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In the first half of 2019 Australian foreign policy was tumultuous, marked by the federal election on 18 May 2019. The election was won, somewhat unexpectedly, by the Coalition and returned Scott Morrison as Prime Minister. The initial moves of the Prime Minister, new Foreign Minister Marise Payne and new Defence Minister Senator Linda Reynolds in the diplomatic sphere were conducted against the backdrop of intense debates about “strategic competition” between China and the United States of America in our region.1 As 2019 began, many volatile events lay on the immediate horizon for Australian foreign policy, but due focus on these events was interrupted by the election. This chronicle considers how nimble Australian diplomacy was able to be during the first half of 2019, with some broader implications for the transitional nature of Australian foreign policy. When the then foreign minister, Julie Bishop, commissioned the 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper, she noted it was designed to help Australian diplomacy be more proactive. She said: “[…] it's about looking at the kind of framework that needs to be in place so that we're not reacting to events, we're strategically positioned to manage, maybe even shape, events”.

La publicación por la República Popular China en noviembre 2016 de un nuevo Libro Blanco sobre su política para con América Latina y El Caribe, permite desarrollar un análisis comparativo que evidencia la evolución de dicha política entre los años 2008 y 2016. Este análisis comparado se complementa con la visión académica actual y otras acciones políticas desarrolladas por China en campos complementarios., The publication by the People's Republic of China in November 2016 of a new White Paper on its policy towards Latin America and the Caribbean allows the development of a comparative analysis that shows the evolution of this policy between the years 2008, the date of publication of its first Book White in this regard, and 2016. This comparative analysis is complemented by the current academic vision and other policy actions developed by China in complementary fields., Dossier: China y su proyección en el siglo XXI, Instituto de Relaciones Internacionales (IRI)

This dissertation studies economic development in rural areas, past and present. In 2018, the World Bank estimated that around 80% of people experiencing extreme poverty live in rural areas. Understanding the rural policies that have worked historically to foster economic growth—and the political factors that shape these policies in the present---will be crucial to ending extreme poverty in today's world.The first chapter, written jointly with Joel Ferguson, focuses on the rise of China—which, according to the World Bank, has been responsible for 75% of global extreme poverty reduction and 23% of global GDP growth since 1980. We study one of the central reforms in China's economic miracle, the Household Responsibility System (HRS), which decollectivized agriculture starting in 1978. The HRS is commonly seen as having significantly boosted agricultural productivity—but this conclusion rests on unreliable official data. We use historical satellite imagery to generate new measurements of grain yield, independent of official Chinese statistics. Using two separate empirical designs that exploit the staggered rollout of the HRS across provinces and counties, we find no causal evidence that areas that adopted the HRS sooner experienced faster grain yield growth. These results challenge our conventional understanding of decollectivization, land reform, and the origins of the Chinese miracle.The second chapter, co-authored with Jen Kuan Wang, turns to Taiwan to understand its landmark 1950s land reform, which has long been seen as a central contributor to its economic miracle. By digitizing archival data and using two instrumental variables strategies, we provide the first causal evidence about this major event in East Asian economic history. Phase II of reform redistributed formerly Japanese public lands, reducing tenancy, boosting rice yields, and pulling labor from manufacturing back to agriculture. By contrast, phase III, which reduced tenancy by breaking up larger estates, did not increase agricultural productivity and pushed labor out of agriculture. Phase II likely increased yields by lifting crop choice constraints, while phase III may have created farms too small to be economically viable. These differential results complicate traditional favorable narratives of Taiwan's reform.The third chapter moves to modern-day Kenya. Co-authored with Susanna Berkouwer, Eric Hsu, Edward Miguel, Felipe Vial, and Catherine Wolfram, it explores the role of political favoritism in shaping Kenya's nationwide electrification program. A consensus among social scientists finds that political favoritism can harm economic growth by distorting public investment, but favoritism is typically hard to identify because researchers cannot directly observe government objectives. Using granular infrastructure and electoral data, this paper leverages a key institutional feature of Kenya's nationwide electrification program to identify the extent of favoritism: a pre-existing transparent allocation formula. Despite constitutional reforms decentralizing fiscal expenditures, we find that pro-government areas received 46% more electrified villages and 35% more household connections than allocated by the formula. Furthermore, we find that favoritism was exerted by national offices—not Members of Parliament or local construction managers. These results suggest that the benefits of central coordination, technical capacity, and economies of scale may expose infrastructure to continued political capture despite decentralization.

This paper discusses the impact of Starbucks presence as a style of Western capitalism in China through the analysis of Conscious Capitalism developed by John Mackey and Professor Raj Sisodia. The glory of Starbucks in China has started since the opening of its first outlet in 1999. The high level of consumerism in China is the reason behind the success and glory of Starbucks capitalism in China. In contrast to other patterns of consumerism and business capitalism, which tend to cause economic, ecological and humanistic crises, in this paper the author argue that the presence of Starbucks in China has a positive impact. This can be proven by the application of the principles of Conscious Capitalism by Starbucks in the midst of the flow of Chinese consumption, consumerism and capitalism. The principles of conscious capitalism applied by Starbucks are; (1) higher purpose; (2) stakeholder orientation; (3) culture orientation; and (4) conscious leadership.

This paper examines the 100 years existence of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since its formation in 1921 in the city of Shanghai. The significance of the CCP is also examined because it drives the policies of the Chinese People’s Republic of China. It dominates the economy and controls all the state institutions. The analysis of the development trajectory of the Chinese state in the last 100 years is examined along with its major developmental achievements. The paper examines related literature from library research using descriptive method. The political party and Marxist theories are the theoretical frameworks used in examining the development milestones. The finding shows that China has emerged as the second most dominant economy in the world and is gearing towards overtaking the United States’ economy in all areas. This paper concludes that the developmental achievements of the People’s Republic of China was made possible by the painstaking, diligent and careful central planning of adopting the Marxist, socialist and mixed economy approach to the development of China. Finally, the paper recommends that despite all these successes recorded by transforming China and developing its economy through the careful guidance of the party, there remains a lot of challenges that its leaders must address before its continued growth gets undermined.

Poland is one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with People’s Republic of China. Since the establishment of diplomatic ties 70 years ago, both countries have conducted close cooperation in all areas and the bilateral relations have witnessed steady development. In particular, the “One Belt, One Road” initiative, launched in 2013, got the positive responses and support from many countries, including Poland, which became an important partner for China to promote the construction of the initiative. This paper, from a historical perspective, reviews the first interaction between China and Poland in the period of Yuan Dynasty which is arranged in chronological order. The narrations mainly concentrate on accounts of the western expeditions by Genghis Khan and his descendants as well as the Battle of Legnica, during the period of which the Mongolia Empire was successively set up. Each entry will include a concrete description, highlighting where possible issues such as where the Mongolia went, why the expedition and its record are important. The paper also expounds the first record about Poland and the change of the name of Poland in Chinese literature so as to deepen the mutual understanding between two countries.

In her cross-border debate with Chinese anchor Liu Xin, Trish Regan, an American anchor, behaved differently than what she had done in her previous commentaries. This paper explores the attitudinal differences evinced by Trish Regan on different occasions from a linguistic perspective. Based on the Appraisal System, especially the Attitude subsystem (Martin and White, 2005), this paper examines the attitudinal resources utilized by Trish Regan in her two news commentaries and her online debate with her counterpart Liu Xin—a set of texts which provides a longitudinal account of how Trish has changed her attitude. By annotating the attitude resources used by Trish, positive and negative evaluations are expected to be clarified, with detailed analyses of subsystems in the Attitude System to be given. The results suggest that Trish’s attitude towards China has changed a lot in her commentaries and the debate with Liu Xin—from negative to partly positive. It also appears that Trish maintained a positive attitude towards the United States while she changed her positive attitude towards the trade war into a negative one in her debate with Liu Xin.

Introduction. Peculiarities of the ‘Cultural Revolution’ in China’s national regions remain a poorly studied issue in modern Oriental studies. In this regard, Hulunbuir league of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region had been a strategically important and geopolitically significant region of the country. This territory bordered on the Mongolian People’s Republic and the USSR, therefore the central government of China considered its population potentially dangerous and marginal. The People’s Revolutionary Party of Inner Mongolia had two party factions in Hulunbuir league: the ‘unification’ faction, and the ‘justice’ one. The Maoists viewed the ‘Mongol Unification’ faction of the People’s Revolutionary Party of Inner Mongolia as a particularly dangerous, separatist trend. Goals. The paper aims to examine the political events and facts that took place in Hulunbuir league in 1965–1968. Objectives. Chronologically, the first objective is to examine the ideological and political campaigns —struggle against the ‘Four Olds’, and the ‘Four Purges’ — as a prehistory to the ‘Cultural Revolution’. The second objective is to analyze the cardinal changes that took place in the leadership of the party committee and local authorities in 1966–1968. The third problem studied deals with repressive activities of the Red Guards and Zaofan in Hulunbuir league, their division into two fighting camps. The fourth objective is to examine the creation of the aimag revolutionary committee and its activities in 1968. Materials. The work analyzes three collections of official documents published in the PRC. The information thereof is supplemented with materials from works by Russian and foreign authors. The article provides a comparative analysis of events and facts, translates some terms from Mongolian and Chinese. Results. The introducing part the paper examines a prehistory of the ‘Cultural Revolution’, the ideological and political campaigns. Its main part studies the events of the ‘Cultural Revolution’ in the region. In July of 1966, a special working group arrived in Hailar on behalf of the CPC Northern Bureau. Members of this group were cadre Party workers from Hubei and Shanxi provinces. In September of 1966, Party Committee Secretary of Hulunbuir league Qi Junshan and Deputy Secretary Zhargal were dismissed from their posts. Red Guards appeared in Hulunbuir in August of 1966 and began organizing ‘struggle meetings’. They actively recruited local Mongolian youth. In 1967, the Red Guards in Hulunbuir split into two opposing factions. They were confronting each other and for a while forgot about ‘class enemies’. Activities of the Red Guards were out of control of the regional authorities, and the situation needed stabilization. In March of 1967, the State Council and the Central Military Commission of the People’s Republic of China decided to create a military council in Hulunbuir league, also referred to as ‘the first line to contain the Revolution and stimulate production’. On December 20, 1967, a revolutionary committee was formed in Hailar. In March of 1968, Shangmin, a loyal follower of Mao Zedong, became the leader of the revolutionary committee. Making false accusations, he intensified repressions against members of the ‘Mongol Unification’ faction. Conclusions. Political events in Hulunbuir league in 1965–1968 were directly related to the situation in the whole autonomous region and country. Repressions against members of the ‘Mongol Unification’ faction were a distinctive feature of the repressive policy in the region. Still, the appointments of cadre Party workers from central provinces are a poorly understood issue. So, the ‘Cultural Revolution’ in this territory of Inner Mongolia obviously has local features that require further scientific research.

The paper outlines the functioning of cultural practices concerning numbers in Chinese and Japanese mundanity. The formation and use of such symbolic non-mathematical meaning of numbers is a distinctive aspect of linguistic, cultural and axiological systems in the countries of the Far East. The topic seems to be of particular interest due to high attention drawn by number-containing words and idioms in Chinese and Japanese linguistic studies in combination with cultural studies. Such an analysis seeks to develop the approaches to clarifying nation-specific mental representations and cultural aspects of using numeral vocabulary. Non-mathematical meaning of numeral vocabulary should be considered in a differentiated manner depending on factors that shape particular meanings. Religious and cosmogonic mythology as well as oriental philosophy serves as major origins of number-related meanings. Graphic interpretations also produce new associated meanings. The paper mostly delves into the effects of how the phonetics of number-containing words influences their meaning. Homonymy and homophony that are typical of the Chinese language considerably facilitate the process of mounting additional meanings. The axiological and cultural perspective embraces numbers as classifying factors that can be used to stratify the objects. The study of non-traditional meanings in number vocabulary not only allows to reveal the link between culture and language but highlights how cognitive processes operate in linguistics.

Over the last 30 years, the People’s Republic of China (China) has evolved from a skeptic to a champion of United Nations (UN) peacekeeping. During that same period, UN peacekeeping has greatly changed. This paper traces how China has reacted to the various practical and doctrinal innovations of UN peacekeeping, such as the turn to more robust peacekeeping, the protection of civilians, the responsibility to protect, the call for better force protection as outlined in the Cruz report, and, finally, the Action for Peacekeeping initiative. The paper then discusses possible future developments of China’s role in UN peacekeeping. Given the increasing weight of China within the UN, it is likely that China will gradually become more involved in shaping peacekeeping concepts. Early signs can be seen in its approach to the role of human rights in peacekeeping and in its emerging conceptual understanding of peacebuilding.

2013 China put forward the BRI – Belt and Road Initiative, part of its focus was to intensify investment in the countries along the Belt and Road including Bulgaria. Meanwhile Bulgaria was seeking for new foreign investment. The China’s initiative did not receive any reflection in Bulgarian media during the first four years. In 2017, the first Belt and Road forum was held in Beijing. Then during the period 2017-2018, reports on the BRI started to emerge in Bulgarian media and its coverage was polarised. The papers used techniques from framing theories to present how the initiative was presented differently in selected media reports from the online newspapers Trud, Ataka, Capital and Club ’Z’. Furthermore, the research explored the reasons behind the difference from the perspectives of nationalism and Europeanism. The paper argues that the pro-European media tend to see China’s initiative as a risk, while the nationalist media tend to see the BRI as an opportunity. The opportunity lies in the economic benefit from the short-term effect, while the risk is inferred from the political influence from the long-term run. From the viewpoint of political psychology, there was lack of familiarity and intensive engagement with China, which made the BRI perceived as a risk. Overall, the paper analyses bias in the Bulgarian media through the example of China’s BRI.

This paper looks at issues in the formation of the United Kingdom’s policy toward China during a period of growing strategic rivalry between the United States and China, focusing particularly on the relationship between policy debates and the output of UK-based think tanks on China. By analyzing the policy debate and think tank output on three current key themes, including maritime politics in the South China Sea, whether to allow Chinese companies to participate or invest in “critical national infrastructure,” and China’s suspected “interference” in other countries’ domestic politics, this paper shows that UK-based think tanks tend to prioritize security concerns more than economic opportunities with regard to the UK’s China policy. Nevertheless, the impact of U.S.-China tensions and of policy advocacy and research on the UK is issue-dependent.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to determine the effects of the 2018–2020 China–US trade war on US farm bankruptcies as filed under Chapter 12. The key task is to identify the economic factors affecting farm bankruptcies generally, and to then control for the trade war impacts including the Market Facilitation Program (MFP), floods, agricultural conditions and the health of agricultural finance leading into the trade war.Design/methodology/approachResults were obtained using ordinary least square regression and panel fixed effect model using bankruptcy rates and number as the dependent variable. Independent variables included market effects, credit conditions, yield variation, trade impacts, 2019 flooding, macroeconomic conditions and regional fixed effects. The authors use cubic splines to interpolate annual and quarterly data to a monthly base.FindingsBased on a fixed effect model, the authors find that all other things being equal the China–USA trade war would have had a significant impact on Chapter 12 farm bankruptcies, increasing the bankruptcy rate by 25.7%. The flooding in 2009 had minor effects of increasing the rate by only 0.05%. The overall impact will, however be substantially lower than the 25.7% because of the MFP. The MFP variables (binary) had mixed effects and its true impact is unknowable at this time; however, the authors also find that a 1% increase in the producer price index decreases bankruptcy rates by 2.62% and farm bankruptcy numbers by 3.70%. Likewise a 1% increase in GDP reduces bankruptcies by 3.25%. These suggest that the MFP program will have likely reduced farm bankruptcies considerably than what would have occurred in their absence. The authors also find that states heavily dependent on trade faced lower market uncertainty. Broader economic factors (net charge-offs of farm loans held by insured commercial banks, US real GDP, the average effective interest rate on nonreal estate farm loans) affect farm bankruptcy.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors use monthly bankruptcy statistics, however not all data were available in monthly measures requiring interpolation using cubic spline functions to approximate monthly changes in some variables. Although the MFP had mixed effects in the model, the mid- to longer-term effects may be more impactful. These longer-term effects (and even shorter-term effects through 2020) are complicated by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, which will require a different identification strategy than that employed in this paper.Originality/valueThe analysis and results of this paper are, to the authors' knowledge, the first to investigate the impact of the China–US trade war on Chapter 12 farm bankruptcy filings. The use of cubic splines in the interpolation of agricultural data is also a technical innovation.

The North China Famine of 1876–1879 has received some attention recently, but little of this work has focused on the north-western province of Shaanxi. This imbalance is reflected in the local histories that devote far more space to the documentation and commemoration of the Hui rebellion than to the famine. This paper argues that the drought of those years and the ensuing famine is historically much more significant than this biased documentation would suggest, and that the rebellion can only be fully understood by paying attention to the environmental and social conditions in which it unfolded. Further, the paper engages with Mike Davis’s argument that portrays the famine in China as part of a ‘late-Victorian holocaust.’ While persuasive, his focus on outside forces is problematic as it ignores the history of the Qing Empire as an expanding force in itself and inadvertently reinforces the victimization narrative that dominates modern Chinese historiography.

The Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) introduced Zimbabwe into the realm of China during the liberation struggle as it sourced military support. In line with the Chinese dominance in ZANU, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) guerrilla warfare followed the Maoist doctrine. However, at independence, Zimbabwe joined the British Commonwealth and became a part of the western orbit. Although the country continued to have some form of political and economic linkages with China, the relations were cosmetic. It was at the fall of the cordial relations with the West at the end of the 1990s that Zimbabwe refocused on China. Zimbabwe hinged its survival on Chinese support as it turned full circle to the East. This paper analyses the long historical relations between Zimbabwe and China. It argues that political transformations returned back Zimbabwe to China’s hegemony. The paper is based on qualitative research methods and information was gathered primarily through the use of archival data.

This paper provides a critical check to the ongoing, dominant blue/green debate about Taiwan’s identity vis-à-vis China. The colour blue is associated with those who support closer ties with China and green with those who support Taiwanese independence. The state-centric debate over unification, independence, or the status quo in cross-strait relations is closely tied to Taiwan’s national aspirations to enhance its international standing in the twenty-first century, a standing which is arguably diplomatically under-recognized. Based on a critical discussion of the blue/green debate, this paper presents two pragmatic ways of augmenting Taiwan’s international visibility through global recognition without jeopardizing national security or regional stability in East Asia.

South Asia is becoming one of the most fiercely competitive battlegrounds between India and China. Located at the center of South Asia and with its large geographical area, population, and economic size, superior military strength compared to other countries in the region, India has always been the most influential power in the region. But in the past decade, China’s intensified partnership with small countries in South Asia has threatened India’s number one position in the region. It is the challenges posed by China in South Asia, inter alia, that have forced India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make various important foreign policy adjustments. To interpret India–China competition in South Asia in aspects of diplomacy, economy, security and defense, the paper uses international relations theories including constructivism, neo-realism (particularly offensive realism) and the balance of threat theory. Although the paper analyzes India–China competition in all three areas of diplomacy, economy and military security, the authors are of the view that, the most fundamental motivation of China and India in this competition is to achieve power and security and not economic objectives. While China’s strategic calculation leans towards its ambitions to gain greater power in the geopolitical order, India’s strategic calculation leans towards ensuring its security. By using qualitative methods and utilizing secondary data including books, treatises, articles and policy briefs[Formula: see text], this paper analyzes the strategic calculations of India and China in South Asia. The paper argues that China’s intention is to emulate and then overtake India in the very region of India’s traditional influence, while India’s strategy is to maintain and strengthen its number one position in the region. Though China’s influence in the region seems to have overwhelmed over India, India with all its internal forces is also hindering China’s penetrating steps into South Asian region.

The paper examines the evolution of the Asian regional security architecture in the past three decades, evaluating relations between China and its neighbors, and considering various approaches in International Relations theory. First, the paper examines the assumptions of liberal institutionalism in the context of “econophoria,” assessing its merits in East Asia. Second, the paper addresses China and its relations with the East Asian neighborhood in the latter decades of the 20th century. Third, the paper examines growing territorial tensions between China and its neighbors in the past decade -- and how this undermines regional security and regional integration. Lastly, the paper evaluates the contributions of alternative IR theories such as realism and constructivism in providing a better understanding of China’s new assertiveness.

This issue marks the beginning of Regional Studies 49th volume. As we begin this new chapter in the journal’s history our inheritance will ensure Regional Studies retains its distinctive purpose, but these are new times, indeed they are changing times (TUROK et al., 2014). The 48th volume of Regional Studies saw profound intellectual developments, important journal developments (a new, more geographically dispersed, editorial team; a new Executive Editor; a first Early Career Editor; an increased impact factor), and as the Journal of the Regional Studies Association notable extensions to the activities of the wider regional studies community (e.g. the launch of Regional Studies, Regional Science as an open access journal; the opening of a new China Division of the RSA; the publication of two joint RSA-Regional Studies Virtual Issuesi). 2014 also saw notable territorial developments (increased submissions from, readership by people in, and research focusing on, Asia, Latin America and other parts of the Global South), political and policy developments (e.g. the no vote in the Scottish independence referendum), and methodological developments (e.g. continued improvements in accessing ‘big data’) present (re)new(ed) opportunities and challenges for Regional Studies. As the saying goes, the times are clearly a changing for Regional Studies and it was with this in mind that last year, under the editorship of Gordon MacLeod, the journal relaunched what hitherto had been entitled the Critical Surveys section as Urban and Regional Horizons (MACLEOD, 2014). Twelve months on and with five papers published under the new title we begin by reflecting on what makes this section and these articles distinct, before introducing the papers in this issue.

President Richard M. Nixon was elected in 1968 with the widespread expectation that he would bring about an end to the costly and unpopular war in Vietnam. The task largely fell to National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger. When the negotiations began, North Vietnam appeared to have a winning hand with time on its side. To induce agreement from North Vietnam on acceptable terms, Kissinger orchestrated a complex negotiation campaign with multiple fronts: North Vietnam, the U.S. public and Congress China, the USSR, West Germany, and South Vietnam. Kissinger’s efforts culminated in the signing of the 1973 Paris Peace Accords, which held for about two years before collapsing in the wake of Watergate. The account in this working paper carefully describes — but does not analyze nor draw lessons from — core features of these challenging negotiations. Forthcoming papers will provide analysis and derive general insights from this negotiation campaign.

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link. This paper traces the institutional root of China’s rural industrialization to a historical policy which paired factories in urban areas with people’s communes in the countryside during the Send-Down Movement in the 1970s. The policy, initially intended to improve the lives of sent-down youth, is believed to have provided some initial impetus for industrial development in rural areas before the marketization reform that began in the late 1970s. Based on a manually collected county-level panel dataset of Zhejiang Province, we find that following the implementation of the pairing policy in 1974, counties that received a higher concentration of sent-down youth, relative to their rural population, achieved faster growth in per capita industrial output of commune enterprises. Our results are consistent with various historical accounts. In addition, our tentative evidence shows that the pairing policy had a prolonged effect on rural economic development, lasting into the 1980s. Overall, our findings reveal the importance of some pre-reform institutions in shaping China’s unique paths towards industrialization.

Russian studies are the important part of area studies in Chinese science. In 21st century the research of Russia has played the great role in People's Republic of China. The Chinese scholars attempted to determine the role of the collapse of the USSR and the appearance of new state the Russian Federation for their country. The modern Russian studies in China have been oriented to the needs of the Chinese foreign policy and the ideology of the ruling Communist Party of China. The objects of the contemporary Russian studies in China are the two interconnecting themes: the one is the history of Russia-China relations and its current situation; the other is the Russian history and current affairs. In this paper we attempt to find the Chinese interpretation of Russia foreign policy from Soviet period to Putin's era. We use the open sources: papers, monographies, official web-sites of the two main research centres of Russian studies: the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and the Institute of Russia, East Europe and Central Asia of CASS – to conclude that the Chinese researches of Russian studies reflect the core of the Chinese government position.

What are the primary drivers of the relationship between Xi’s China and Lukashenko’s Belarus? The present research paper uses the historical process-tracing method to provide an answer to this question. Furthermore, it uses quantitative data analysis regarding the economic intercourse between Belarus and China. It examines whether China’s opposition regarding the unipolar American-led world order and Belarus’s security concerns are the primary drivers of the relationship between Minsk and Beijing. The present article concludes that the congruence of beliefs and Minsk’s desire to ensure survival are drawing the two countries closer together. China’s new strategy encompasses Beijing’s increasing participation in world affairs. China opposes the world order led by a single hegemon, the United States of America. In the interim, Belarus, a relatively weak state insignificant in the global balance of power, shares Beijing’s beliefs about the desired nature of the contemporary world order. However, the Belarusian economy’s condition, which relies heavily on external funding, does not allow the economic cooperation between Minsk and Beijing to thrive. China gradually increases its engagement with Belarus, yet it obscures its ambitions, for Minsk lies in Moscow’s sphere of influence.

A vast and hyper-centralized Asian empire built on the premise of an alleged cultural homogeneity. A small, federalist Alpine state sustained by the ideal of coexistence of different languages and religions. The differences between China and Switzerland could not be wider, and it is therefore understandable that the Swiss confederacy has been fascinating Chinese intellectuals in both the modern and contemporary era. In the late Qing and early Republican period, Switzerland was mentioned by prominent figures like Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, who praised its democracy, and in the 1920s the Swiss political system became a source of inspiration for “provincial patriots” in Hunan or for Chinese federalists such as Chen Jiongming. The present paper intends to survey these political encounters and perceptions, focusing on the transformation of the Swiss institutional model and historical experience into a “political concept”, and on the reasons for its final rejection as an unrealistic utopia unsuited for China.

Cooperation of the EU members with China is now under increasing supervision of Washington and Brussels. The growing US-China confrontation direct impacts the relations between the EU and PRC, contributing to the adoption by Brussels of tighter control over investments in strategic sectors of economy. EU member states have to adapt their bilateral relations with China to these new developments. Formed in February 2021, the new Italian government of M. Draghi over the past eight months has nearly completed the reversal in relations with Beijing, questioning not only the memorandum of understanding signed in March 2019, but also tightening the mechanisms of control over investments coming from China.

This paper observes the first China’s investment experience in Latin America. Coming of Chinese investors in Peru took place as a result of the ambiguous process of privatization of Peruvian state-owned enterprises. The main problems accompanying the activities of the new owners were labor relations with the local residents, and non-compliance with investment obligations. The research summarises that the origins of these problems.

Problems of the past remain one of the most important factors that have plagued Sino-Japanese relations for the last few decades. Questions that are related to events of WWII and in particular events of the Second Sino-Japanese war are still relevant and remain a sensitive issue in contemporary China. Complicated postwar Sino-Japanese relations are not only caused by political and economic factors, but to a great extent are related to specific perceptions of events of the shared past in the first half of the 20th century by these two nations. Collective remembrance of Sino-Japanese wars and one of the most major wars of the 20th century – WWII – that was formed during the 20th centenary is vastly different in China and Japan, and still has a great impact on the dynamics of bilateral relations. The paper studies Chinese approaches to the interpretation of the Sino-Japanese war of resistance, role of the State and non-State actors in forming collective war remembrance in China during different stages of postwar development in the 20th century: during the first decades after the end of WWII (1950–70s), period of normalization of Sino-Japanese relations after 1972 – when a joint declaration was signed and “renewing” war remembrance in the 1980s.

The Russian population at all times manifested their con-cern in the neighboring state entities wondering about their political system, society’ organization, cultural tradi-tions. Of course, China being one of the closest and larg-est countries neighboring Russia to the East could not have remained for long beyond the Russian scope of interest and, in particular, for the Siberian public. The author of the paper determined to examine in this paper China and the Chinese population and give a de-scription of the images made upon the publications of the Siberian print media, as well as to reveal and explore preconditions back in history having entailed emersion of the Russian-made "Chinese matter" in the second half of XIX century.

Introduction. The article examines the structure and features of Ganden Phodrang (Tib. dGa’-ldan pho-brang) — Tibetan traditional Government founded by the 5th Dalai Lama Lobsang Gyatso (1617–1682) in 1642 — in the context of interaction with institutions of the Qing administration in the 18th century. Diarchy based on the principles of unity of monastic and secular government (Tib. Сhos-srid) became the basis of the political and legal system of the Tibetan state and was reflected in some specifics of relations with Buddhist countries and peoples. The influence of the Qing Empire in the region by the end of the 18th century increased, and that was traced in formal characteristics but did not affect the functioning laws of Ganden Phodrang. Goals. The paper reviews and analyzes the origins, structure and features of the Dalai Lama’s traditional government Ganden Phodrang (1642–1959); identifies the main changes in the political structure of Tibet during the period of the greatest influence of the Qing government institutions in the 18th century; clarifies the position and role of the Dalai Lama as head of state, as well as the importance of regents and Qing ambans in governing the country. Materials and Methods. In addition to Qing sources, the article uses works by German and French Tibetan scholars (in English), as well as studies by Indian and Chinese Tibetologists. In Russian historiography, special attention is paid to the Dalai Lamas and Panchen Lamas, their relations with the Qing emperors, as well as to such administrative institutions of the Qing as ambans, legislative acts, and the Golden urn lot. Methodologically, the study employs historical and comparative approaches, and the problem-chronological principle. Conclusions. The article concludes that the Dalai Lama’s Government was uniquely independent in the 18th century, and tulku regents possessed special ‘dual’ status and significance. It is necessary to emphasize the importance of studying the topic in the context of international polemics around classification of the socioeconomic structure of Tibet in the Middle Ages, and its status in relation to China.

On December 22nd 2015, President Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe officially declared that Zimbabwe will nationalize Yuan as official national currency. This policy is being done in order to solve default against Zimbabwe's debt to China. In return, China will pay off Zimbabwe's debt. By having this policy, foreign direct investment (FDI) as a foreign aid given by China will impact the economy development of Zimbabwe. This paper will examine Zimbabwe’s interdependence to China’s investment after nationalize Yuan as Zimbabwe’s currency with Theory of Foreign Capital Dependence and Development: A New Direction by Jeffrey Kentor and Terry Boswell

This paper seeks to provide a view that international relations after the Cold War remains dominated by the interests of superpowers such as the United States, China and Russia. This can be seen from the behavior of these countries in influencing Venezuela. On the other hand, Turkey as a country with an Islamic Fundamentalist character under Erdogan's leadership was involved in the struggle for influence in Venezuela. What's interesting is that in this condition Turkey was in the ranks of China and Russia to support the Nicolas Maduro Government. The aim of this study is to look at the efforts of the Communist ideology (Russian) and Islamic Fundamentalism (Turkey) state in defending Nicolas Maduro's position as president of Venezuela from Western pressure.

In the Geographical Pivot of History paper (1904), Halford Mackinder suggested that four powers might strive for control of Eurasia: Germany, Russia, China, and Japan. In Democratic Ideals and Real...

In this paper we trace the rapid growth and spectacular demise of online peer to peer lending in China. Drawing on a series of interviews conducted in China in 2017 and 2018, we follow the expansion of the sector from the establishment of the first major platform in 2007, through the introduction of limited regulation in 2015 in response to a series of platform failures to the final de facto closure of the whole sector by the regulator in 2019–20. However, contrary to claims that technology would reduce risk, the new platforms appear to have given rise to new risks by connecting dispersed borrowers and lenders whilst the regulator had decided to leave the sector to evolve without specific regulation. While there were hopes that P2P lending might increase flows of finance to the SMEs that are excluded from the formal banking system, ultimately too much of the activity on the P2P platforms was characterised by what we term ‘transactional ambiguity’ and ‘legal fluidity’: it occurred on the fringes of legality, often amounting to Ponzi schemes, fraud or unlicensed banking activity. In contrast to the banking sector, where their intermediation role ensures that banks are the focal point in the event of borrower default, and conventional moneylending, where moneylenders bear the risk of default, defaults and platform failures in the P2P sector distributed losses far and wide around the country, often to lenders who were not capable of bearing them. Whilst the central government did not formally stand behind the P2P sector (as it does with banks because of the systemic implications of their operations), the government could not help but become involved where P2P lending transmitted losses to lenders who were dispersed around the whole country. Ultimately, central government announced a wholesale reversal of policy that led to the sector effectively being closed down. The episode cautions against overly optimistic claims that technology can eradicate the risks of fraud and fundamental uncertainty inherent in lending, and reminds us that, without appropriate regulation and adequate internal controls, financial institutions will always operate in ways that result in instability.