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In the increasingly volatile global political order, national economic structures and international relations, integrated as they are, are showing concerning signs of strain. Taiwan, whose world-leading semiconductor industry is indispensable in Global Supply Chains and whose economic prosperity and security are critical to a stable global economic system, has received much research interest since the late 1980s. Against the background of a slowing Taiwanese economy, starting in the 2000s, this paper seeks to investigate the causes of Taiwan's challenges and the linkages to the global economy vis-à-vis China. Based on previous research from different social science disciplines, this paper shows that Taiwan's economic performance has been undermined by the declining effectiveness of its industrial policy and the general state intervention in the country, which is in turn caused by deep socio-political divisions on issues of national identity and Taiwan-China relations. The paper reveals the dilemma, which results from this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With improvement of China's economic development and integration into the globalization, the increasing international influence of China's consumer market, and progressing consumption upgrading, the internationalization of the subject, object and carrier of China's consumer market is becoming more and more obvious. Based on a theoretical review of consumption internationalization, this paper defines the connotation of consumption internationalization, and summarizes the characteristics and the problems of China's current consumption internationalization. A series of policy suggestions are provided, including a more abundant supply of medium and high-end commodities, a better consumption environment for imported goods, a sound tax exemption and refund service system, an expanded inbound tourism and so on. This paper believes that the degree of integration of various elements such as the subject, object, and carrier between domestic and foreign market still needs to be improved in China. We should follow the trend of consumption internationalization and promote the upgrading of China's consumption to a higher level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to understand China's uneven regional development in recent years on the basis of on political economics theories. We summarizes two theories from the political economics on uneven regional development--framework of production and framework of exchange--and unifies them by theories of labor value and capital circulation. It means to show that uneven regional development will be explained with value production, value realization and capital accumulation, and their interactions as well. This framework can not only explain regional disparities in a static sense, but also presents dynamically developments of regional disparities--first rising and then falling. Empirical research finds China's regional disparities result mainly from the value production gap. During the period of analysis, China went through a capital accumulation biased towards less developed regions, jointly shaped by market logic and government behavior. It made the effect of reducing regional disparities stronger than the "polarization effect" around 2007, producing a narrowing of disparities across regional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author argues that the deterioration of the natural environment in China provides a persuasive reason to reorient China's economic growth towards a more sustainable path. Reconciling the development and environment imperatives needs to become an urgent priority for the Chinese government in order to avert the cascading implications that will arise in terms of social unrest, loss of further development opportunities as well as deepening income inequality. This paper thus examines the inter-relationship between the current ecological challenge in China and the need for economic sustainability. It evaluates the extent of environmental damage in China and focuses on the environmental impact on development and social inequality. The paper then examines the recent legislative measures that have been taken by the Chinese government to address the problem of inefficient environmental monitoring. The author suggests that further reform is needed to achieve an economically and ecologically just pathway for China's future. The paper therefore demonstrates that the environment- development challenge in China is mainly a challenge of governance. Resolving it will contribute to better environmental justice and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we modify the multivariate nonlinear causality test to be panel nonlinear causality test and we apply these and other existing related tests to examine the causal relationship between growth in economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and real housing returns in China and India using quarterly data from 2003:01 to 2012:04. Both panel linear and nonlinear Granger causality tests suggest the existence of only linear and nonlinear unidirectional causality relationships from growth in EPU to real housing returns in both China and India, and bivariate linear Granger causality tests suggest the existence of only linear unidirectional causality relationship from growth in EPU to real housing returns only in China. However, nonlinear bivariate Granger causality tests conclude the existence of nonlinear bidirectional causality relationships between growth in EPU and real housing returns in both China and India and cross bivariate linear and nonlinear Granger causality tests discover that there is only a linear causality relationship from Indian growth in EPU to Chinese housing returns. The results confirm the relevance of EPU data to better understand and predict the future behaviour of housing market returns in these countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese biochemical engineering is committed to supporting the chemical and food industries, to advance science and technology frontiers, and to meet major demands of Chinese society and national economic development. This paper reviews the development of biochemical engineering, strategic deployment of these technologies by the government, industrial demand, research progress, and breakthroughs in key technologies in China. Furthermore, the outlook for future developments in biochemical engineering in China is also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines China’s ongoing revolution in higher education. On the bright side, Chinese higher education has enjoyed four decades of remarkable expansion, as measured by college enrollment, post-graduate training, research capacities and various global rankings. In 2007, China’s higher education has become the largest in the world in terms of student enrollment. Yet, after decades of economic liberalization and marketization, Chinese higher education is one of the few areas that remain monopolized by the state. Despite extraordinary progresses Chinese universities have recently made, they have been repeatedly criticized by many insiders (university presidents, college deans, professors, as well as students and their parents) for the lack of academic freedom. It remains to be seen whether China’s universities can transform themselves from an institution of higher education to a home of liberal learning and innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In January 2015, Li Keqiang visited Chaihuo makerspace in Shenzhen, the Chinese city that is the world's electronics manufacturing capital. The visit expressed the significance of China's fledgling but fast-growing maker movement: while its first makerspace was set only up in 2010, in 2016 there are over a hundred, and Keqiang's visit is part of a bigger governmental push on makerspaces, positioned as sites of creative and technology-led innovation key to the country's economic growth. Amidst growing research into the social, politicoeconomic and cultural significances of makerspaces in the UK and Europe, the specificity of China's maker movement remains underresearched. Yet understanding the on-the-ground lived experience, rather than the promotional rhetoric, of China's maker movement is crucial to its future: while lots of makerspaces are opening, many lack makers, and there are fears that China's maker movement is an artificially fuelled bubble about to burst. Contemporaneously, the future of other types of making in China, such as its craft traditions, urban manufacturing networks, and shanzhai production, is being threatened by an assemblage of fiscal and state forces. Investigating China's maker movement was the focus of two British-based and British-funded network, research and knowledge exchange projects in which the authors participated during 2015 and 2016: Living Research: Making in China and China's Creative Communities: Making Value and the Value(s) of Making. This paper considers their research methodologies and initial findings. Specifically, it focuses on the craft-based participatory methodology developed in China's Creative Communities, as seen in a "Digital Craft" workshop. Informed by social anthropology, its empirical, immersive and inclusive approach gave a voice to makers themselves. While still in a developmental stage, we believe this "craft anthropology" approach has value for future research into the maker movement in China and in other cultures and contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between financial development and economic growth in China is controversial. From this perspective, this article aims to identify this relationship using both capital market and banking intermediation indicators, which were rarely considered in the previous literature. An autoregressive model with staggered lags (ARDL) examines the long-run cointegration relationship between 1980 and 2020. The results suggest that the contribution of different subsectors of the Chinese financial system to economic growth differs. The development of the money market has a negative impact, whereas market capitalization has a positive impact on economic growth in China. Regarding the contribution of the banking system to China's economic growth, the two variables measuring the depth of financial institutions showed opposite impacts in both the short and long term. Regarding important policy implications, regulators need to ensure a pro-growth environment, effectively regulate the informal banking system, and prevent potential financial risks by revising policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an exploration of one of the social aspects of China 's dramatic economic transformation --contemporary Chinese literary discourse. Working within the analytic framework of critical discourse analysis,it aims to probe into the issue of human relationships between citizens in urban cities such as Shanghai and temporary rural migrants from all over the country.It focuses on the short story 'Little Restaurant 'by Wang Anyi, which depicts rural migrants who have come to Shanghai to seek their fortune.It examines both at the lexico-grammatical level such properties as personal references and lexical choices and at the discoursal level such properties as the mode in which the story is written,which in turn reveals evidences of a segregation ideology manifest in an asymmetrical society.The conclusion drawn from the study is that the gulf between 'us,'the urbanites in Shanghai,and 'them,'the 'provincial people,'is created not only by policy-makers but also by people 's attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article builds upon research which analyses the reconstruction of cities in China as an integral part of image-making discourses competing to attract mobile capital. It extends that literature beyond urban places to urbanisation processes, examining the material and linguistic features of networks and discourses of new high-speed rail infrastructure Guangxi, a poorer, rural, multilingual and multiethnic region of the People's Republic of China (China) in which tourism – propelled by high-speed trains – has become a pillar of economic development. It argues that these trains produce symbolically powerful discourses which contribute to cultural urbanisation across Guangxi, emplacing urban norms outside city limits in pursuit of profitable sameness, as tourism does not trade only upon difference. Local multilingualism, specifically, is erased as too different, a barrier to tourists' (and tourism capital's) mobility. Amongst other ramifications, this reproduces social distance and ideologically displaces local languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lack of knowledge, both technological and institutional, has been and continues to be, China's main constraint during its transition from a planned economy to a market economy. Using illustrative examples, this article identifies two main sources of knowledge. The Shenzhen model opens a platform to acquire knowledge from abroad; the Wenzhou model reveals mechanisms by which knowledge is created internally. The two models represent different ways of regional experimentation, a unique method for knowledge creation and diffusion during China's economic transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political decision makers are economic agents who try to maximize self-interests. This simple assumption helps explain China's decision-making of reform and opening up and shed light on its contradictory political logic. Under a fully planned economy, market liberalization benefits everyone, including political decision makers. After wealth is created in the market economy, political decision-makers have incentives to take a growing share of wealth for themselves if no institutional mechanism exists to check their power. When the proportion of wealth appropriated by political decision-makers exceeds the margin where the people can afford, the market starts to suffer and the growth of wealth is derailed. At the extreme, political decision-makers takes so much wealth to push the entire social economic system to the verge of collapse. Because political decision-makers do not know where the equilibrium margin is, the above thinking has practical consequences. When political decision-makers keep expanding their take of wealth, the worst scenario may occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Der Aufsatz wirft am Beispiel Chinas die Frage auf, inwiefern die rasche Entfaltung der Ökonomie auch zur Ausdifferenzierung des Rechtswesens aus der politisch-administrativen Sphäre drängt und untersucht, welche Folgen es hat, wenn die Autonomisierung des Rechtswesens gegenüber Parteipolitik und Verwaltung blockiert ist. Nach der einleitenden theoretischen Diskussion des Verhältnisses zwischen Parteipolitik, Verwaltung und Rechtsprechung in konkurrenzdemokratischen Mehrparteiensystemen sowie ideologisch integrierten Einparteiensystemen wird gezeigt, dass (1.) die rasche ökonomische Entwicklung in der post-maoistischen Ära mit dem Neuaufbau des Rechtswesens und einem enormen Wachstum der rechtlich bearbeiteten Konflikte verbunden war; dass (2.) die politisch blockierte Autonomisierung des Rechtswesens Rechtsunsicherheit, mangelnde Legitimität gerichtlicher Verfahren, die Unterminierung der zentralstaatlichen Kontrolle der politisch-administrativen Peripherie und die Gefährdung der politischen Legitimation des Zentrums zur Folge hat; dass (3.) Versuche zur Lösung dieser Probleme durch kompensatorische Ersatzeinrichtungen wie administrative Leistungsbewertungssysteme, Petitionswesen und Mediation fehlgeschlagen sind und (4.) tendenziell eine Verschärfung dieser Probleme beobachtet werden kann. Using the example of China the article raises the question, how the rapid development of the economy pushes the differentiation of the judicial system from the political-administrative sphere and explores the consequences of a situation, where the autonomization of the judicial system against party politics and administration is blocked. After an introductory theoretical discussion of the relation between party politics, administration, and jurisdiction in competitive multi-party systems as well as in ideologically integrated single-party systems it is demonstrated, that (1.) the rapid economic development of the post-Mao-era is accompanied by the reconstruction of the judicial system and an enormous growth of conflicts to be processed by law; that (2.) the politically blocked autonomization of the judicial system leads to legal uncertainty, a lack of legitimacy of judicial procedures, the erosion of the central state's control of its political-administrative periphery, and the endangerment of the center's political legitimacy; that (3.) attempts to solve these problems by compensatory substitutes like administrative performance evaluation systems, petitioning, and mediation have failed, and that (4.) a tendency of increasing escalation of these problems can be observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contracts, as a form of institutions, have an influence on efficiency. Other conditions being the same, different contracts lead to different efficiency. Unlike property rights which require compulsory implementation by law, contracts rely mainly on the contracting parties' voluntary implementation due to the fact that they are reached by two or more contracting parties in unanimity. Therefore, in cases where property institutions cannot be altered fast enough due to political or ideological reasons, reforms can be achieved by the modification of contracts, which result in similar effects at a lower cost. This is the case for China's reforms, especially in agriculture: the land ownership in rural areas- collective land property rights have not changed in name, but the contracts between farmers and the state, or the collectives, have changed tremendously to bring about remarkable economic growth. In a more general sense, it has happened once and again in human history when property institutions-judicial institutions-cannot be changed due to political or other reasons, or due to brutal bloodshed or war in prospect. Therefore, as an option, the change of contract exists as a more common, and unconscious but effective form of institutional change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent years have witnessed a heated debate on China's rise. Using various theoretical arguments, existing research has generated quite divergent conclusions on whether China rises peacefully. Liberals argue that China has significantly benefited from the existing international economic system and therefore China is rising peacefully. On the other hand, realists such as John Mearsheimer argue that because China is likely to challenge the status quo, a rising China poses a threat to international security. Surprisingly, despite the ample scholarship on this topic and the existing divergent conclusions, a large-N empirical evaluation of China's rise is missing in the existing research. This study fills this important gap by providing a large-N empirical investigation of militarized interstate disputes between China and other states from 1979 to 2010. We find that although China's GDP, military spending, and CINC score have increased remarkably since the start of its economic reform, no empirical evidence points to more conflicts between China and other states. Furthermore, trade exerts only a weak effect on China's conflict, a surprising yet interesting finding that revises the conventional wisdom in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses Chinese economic issues in response to arguments raised by political scientist Hartmut Elsenhans in his article "Capitalism and Global History: Some Thoughts on History and Theory," published within the issue. Topics discussed include the way the Chinese economy significantly benefited from globalisation, the use of Keynesian economic concepts by Elsenhans to highlight economic growth of China, and the consumption problems of the region in addition to its labour conflicts.