Pacific region. China, as the other major power highly significant for Australia, has been low-key in its criticisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper explores how the China–Africa Science and Technology (S&T) relationship has evolved over the years based on two specific outputs: research publications and patents. China–Africa S&T collaborations have evolved after China engaged actively with African countries. China has collaborated with a number of African countries in both publications and patents more than the current inter-African collaborations. However, Chinese collaborations are limited with very few African countries (For example, South Africa, Egypt, Morocco) that are comparatively stronger in S&T infrastructure than many other African countries. This research demonstrates that the China–Africa collaboration is increasing and is likely to grow in the coming years as China is emerging as a leading global research hub in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A logistics network structure plays a significant role in enhancing comprehensive logistics services and achieving high-quality development. However, few studies have summarised the application research on China's logistics network structure. Thus, this study conducted a literature review to summarise such research. Data from 2009 to 2021 were collected from 60 papers from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and 13 from Scopus. This study analyzed the literature using descriptive analysis and research states based on the research questions. The descriptive analysis revealed information such as documents, trends, subject areas, and keywords for Chinese and foreign papers using VOSviewer and Gephi software. The research flow revealed the research object, method, and results using ArcGIS visualisation, research features, and perspectives. Finally, this study proposes contributions to practice and theory in three ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Chinese authorities have installed visa restrictions and strict quarantine rules to prevent foreigners from spreading new infections to the country. This has disrupted a trend of increasing European Union (EU)-China travel and socio-economic exchanges. EU citizens living in or travelling to China have had to deal with the consequences of Beijing's so-called Zero-Covid strategy. In view of quasi-closed borders, many Europeans have given up on living in or travelling to China. Those who have stayed have come up with strategies of adaptation, while European-owned firms have reacted by adopting initiatives such as doing business online or localising staff. Overall, the Chinese visa restrictions have added a new dimension to the debate on asymmetries in EU-China relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Comparative Education is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The topic of teacher research has been widely discussed by researchers. What has been less discussed is how teachers make sense of classroom research. Given the difficulties of implementing teacher research, it is necessary to understand teachers' conceptions of research and the role that it plays in their work. Whilst there is a burgeoning literature on teachers' experiences of undertaking classroom research in countries such as the US and the UK, there remains a dearth of studies that explore language teachers' conceptions of research in non-western contexts. This study addresses this gap by exploring 10 Chinese English teachers' conceptions of classroom research in an English training centre in Beijing, China. Semi-structured interviews found that the participants were highly motivated to undertake research, conceptualising it as a way to improve their classroom practice and to improve student engagement. The teachers also viewed collaboration as a way to overcome issues of time and a lack of research experience. The study also highlighted a number of impediments to undertaking classroom research in the context of language teaching in China, the most significant of which was restricted access to academic literature. The paper ends by making a number of recommendations that address the impediments highlighted by the teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zooming in on the European Union's international identity, this paper argues that maturation, and the achievement of a solid international identity, may result from a process in which different identity traits are integrated, even strategically incorporated. It frames this hybridisation argument in terms of Dragon Power Europe and proceeds in two steps. In a first step, the paper develops an integrated analytical framework for studying the European Union's international identity by comparing the Normative Power Europe and Market Power Europe conceptualisations along three dimensions, namely drivers, actions and impact. In a second step, the paper demonstrates the framework's empirical value through an exploration of the European Union's functioning in relation to health information standardisation, investigating the logics behind the inclusion of a new chapter on diagnoses and syndromes associated with Traditional (Chinese) Medicine in the eleventh revision of the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases in 2019. The involvement of the European Union and its member states in this specific case of health (information) standardisation shows initial but compelling evidence of NPE-MPE dynamics shaping the EU's international functioning, in particular its drivers, actions and impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent literature has problematized the limits of deeply held assumptions about linear, unidirectional upgrading trajectories in global value chains (GVCs). As firm and chain trajectories and sources of upgrading have changed in recent years, GVC analysis has adjusted to focus on new emerging actors and new distributions of power within value chains. After a discussion of some limits to the treatment of upgrading in the GVC literature, the paper develops a simple extension of the classical model of upgrading in ways that do not presuppose particular valuations of functional, product, and processes upgrading, and that do not fetishize upgrading as such. The paper works with case studies of four Chinese firms located in Ningbo, China. Each 'wears multiple hats' and together they provide illustrative examples of the limits of linear, unidirectional approaches of upgrading. This simple model has the singular advantage of ensuring that trajectories of business upgrading and downgrading in GVCs can be understood as always open, often operating in diverse and contradictory ways. In this sense, the confusion of upgrading with firm strategy with their regional impacts can be avoided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the past decade, there has been a surge in auditing research that exploits Chinese data, much of which is published in top tier journals. China has been an attractive setting for auditing research due to the highly granular nature of the available data on public audits and the unique features of Chinese institutions. These advantages have allowed researchers to use Chinese data to study important auditing questions that US data is unable to address. But the popularity of Chinese data among researchers means that most of the obvious questions that lend themselves to the use of Chinese data are likely to be exhausted. In addition, newly mandated disclosures in the US and Europe are quickly making Chinese data much less unique than it used to be. Now that the "low hanging fruit" is gone, researchers who plan to use Chinese data will have to be more creative. This paper suggests some strategies, going forward, that are designed to further exploit the richness of Chinese data to address important questions in the auditing literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this paper is to assess the non-linearities between the ESG activities and firm performance in case of an emerging market. China is identified as a case study for the present examination. Even though this research objective has been explored by past researcher, the evidence presented in literature is not conclusive. The paper hypothesizes that such conflicting or inconclusive results can potentially be attributed to wrong modeling, datasets that include both developing and the developed markets, and the prevalent endogeneity issue in corporate governance literature. For the purpose of this paper, the author uses the dynamic panel approach of First difference and the System Generalized Method of Moments. The findings from the analysis of 232 Chinese listed firm show a positive association between ESG activities and the firm performance. However, the relationship is nonlinear. In other words, the relationship between ESG activities and the firm performance is inverted U-shaped. This indicates the relationship is positive up to a certain threshold and once the ESG activities cross that threshold it start to have negative effect. The key insight from this research is that the firm has to find their threshold of ESG activities to gain maximum benefits from such activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the issue of internationalisation in the teaching of political science at universities. We first provide an overview of the mix of courses in terms of geographical focus offered by high-ranking political science departments. Second, with survey data from students, we assess the factors affecting their attitudes towards area-specific and general politics courses. The results indicate that, compared to local students who prefer local politics courses, international students are most interested in those with a mid-range scope such as those containing cross-case comparisons. This paper encourages integrating comparative elements even in area-specific politics courses to enhance student engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst the impact of the 'publish or perish' adage has received considerable attention from academics in the West, it remains under-researched in non-Western contexts, such as China. We address this gap by examining our lived experiences of navigating Chinese academia and academic publishing in the form of a duoethnographic collaborative self-study. We utilise the concept of precarious privilege in order to tease out a third space between publish or perish. Accordingly, we identity three over-arching themes related to academic publishing in China, which coalesce around the notion of academia as a 'game' with hidden rules. These themes are pursuing, playing and paying. Through our dialogues, we highlight our precarious privilege as early-career academics in China, yet also draw attention to how the logics and rules of the academic 'game' provide us with the tools we need to survive and thrive within academia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of the entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) has become increasingly popular among policymakers because of its potential to drive economic growth. In many countries, the promotion of EE has been linked with innovation policy but little research has been done to examine whether such policy can facilitate EE's development. Using the case study method to examine the growth of China's unicorns, which are productive entrepreneurial outputs of EE, this paper investigates the process of EE's emergence and development, and the role of government policies, including innovation policy, in promoting EE's growth. The paper advances three policy implications derived from the case study; first, the important role of government policies in creating institutional contexts; second, developing informal institutions, and third, implementing a systemic intervention, to promote EE's emergence and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peer attention is a significant feature in the horizontal cross-loading of EU countries when there are many uncertainties in the decision-making. Taking the case of the 28-EU countries' interactive media attention during China's second Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) forum in April 2019, this paper explores the two questions of who pays attention to whose action to the BRI, and what are the determinants of the peer attentions? The measurements from the network analysis identify the positions and roles of EU countries in the attention network. The gravity model further examines the determinants on different levels of peer attention flows. The findings suggest that the peer attention network the EU countries formulate is a core-periphery structure where big powers and forerunners construct the core and connect other big power and peripheral countries from the nearby to the far-reaching. Substantively, this paper contributes to the literature on the horizontal interaction of countries in response to China's engagement. Methodologically, the network analysis is an innovative method to study how a country receives the influence imposed by a single country, by a cluster of countries and the peer attention network as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we aim to document and analyze the long arc of connectivity between China and Latin America. First, using analytical international trade and economic tools, we provide a new economic perspective of the First Globalization–-the Ming and early Qing China's economic and business links with Latin America and Europe. Second, due to U.S. government trade policies toward China in the 1990s, the Second China's Globalization was ushered in with its entry to the World Trade Organization (WTO). During this second phase, China exchanged manufactured goods with minerals and resources from Latin America. Finally, the tough technology and trade stance by the Trump and Biden Administrations prompted China to intensify the third phase of China interaction with Latin America. For the 2020s and beyond, one important pillar of the Third China-Latin America-Europe Globalization is heightened efforts for China to increase its digital-AI, telecommunication and platform business presence and access into the Latin American markets. To enrich our analysis, we will provide Chinese-style digital-AI business and economic models to help illustrate our discussions. Throughout our paper, we want to point out that government policies were instrumental in bringing forth these Three Globalizations that involve China-Latin America-Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In July 2021 the Chinese Government unexpectedly released what has become known colloquially as the 'Double-Reduction' policy. The policy decreed the reduction of homework pressure on students and greater control of private tutorial companies. In this paper, we set out to understand why the Chinese central government launched the 'Double-Reduction' policy in mid−2021 by using narratives to analyse the three most circulated explanations for the policy and its timing. We use data from a range of formal and informal policy texts. The three narratives, including one policy narrative dominant in the official discourse and two alternative ones, constructed the causal stories about the policy's rationale from multiple perspectives. The combination of multiple perspectives and a narrative approach helps reveal the policy event's complexity and lays a foundation for researchers interested in tracking the development trajectory of this new policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanizing villages are erstwhile rural villages that are spatially enveloped and are characterized by their dual relation to the state, which expresses itself as an issue of citizenship; of land ownership; of governance; and building regulations. This paper transcends the current focus on villages in Southern China, by comparing village urbanization between China and India through four narratives of village extensions. Four parallel readings are offered, namely that urban villages are characterized by; shared tenure rooted in their rural past; inherited administrative boundaries that are re-imbued with new legal designations; emulation of traditional practices; and sustained modes of self-governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects on the concept of the Plantationocene through an analysis of sugarcane plantations in Guangxi province, China. It argues that although these plantations are owned and operated by local villagers, they are de facto controlled by corporations, and subject to state intervention through a 'zoning scheme'. They are constructed and operated according to the same logic as other plantations all over the world, namely, the logic of extraction based on cheap land and labor. By demonstrating that plantations are not necessarily large-scale and do not always entail the alienation of land and labor, this paper hopes to empirically broaden the concept of the Plantationocene and to highlight the extractive nature of and the power relations around plantations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is aimed at exploring whether high housing prices constitute a boon or a bane for entrepreneurship in Chinese cities. Drawing upon a panel dataset for Chinese cities at the prefectural level and above for the period 2003 to 2016, this paper identifies an inverted U-shape pattern of association between housing price and urban entrepreneurship. It also finds significant inter-city housing price spillovers in first-tier urban agglomerations in which a housing price surge in first-tier cities has an inverted U-shape relationship with entrepreneurship in surrounding cities. The empirical results of this study act as a reminder to Chinese policy makers to adopt a cautious and balanced attitude towards the development of the real estate market and have important policy implications for the planning and governance of mega urban agglomerations in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, 285 Chinese core journal papers involving early childhood sports in the CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure) database from 1993 to 2022 were selected as samples. Text mining and data statistical analysis tools, such as BICOMB2.0, SPSS22.0, UCINET6.0, EXCEL2016, and other research methods in bibliometrics, such as word frequency analysis, co word clustering analysis, multidimensional scale analysis, and strategic coordinate map analysis, were used to explore the status and evolutionary trends of early childhood sports in China. The results are as follows: Since 2011, the annual number of documents has indicated a wave-like increasing trend every year, reaching its peak in 2020. In total, 237 institutions participated in this study. The journal distribution of papers in this field was close to the 1:4:16 ratio of Bradford's law. A relatively stable periodic group was formed. 12 cluster themes have been formed in the field of children's sports in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we reexamine the literature on money demand in China published both in English and Chinese language. Over the past 30 years, there has been a regular stream of papers assessing the Chinese money demand function. The literature mostly focuses on income elasticity, stability, and, especially important for China, the adequate choice and quality of data. In particular, regarding the stability of money demand, we find a substantial publication bias towards rejecting stability. When controlling for publication bias and focusing on longer time periods, our paper strongly suggests a stable long-run money demand in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's breakneck economic growth has been accompanied by an expanding development finance agenda. Many have hypothesized that China is undermining the West's drive to promote good governance globally, and in Africa in particular, by predominantly distributing money to poorly governed countries. This paper explores whether the determinants of Chinese development finance in Africa differ from those of Western countries. It finds that Western countries send more development finance than China to better governed African countries—those with lower corruption levels, better democratic outcomes, and a better human rights track record (though only the latter two have a negative relationship with Chinese development finance in absolute terms). This paper also finds that bilateral trade and UN voting alignment have a stronger impact on China's development finance than that of Western countries and that China allocates more development finance than the West to richer and more resource-dependent African countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, Chinese FDI has become an integral investment source for African countries and has, therefore, engendered studies seeking to understand the determinants of these flows. In a quest to identify the factors that stimulate these flows, this paper assesses whether the ease of starting a business induces Chinese FDI flow to Africa. The analysis is based on panel data for 46 African countries between 2004 and 2018. The results from fixed-effects estimations suggest that Chinese FDI is attracted by the ease of starting a business in African economies. This finding also holds for sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and is robust across all estimations. The results also provide corroborating evidence that identifies Chinese FDI as market and resource-seeking, attracted to large markets and economies with abundant natural resources. The findings suggest that improving business regulations could be a stimulant for Chinese FDI flow to Africa. In evaluating the nexus between Chinese FDI and business start-ups, this paper provides new evidence to complement the dated studies on this theme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patriotism is controversial in moral education across contexts. In China, patriotism is highly politicised by the government and heavily promoted in education. In the last few decades, the moralisation of patriotism, which refers here to the framing of patriotism as a virtue, has become the focus of teaching patriotism in China. This paper demonstrates how patriotism is moralised and promoted in Chinese moral education textbooks. The paper begins by providing a theoretical introduction to patriotism in moral education and defending a rational approach to teaching patriotism given its controversial nature. Then it elaborates on the Chinese context of teaching patriotism and analyses patriotism as part of moral education in Chinese textbooks. Our findings indicate various ways in which patriotism is promoted in Chinese education as a non-controversial virtue and moral duty. Finally, the paper discusses the limitations of this way of teaching patriotism and argues for the adoption of the rational approach as an alternative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of structural distortions on resource allocation among industries, regions (provinces), and ownerships in China, using data from 2003 to 2019. This paper innovatively develops an empirical model to measure multi-dimensional structural distortions and assesses the resource misallocation degrees regarding industries, regions, and ownerships. The results indicate that China's most serious resource misallocation is related to industries, followed by regions and ownerships, and the most severe capital misallocation is associated with ownership, and labor misallocation exists in industries. The present study contributes to the literature by creating an innovative two-layer empirical model to address the limitations of Hsieh and Klenow's model. The findings have identified which group (industry, region, and ownership) is excessive or insufficient in resource usage, and the results have profound policy and practical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovative activities are increasingly decentralized and globally dispersed, which provides new upgrading opportunities for emerging market firms. However, little is known about how latecomer firms (re-)organize their research and development (R&D) over time as conditions for upgrading change. This paper systematically maps the R&D networks of China's lead firms in the wind turbine industry. The empirical findings reveal that latecomer firms not only exploit but increasingly co-create vanguard knowledge in global R&D networks through organizational diversification. Taking an evolutionary perspective, the paper extends our understanding of the changing nature of upgrading mechanisms and provides new insights into the reorganization of innovation processes in an era of technological change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ancient Chinese civilisation developed two ideas about the ordering of large human spaces. The first was tianxia or 'all under heaven', the inclusive and cosmopolitan world as a whole, with no exterior, and governance on the basis of shared values and benefits, which first shaped statecraft in the Western Zhou dynasty (1047–1771 BCE). Second, the centralised nation-state which emerged in the Qin dynasty (221–206 BCE). Both strands have been influential through Chinese history. In the last twenty years discussion of tianxia has revived, especially through Zhao Tingyang, stimulated by globalisation and the need for practical relations beyond the nation state. This paper proposes one version of tianxia as a heuristic for understanding, rethinking and remaking ethical relations in worldwide higher education. It reviews different understandings of tianxia in China, identifies a world-centred (rather than China-centred) tianxia , and discusses the potentials of tianxia in higher education. Tianxia is appropriate to world higher education because of its spatiality and its ethical commitment to universal benefit in diverse settings on the basis of mutual respect. The article suggests four clusters of relational values that could constitute a tianxia order in higher education, and compares tianxia to existing practices of globalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy innovation is critical to improve governance capacity; however, contemporary research mainly focuses on diffusion and adoption, disregarding the next stage, namely institutionalization. Taking the diffusion and institutionalization of China's "One Visit at Most" reform as a case study and using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, this paper examines the conditions and paths that lead local governments to institutionalize this reform. The results show that four paths lead from innovation to institutionalization: policy system and idea embeddedness, spontaneous competition, learning by seizing momentum, and entrepreneurial breakthrough. These findings extend the research on policy adoption, diffusion, and institutionalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Comparative Education is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

AbstractThis paper explores the critical role of sign language in enabling communication and social inclusion for the deaf community in China, where approximately 27.8 million individuals experience hearing impairments. Despite the recognition of linguistic human rights, Chinese law lacks formal acknowledgment of sign language, leading to fragmented regulations and insufficient support. The study highlights deficiencies in existing legislation and proposes recommendations for enhancing legal frameworks to protect and promote the rights of deaf individuals. Additionally, the paper examines the disparities between local and national sign languages and underscores the potential of technological advancements, such as sign language translation gloves, in bridging communication gaps and fostering social integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A binary, geopolitical narrative of a new "Great Game" for power in Central Asia may be too simplistic. It remains unclear what regionalisation trends will become embedded in Central Asia, with the apparent rise of China. The paper examines potential for China's Belt and Road Initiative to build new Eurasian economic interdependence through connectivity infrastructure and to reduce dependency for some actors on Russia. A political risk and grounded theory approach is taken, utilising in-depth interviews with local experts and stakeholders to develop a risk/opportunity framework. Conclusions from the research indicate China is unlikely in the foreseeable future to replace Russia as regional hegemon, but is likely to drive greater economic integration. Empirical investigation of dynamics on the ground - including the spectrum of options available to actors - is recommended for realist understanding of economic and other international connectivity trends across Central Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pandemics refract sociopolitical tensions within societies and highlight how national belonging hinges on informal performances as much as legal status. While return migration has become a common practice and institutionalized strategy of state development, little scholarly work has probed how domestic populations view returnees and their claims to national membership. Using a large-scale, pre-registered online survey experiment deploying a give-or-take Dictator Game, this paper leverages the dynamics of COVID-19 to explore how Chinese nationals envision and treat returnees. First, our results illustrate that the Chinese population imagines returnees as a group of elites with substantial social and financial capital, even though returnees are a socio-economically diverse population. Next, by applying information priming, we demonstrate that Chinese nationals discriminated against overseas returnees during the pandemic and that this behavior was not primarily driven by fears of viral contagion. Finally, using mediation analysis, we show that participants' differential behavior towards returnees can largely be explained by participants' perceptions of returnees' class status and adherence to key markers of national membership. Ultimately, this paper broadens our understanding of the informal dynamics of national membership and intergroup relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractNew global multi-directional migration flows are decentering extant analyses of White expatriate migration. As migration becomes more diversified, new lines of intellectual inquiry are surfacing about the experiences of middle-class non-white expatriates. This paper uses the case study of China, which with the rise in immigration, has an increasingly diverse ‘expatriate’ population. While the visibility of White expatriates in non-white-majority host countries may compel them to adopt lifestyles segregated from the local population, expatriates of Chinese heritage in China have the (dis)advantage of blending in with the local population. This paper examines the experiences of Singaporean-Chinese migrants in China where their ethnic proximity to the Chinese can be both a boon and a bane. We present our findings in three sections addressing: first, how ethnic proximity can enable mobilities including motility and a mobile sense of belonging; second, how mobilities can condition ethnic proximity as experiences of privilege but also reminders of non-belonging; and third, how participants’ change in life phases i.e. temporalities shift meanings of proximity, mobility and mobile belonging. Through highlighting the multidimensional nature of mobilities – proximity, motility, temporalities – this paper contributes to studies of middling migration, (ethnic) proximity and mobilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is an ambitious, contentious, and world-spanning project. Using Chinese Communist Party (CCP) documents, this paper examines one of the stated purposes of the BRI: to address regional inequality between China's east and west, focusing upon Xinjiang. Through an analysis of regional economic data, the demographics of Xinjiang and Xinjiang governing bodies, and a case study of the Chinese steel industry, this paper shows that the BRI has so far failed to check increasing regional inequality in China and that job opportunities for local communities in Xinjiang are constrained by social and political factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Area Development & Policy is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article maps the trajectory of China's regulation of algorithms via policy review. It divides China's governing progress into three phases: the 'post-event policy response and penalty' phase, the 'ethics guidelines, guiding opinions and self-discipline pacts' phase and the 'legislation and implementation' phase. The paper argues that the ideological and political implications of algorithmic applications are the highest concern for Chinese regulators. China's regulation of algorithms follows a 'state-centric multilateral model' – the same model used for its internet governance. The 'algorithmic transparency' advocated by regulators is currently only limited to algorithms in the platform economy and industries rather than those used for government decision-making and public administration. As the first nation to issue laws regulating algorithms and generative AI, China faces problems and challenges emerging from further implementing the laws. China's experience will provide valuable first-hand understandings for countries currently creating legal frameworks to regulate algorithms and AI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I describe the practice of sharing and eating wild meat amongst the Orochen in northeast China, a community of hunters who are no longer allowed to hunt due to state conservation policies. I show how for Orochen meat is the material intermediary between the human and nonhuman worlds, offered to the fire before meals and to animal spirit-masters during hunting. I suggest this demands reflection of what we might call the ontology of meat: that is, how it is experienced as an extra-ordinary and relational substance with the 'lived' capacity to act. I show how this contrasts with the Chinese state, which sees wild meat as a material substance only and, in the context of conservation, as something to be measured and controlled through the protection of wild animals. I suggest that, for the Orochen, to eat and share wild meat is an act of everyday resistance embedded in secrecy, as well as a way of rendering into action their ontology of relational existence and participation in the wider socio-cosmic economy of sharing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has called for firms to prioritize reducing carbon emissions, however strategies to do so with external partners through institutional conformity and integration are lacking in research and practice. Drawing upon the resource-based view and institutional theory, the study in this paper proposes and tests a series of research hypotheses with Chinese firms. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse data and findings reveal carbon emissions reduction and low carbon institutional pressures are crucial forces driving external low carbon supply chain integration with external suppliers and customers. Further, low carbon supply chain integration overall positively impacts a firm's environmental performance, external customer integration positively impacts a firm's financial performance, and environmental performance plays a mediating role between external low carbon supply chain integration and financial performance. This study contributes by shedding new light on two patterns of external low carbon supply chain integration compared to prior studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media greatly facilitates people's access to information; however, it can also lead to information overload and exposure to uncomfortable content that may cause individuals to avoid it. As a result, two types of influencing mechanisms emerge: information exposure and information avoidance, which may impact users' behaviors. Currently, there is limited understanding of the simultaneous effects of social media information exposure and avoidance on individuals' behavioral intentions towards climate change mitigation. Using survey data for 1056 Chinese Gen-Z undergraduates and based on the extended theory of planned behavior, this paper utilizes a partial least squares structural equation model to examine the effects of social media information exposure and information avoidance on individual low-carbon behavioral intention. The results show that information exposure on social media has a positive relationship with behavioral attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control, and then increasing the low-carbon behavioral intention. Information avoidance has a negative association with three factors, respectively, and decreases the low-carbon behavioral intention. Additionally, exposure to social media information has the greatest impact on the subjective norm and the least impact on behavioral attitude; information avoidance has the greatest impact on behavioral attitude, whereas perceived behavioral control is the least affected. Drawing from the results, we propose policy recommendations that facilitate information exposure while addressing avoidance in shaping low-carbon behavioral intentions. Those implications would help reconcile the two opposing effects while promoting public engagement in climate activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's government has launched the innovative city pilot (ICP) policy since 2008 and taken green development as the principle goal of innovative city construction. However, whether or not the ICP policy shapes green development remains largely unknown. Leveraging variation in the timing of the ICP policy implementation across cities, we investigate the causal impact of innovative city construction on green development, as measured by green total-factor productivity (GTFP). Our staggered difference-in-differences (DID) estimator shows that cities which implement the ICP policy experience a 5.3% increase in GTFP. This effect appears one year after the introduction of ICP policy and shows an upward trend over time. Our mechanism analysis further confirms that the ICP policy effect is driven by green innovation effect, which is realized through the support of innovation policy and increased investment in innovation. Finally, substantial heterogeneity is explained by geographic location, environmental constraint, resource endowment, city size and different levels of innovation. Our paper underscores the pivotal role of innovative cities in promoting green development, which warrants nationwide expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing artificial intelligence (AI) is a priority on China’s state agenda, yet the constitutive state roles in AI development are understudied. Against the background of the coexistence of authoritarianism and market liberalism in the governance of the Chinese economy, state rescaling is a useful lens to understand how China is developing this new strategic sector. This paper proposes an analytical framework reifying vertical and horizontal scalar relations via the rescaling lens and three state roles (owner, promoter, and supervisor) to explore how government-business relationships are made. More than 100 Chinese AI policy documents have been collected from central, provincial, and city levels for a systematic multi-scalar policy analysis. As a result, this paper captures both downscaling/upscaling within the state hierarchy and statization/destatization between state and non-state actors in China’s AI development. A series of intertwined state rescaling practices manifest themselves in the state roles figuring in three functionalities of government-business relationships (sponsorship, cultivation, and disciplining). It is argued that the state roles are not pre-given modalities in a setting of a specific industry. The restructuring and even revolutionizing effects of AI in the socio-economic systems prompt non-state actors to respond proactively, which shapes the variegated functionalities of government-business relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few decades, China emerged as Africa's main partner in digital development. Sino-African cooperation in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector meets African demand for advanced technologies and know-how while helping China to position itself in the global ICT sector. Albeit crucial for Africa's digital development in the short term, this paper argues that the breadth of Sino-African cooperation carries important long-term consequences that could afford China latent control over Africa's digital development. Drawing on Susan Strange's pillars of structural power, this paper considers how the rollout of fiber-optic network cables underpins Chinese control over production, how the construction of data centers might impinge on security, and how research partnerships enhance norms and standards in future innovation—the knowledge pillar. The paper argues that the enabling force of Sino-African cooperation in these three realms is Chinese finance. To test this claim, I conduct a Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) of 42 states in Sub-Saharan Africa, showing that Chinese aid and, to a lesser extent, Chinese loans are the main drivers of Sino-African ties in the ICT sector. The paper concludes that Chinese financial support not only promotes Africa's digital development but also paves the way to Chinese structural power in the ICT sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While institutional environment is increasingly affecting supply chains, the effects of institutional forces on firm agility remains largely unexplored. This paper integrates institutional theory with the organisational justice and agility literature to explore whether institutional forces (i.e. legal protection, the importance of guanxi, and government support) affect agility of local and foreign firms in China through organisational justice. Results from structural equation modelling of survey data from 241 manufacturers in China demonstrate that Chinese firms gained agility through procedural, distributive, and interactional justice created by the three institutional forces. Gaining less justice from all three institutional forces (especially guanxi), the agility of foreign firms relied on only distributive justice. Legal protection and guanxi worked for Chinese firms, whereas foreign firms are somewhat disadvantaged in this regard and relied mostly on government support to provide distributive justice for building agility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to re-examine the impact of exchange rate changes on the trade balance of China and its major trading partners. In the past, many studies have been focussed on the linear effect of exchange rate change, but in this paper, a non-linear Autoregressive Distribution Lag (NARDL) model is proposed. Empirical results show that there are nonlinear and asymmetric effects on the trade balance of exchange rate. In particular, the effect of exchange rate appreciation on Sino-US trade balance is more significant than that of depreciation. A genuine devaluation of the domestic currency would improve the balance of the domestic trade. However, the opposite effect is found in the case of Sino-Japan and the Euro, and the depreciation of the currency will make the trade balance worse. These results provide a solid basis for understanding the relation of exchange rate variation and trade balance. In terms of economic reality, it is also a useful reference for adjusting exchange rate and commercial policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The climate significantly varies from eastern to western in China. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how climate affects regional economy in a variety of provinces of China. Regions are divided into three distinct regions based on geographic proximity. We choose 19 provinces, six in the east, five in the middle, and eight in the west. Utilizing data spanning between 1997 and 2019, and the ARDL approach, the result shows that the impact of climate on GDP varies across regions. Precipitation contributes to positive economic growth in the high-income provinces gathering in eastern China, for instance, Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu. The impact of temperature mainly occurs in under-developed regions in western China. Overall, this paper analyzes how climate impacts differently in different region of China, suggesting policymakers to implement appropriate strategies in different provinces to limit the negative impacts of climate on economy and achieve sustainable economic development in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]