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Since 1990, a large and dynamic global science system has evolved, based on grass roots collaboration, and resting on the resources, infrastructure and personnel housed by national science systems. Euro-American science systems have become intensively networked in a global duopoly; and many other countries have built national science systems, including a group of large- and middle-sized countries that follow semi-autonomous trajectories based on state investment, intensive national network building, and international engagement, without integrating tightly into the global duopoly. The dual global/national approach pursued by these systems, including China, South Korea, Iran and India, is not always fully understood in papers on science. Nevertheless, China is now the number two science country in the world, the largest producer of papers and number one in parts of STEM physical sciences. The paper investigates the remarkable evolution of China's science funding, output, discipline balance, internationalisation strategy and national and global networking. China has combined global activity and the local/national building of science in positive sum manner, on the ground of the nationally nested science system. The paper also discusses limits of the achievement, noting that while China-US relations have been instrumental in building science, a partial decoupling is occurring and the future is unclear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the exogenous shock of China's formal implementation of the environmental information disclosure system in 2008 to construct a quasi-natural experiment. Based on the panel data of prefecture-level cities from 2003 to 2019, the propensity score matching and difference in difference (PSM-DID) approach was used to systematically evaluate the impact of environmental information disclosure on energy efficiency. Overcoming the difficulties in measuring environmental information disclosure and the endogenous problem, this paper investigates the energy-saving effect of environmental information disclosure and illustrates its mechanism for the first time. The results show that environmental information disclosure significantly improved energy efficiency, and public participation played an important role in energy conservation, a conclusion that remained true after a series of robustness tests. The test of the impact mechanism shows that environmental information disclosure can achieve the goal of improving energy efficiency by promoting industrial structure upgrading and technological innovation. This paper enriches the discussion on the relationship between environmental information disclosure and energy efficiency, and provides useful policy inspiration for improving the level of energy efficiency and achieving sustainable economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers how 'knowledge' of China was presented for Victorian and Edwardian children in The Boy's Own Paper ( BOP) between 1879 and 1914. It considers how genre affects the representation of China in the BOP by comparing travel narratives and adventure stories. First, it focuses on non-fiction about China, examining the rhetorical strategies employed by the authors of travel narratives. The travellers express confidence in their ability to survey the land and present readers with the idea that China is abundant in resources awaiting British discovery. Second, the article discusses adventure stories about opium and piracy written during a period when the tension between the British and the Chinese was particularly fraught over these issues. While the authors of the adventure stories created a strong contrast between the Chinese as villains and the British as heroes, the BOP travel writers provide contradictory statements within their narratives, reflecting an ambivalence about China and the Chinese. However, because the BOP contributors sought to instil a sense of patriotism, to inspire their readers to serve the British Empire, both the non-fiction travel narratives and the fictional adventure stories related to China were published not only to entertain readers with exotic facts and thrilling stories, but more importantly, to persuade them of the necessity of British intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the use of ecosystem service (ES) approaches at the landscape scale to assess two major ecological restoration programs (ERPs) in China. We found 68 papers highlighting four aspects: (1) most papers considered only one ES, and all ES categories were not covered equally; (2) regional-scale and short-term assessments dominated the reviewed papers, and few papers evaluated the impacts of ERPs on ESs at multiple spatial scales; (3) the majority of datasets were from global and national databases; and (4) 40% of studies used mostly proxy models and did not report model validation. Finally, we identify four needs: (1) for a deeper understanding of the interactions between multiple ESs; (2) to establish multiple temporal and spatial scales on ERP assessments including future scenarios and balanced efforts of ERP assessments over the entire territory; (3) to establish multiple data scales; and (4) to develop robust modeling approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The carbon emission trading pilot policy is an important initiative to achieve synergistic economic-environmental development. Based on the data of 268 cities in China from 2006 to 2020, this paper analyzes the impact of carbon emission trading pilot policy on urban innovation capacity by using a time-varying difference-in-difference model. The study shows that, first, the implementation of the CETP improves the innovation capacity of cities, and the robustness test confirms the above findings. Second, the effect of the policy on enhancing urban innovation capacity is heterogeneous between the type of innovation and city type: the promotion of innovation capacity is stronger for utility model patents and non-capital cities. Third, there is a positive spillover effect of the implementation of the CETP on the promotion effect of the urban innovation capacity, which can lead to the improvement of the innovation capacity of neighboring cities. This paper has some reference value for building a unified carbon emission trading market and promoting low-carbon economic development within China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food waste has become a significant challenge faced by the community with a shared future for mankind, and it has also caused a considerable impact on China's food security. Scholars across disciplines, international organizations, and especially policymakers are increasingly interested in food waste. Policies are seen as a powerful factor in reducing food waste, but current research on related policies is more scattered. This paper summarizes and analyzes the experiences of food waste policy development and implementation by systematically reviewing the studies on food waste reduction policies. The results of this paper's analysis show that current global food waste policies are focused at the national strategic level, with approaches such as legislation, food donation, waste recycling, awareness and education, and data collection. At the same time, we find that the current experience of developed countries in policy formulation and implementation is beneficial for policy formulation in developing countries. And taking China as an example, we believe that developing countries can improve food waste policies in the future by improving legislation, guiding the development of food banks, promoting social governance, and strengthening scientific research projects. These policies will all contribute strongly to global environmental friendliness. In addition, we discuss some of the factors that influence the development of food waste policies and argue that in the future, more consideration needs to be given to the effects of policy implementation and that case studies should focus more on developing countries. This will contribute to the global sustainable development process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green consumption has become an important part of an environmentally friendly society. Policy guidance can effectively promote green consumption. Green consumption policies are extensive because of the diversity of green consumption objects. However, the various objects are not completely isolated, and policy must have a certain level of consistency. Therefore, from the perspective of green consumption objects, this paper first uses the text mining method to mine 308 green consumption policies in China, analyzing the objects covered in China's green consumption policies. Then, the evaluation system of green consumption policy consistency was built, seven key policies were selected, and the PMC-index method was used to measure policy consistency. The results show that (i) the main objectives of China's green consumption policy are the promotion of green products and the efficient use of energy. Green services and green recycling have been subject to fewer policy efforts. (ii) In terms of the links involved in green consumption, China pays more attention to the supply and the consumption chain and less attention to the recycling chain. (iii) The quantitative evaluation results of the seven typical policies show that the policy consistency is good but not perfect. The policy shortcomings are mainly reflected in the incentive methods. Therefore, it is recommended to further improve the green consumption objectives and enrich the means and methods of green consumption guidance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The establishment of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area has prompted closer cooperation in aquatic products trade between China and Vietnam. Studying the aquatic trade situation and export trade growth dynamics of China and Vietnam can help clarify the aquatic trade relationship between China and Vietnam and promote the sustainable development of bilateral aquatic trade cooperation. This paper analyzes the trade growth dynamics of aquatic products exported from China and Vietnam from 2002 to 2020 using the ternary marginal method. The trade growth pattern of aquatic products exported from China to Vietnam is "both quantity and price growth," and the trade growth pattern of aquatic products exported from Vietnam to China is "quantity growth mainly, extensive growth supplemented." The two countries have apparent differences in the growth dynamics of aquatic products export trade. Moreover, there is a higher complementarity when exporting Vietnam's aquatic products to China than China's aquatic products to Vietnam. Based on these, analyze the factors affecting the growth dynamics of Vietnam's aquatic products export to China: Vietnam's economic development level negatively affects the price index and quantity index of Vietnam's aquatic products exported to China, and Vietnam's aquatic product output affects the price index. China's trade freedom positively affects the price index and negatively affects the quantity index. Finally, this paper put forward suggestions to promote the sustainable development of bilateral aquatic products trade between China and Vietnam to facilitate the formulation of relevant policies between the two countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) have been extensive concerned. However, few studies have focused on the impact of situational factors on corporate ESG practice decisions. Based on this, using 9428 observations of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2009 to 2019, this paper attempts to explore the impact of local official turnover on corporate ESG practices, and analyzes the boundary effects of this impact from three aspects: region, industry, and corporate. Our results suggest that (1) official turnover can lead to changes in economic policies and redistribution of political resources, which can stimulate companies' "risk aversion motivation" and "development motivation" and thus promote their ESG practices; (2) this effect is more significant in the high degree of government intervention, the high level of industry competition and private corporates. (3) Further test finds that only when the official turnover abnormally and the regional economic development well, official turnover can significantly contribute to corporate ESG. This paper enriches the relevant research on the decision-making scenarios of corporate ESG practices from the macro-institutional perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate policies could improve air quality, thereby generating health benefits and thus increasing labour input for economic growth. Nevertheless, health benefits are usually overlooked in evaluation frameworks of climate policies. In this paper, a dynamic recursive computable general equilibrium (CGE) model is adopted to define how climate policies are related to air pollution, namely PM 2.5 concentrations. Health benefits of climate policies are divided into reduction of PM 2.5 -related morbidity and mortality. The CGE model results show that both carbon tax and emission trading scheme (ETS) decrease morbidity and mortality; therefore, under climate policies, PM 2.5 -related labour loss decreases, and thus increasing labour input triggers an economic boom. Carbon tax generates more health benefits in short term, while health benefits of ETS policy will gradually increase in long term. Hence, we conclude that regarding health benefits, a long-term ETS policy is preferable to a long-term carbon tax. This finding implies that the recently established nationwide ETS market in China is meaningful, as it will generate more health benefits in future. Nevertheless, the quantified health benefits in this paper still cannot compensate GDP loss induced by climate policy implementations, implying that it is a challenging task to unbiasedly model health benefits of climate policies. Hence, we have recommended that the scopes and contents of health benefits should be expanded in evaluations of climate policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Water has remained a source of contentious and cooperative politics among states since the Sumerian civilization. The field of hydro-politics, since its emergence in the 1990s, had taken note of dams as both a source of conflict between riparian neighbors owing to their threat to the life and property along the transboundary banks, and as a source of cooperation through effective water and knowledge sharing and infrastructural development, promoting peaceful negotiations in good faith in these matters. In this regard, the narrative and practice of infrastructural development by the great powers in their weaker riparian states to enhance their growth has emerged as a new means to increase great power states' power and influence in the international arena. China, in its race against the United States, has emerged as the world's largest dam builder, having extended its construction footprints across many parts of the globe. As rapid industrial development and resultant climate change intensifies the hitherto prevalent water crises, China, through a spate of dam-building among other things, has ensured its water, and consequently food, supply through the accumulation of real and virtual water networks, in a world where basic necessities are gradually becoming scarce. Through a descriptive study, this paper attempts to answer the question of what the implications of China's domestic, regional and global behavior of extensive hydro-infrastructural development are beyond the contemporary economic and political gains for itself. It argues that the objectives of China's dam-building transcend short-term economic and political gains, as it attempts to ensure the possibility of China's long-term hydro-stability in its quest to emerge at the lead of the evolving global order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To cope with global climate change and energy security, the realization of the low-carbon energy transition has become an inevitable choice for international carbon emission reduction requirements and energy structure adjustment. Vigorously developing renewable energy has become an essential part of energy policies in many countries. Under the incentive and guidance of renewable energy industry policy, China's renewable energy has developed rapidly, and energy structure has been optimized. However, many problems have been exposed. Can China's renewable energy industry policy effectively support low-carbon energy transition? This paper uses the method of theoretical analysis, combining literature analysis and data analysis. Based on the analysis of renewable energy policies in countries with relatively mature energy transitions, it analyzes the status quo, implementation effect, and problems of renewable energy policy in China and proposes policy suggestions. According to the research, the existing problems are as follows: (1) diminishing marginal effect of policies, (2) policy adjustment is not timely and lacks details and operability, (3) coordination conflicts between the old and new policies, (4) unreasonable policy supply structure, and (5) the negative impact of subsidy policy is increasing. Therefore, this paper argues that China's renewable energy industry policy cannot effectively support the low-carbon energy transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: China has made great progress in ecological restoration. However, there have been no analyses on ecological restoration for specific terrestrial ecosystems. This study identified the important knowledge gaps and advances related to terrestrial ecological restoration in China. Results: 7973 papers published between 1978 and 2020 were investigated and about 962 articles were used in this analysis after manually screening. Since the first large national ecological restoration project in 1978, the most frequently studied ecosystem has shifted from farmland ecosystems in 1978–2000 to forest ecosystems after 2000. Forests were the most common ecosystem type investigated, while less attention was paid to wetlands and riparian systems. Meanwhile, the most common ecological issue shifted from environmental pollution in 1978–2000 to the declining resource-carrying capacity of ecosystems after 2000. Studies of ecoregions on the Loess Plateau catchment accounted for more than 40% of papers reviewed in this study, with predominant emphasis on soil and water conservation functionality. Besides, revegetation and afforestation characterized most ecological restoration projects in China, but the natural restoration was relatively less adopted. Additionally, the important tool of reference ecosystem was only used in four studies. Conclusions: Ecological restoration has made significant progress in China. We investigated how the ecological restoration can be implemented more effectively. More projects should be implemented for restorative work in wetlands and riparian systems in future. The tradeoff between restorative activities, water resources, and carbon sink needs further research efforts. More emphasis on biodiversity conservation is warranted. Newly developed theory (e.g., stepwise ecological restoration) and the recently issued Chinese National Guidelines for Ecological Restoration Projects should be more effectively implemented in future restorative works. This study provides essential information for future restorative work in China. It also provides insights into the development of policy relevant to restoration and adaptive management during the U.N. restoration decade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the vast literature on the various determinants of happiness, very little is known about how financial and trade openness may affect people's happiness in the current literature. In this paper we attempt to fill in this blank using a large survey data from China. We find that while income inequality indeed has a significantly negative effect on happiness, there also exists a notable happiness-enhancing effect of openness via the inequality channel. Further analysis reveals that even after taking into account the possible happiness loss associated with openness, the net effect of openness on happiness remains positive in most cases. The results of the paper extend the previous literature by highlighting the important effects of financial and trade openness in improving people's happiness and how these effects may interact with income inequality. From a policy perspective, the results of the paper suggest that increasing openness of the economy would be an important strategy that policymakers could use to improve people's happiness, especially in the context of rising inequality in most developing and developed countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities are the main spaces to study a low-carbon economy. This paper introduces basic concepts covering "tolerance of planning carbon emissions," "inevitable carbon emissions" and "excessive carbon emissions," then discusses the problem with optimal city carbon emissions under the condition of tolerance. Theoretical analysis and scenario analysis were employed. First, according to optimal allocation theory of resources, we discuss how optimal society carbon emissions take place. Then, the deviation of optimal city carbon emissions was explored and analyzed, which was mostly caused by the missing price of carbon emissions allowance, excessive carbon emissions, and so on. Third, we analyzed optimal city carbon emissions under different conditions, in which different types of tolerance were included. Results show that theoretical investigations on optimal city carbon emissions provide relative ideas for determining control index and optimizing control countermeasures. Policy implications include improving the control index of city carbon emissions through environment enhancement, setting a reasonable control index of city carbon emissions under the consideration of the relationship between city economy and its environment, and establishing trading allowance and compensation mechanism of city carbon emissions, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between environmental regulation and innovation has long been a key issue of scholarly interest. The Porter hypothesis posits that environmental regulations can effectively promote innovation. However, with the rapid development of the Internet, the relationship between environmental regulation and innovation has changed. Through a theoretical analysis, this paper finds that the development of the Internet can not only directly promote innovation but also inhibit innovation through environmental regulations. This paper uses Chinese city-level data from 2014 to 2016 to empirically test the relationship among the Internet, environmental regulation, and innovation. The study finds that (1) the increase in the Internet level and in the intensity of environmental regulations promotes innovation, and the results remain stable after the replacement of the Internet level metrics, (2) the increase in the Internet level inhibits the positive effect of environmental regulations on innovation, but its inhibitory effect is lower than the promotion effect of the Internet on innovation, and (3) the Internet and environmental regulations have a significant promotion effect on the application and acquisition of three types of patents, including invention patents, utility model patents and design patents, with the application and acquisition of utility model patents having the greatest promotion effect, and (4) the analysis of heterogeneity shows that environmental regulation has a greater effect on innovation in eastern and provincial capital cities, and the Internet has a greater effect on innovation in western and nonprovincial capital cities. Finally, this article puts forward policy recommendations based on three aspects: strengthening Internet construction, implementing environmental regulations and policies based on local conditions, and increasing support for R&D and innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing life expectancy is part of the United Nation's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and is a primary indicator of overall quality of life. This paper investigates whether Chinese overseas direct investments into Belt and Road countries have brought about improvement in the life expectancy in these countries, using datasets compiled by non-China sources for the period 2005–2019. This topic has not been addressed in the literature to date. In addition, the generalized method of moments estimation approach used in the study incorporates a novel application of a systematic sequential model specification search which removes the criticism of the flexibility inherent in the method. No significant impact on life expectancy was found from such investments in the Belt and Road countries, which is likely because life expectancy changes slowly, and effects on life expectancy, if present, may only become measurable in years or decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why would an emerging market economy without Western democratic institutions provide and promote social welfare to its citizens? This paper explores the driving forces behind the rapid yet unequal expansion of social welfare in China, a phenomenon notable since the late 1990s. Rather than adhering to the conventional state-centered approach that views welfare expansion as a strategy for one-party regimes to seek legitimacy, this study offers an alternate perspective that emphasizes the 'demand' side, particularly the role of business. Through a systematic analysis of all 336 Chinese municipalities from 2001 to 2012, the study demonstrates how big businesses act as 'vanguard,' pushing local governments to enhance social welfare provision. It suggests that big businesses, in the absence of institutionalized democratic institutions, serve as 'functional equivalents,' channeling societal demands to the government. This paper also finds that firms' influence on social policy in non-democracies is more capability based instead of institutional based; large domestic and multinational corporations are more capable in lobbying the government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does the change of migration policy or institutional context in receiving places influence return migration? This paper examined the impact of relaxing Hukou constraints in 2014 Hukou reform on return intentions by using longitudinal data of the China Labor-Force Dynamics Survey 2012, 2014, and 2016. The results show that the relaxation of the Hukou restrictions will reduce the return intentions of migrants living in cities with an urban population below 5 million. This effect is stronger among migrants who are low skilled and less educated, migrants without social welfare in urban cities, and migrants with lower social status, rural Hukou, and lower level of social integration in the receiving places. An important implication of this paper is that government should pay attention to the improvement of the institutional environment in receiving places and provide better public services and social welfare for migrants, especially for disadvantaged migrants, who are the necessary human capital for urbanization and driving forces to regional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To cope with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), national or sub-national regions have carried out many powerful anti-pandemic measures such as locking down, which may improve their regional air quality. This paper examines the relation between regional air pollution and work resumption from a novel post-pandemic perspective. Using a unique panel dataset on China's detailed industrial electricity consumption, this paper does not find a positive relation between post-COVID-19 work resumption and regional air pollution during China's early-stage recovery. This result is obtained after controlling for province and date fixed effects, as well as local weather conditions. However, the positive relations are found in a particular sub-sample of large industrial enterprises and a particular sub-sample of April. These findings indicate that large industrial enterprises may recover first, and the resumption is progressing gradually. Finally, several policy implications are provided, which are essentially helpful for other countries' post-pandemic recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate the heterogeneous treatment effects of retirement on the mental health of older adults using the generalized random forest (GRF) method. GRF has high functional flexibility and can explore complex treatment heterogeneity by selecting covariates from high-dimensional data that contribute to heterogeneity. Results show that retirement significantly reduces the elderly group's depression as well as increases subjective well-being, implying that it will improve mental health. The best linear predictor test suggests that the effect of retirement on depression is heterogeneous among the data for 2014 and 2020 but not in the analysis of well-being. Retirement is more effective in improving depression for males who are at an unhealthy weight, are between the ages of 57 and 67, and have an Internet habit. The results of this paper provide support for promoting the optimization and individualized implementation of relevant policies and improving the lives of the elderly in their later years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between social factors and the formation of exported mug designs is blurred. This study addresses how they influence material design. Based on a quantitative typological analysis, this paper interprets the cultural relationships underlying the evolution of mug designs exported during the Ming and Qing dynasties. The study reveals: (1) the typology and handle styles of mugs can be categorized into six types, with a predominance of Cylindrical bodies and Ear-shaped handles. Notably, artistic emphasis is concentrated on Bulbous cup bodies and Tail outward curved handles; (2) the design of mugs in the eighteenth century exhibited diversity, morphological similarities, and feature continuity, evolving from representational (Ming Dynasty) to abstract and then to minimalistic styles (Qing Dynasty), particularly evident in the three-dimensional modeling of handles for ergonomic comfort (transitioning from a singular Outward curved form to Ear-shaped form, and then to Entwined branch form); (3) the body shape of mugs transformed from Arc-barrel bodies to Bulbous bodies (focusing on heat retention), and eventually to Cylindrical bodies (prioritizing heat retention, practicality, and cost-efficiency).; (4) the volume of mugs steadily increased from the early eighteenth century, generally classified into large volume (≥ 500 ml), medium volume (200-499 ml), and small volume (< 200 ml); (5) considering the extreme range of volume (11090 ml) and height (25 cm), it indicates that these two variables do not necessarily have a direct positive correlation; (6) the low center of gravity in handle design (average width of 3.4 cm against an average height of 9.9 cm for the body) reflects considerations for the distribution of liquid weight and operational convenience. The volume of sample-10 (11127 ml) notably exceeds the typical range for tea-drinking utensils, revealing the mechanism of wealth and status symbolism. Market demand orientation emerged as the primary driver for the evolution of export mug designs during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, with adjustments in the merchant system playing a secondary role. The transformation in mug design reflects the interplay of multiple factors, with the trend toward minimalist design being a response to market demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The optimization and transition of the industrial structure help improve the quality of the economy, moving it toward low-carbon development. By using the Instrumental Variable Generalized Method of Moments model and a city-level dataset covering the period 2006–2019, this paper explores the carbon lock-in mitigation effects of industrial structure optimization and industrial structure transition, respectively. The heterogeneity and the synthetic industrial structure adjustment effect are detected, and the potential impact mechanism is also explored. Some findings have been generated. (1) Both industrial structure optimization and industrial structure transition realize carbon lock-in eradication. (2) Industrial structure optimization and transition are more effective in inhibiting carbon lock-in in cities with a higher level of economic background. (3) By generating an interaction term of industrial structure optimization and transition and examining the impact of the interaction term on carbon lock-in, this paper detects that industrial structure optimization and transition have a synthetic impact on carbon lock-in, showing a "1 + 1 > 2" effect. (4) Industrial structure optimization and transition both affect carbon lock-in by improving technological innovation level, which is the impact mechanism. Some policy implications, such as sectoral diversification and promoting research and development, are put forward for better industrial structure development and carbon unlocking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing aquifer water abundance evaluation methods employ fixed and constant index weights and overlook variations within major influencing factors as well as interactions among multiple factors. We propose a water abundance index method based on a variable weight model that considers various water abundance influencing factors and their respective weights, and quantitatively determines the weights of the same factor across different state values. This paper establishes a comprehensive system of four categories and 16 subcategories of main influencing factors that describe the distribution pattern of water abundance, considering lithological characters, hydraulic characteristics, structural factors, and geophysical parameters that influence aquifer water abundance. The variable weight model is used along with the K-means clustering method in dynamic clustering to determine the variable weight interval thresholds for each index of the main influencing factor. Additionally, we investigated the construction of the state variable weight vector, determination of weight adjustment parameters, quantitative assessment of the interaction relationship, and relative importance of each main influencing factor in relation to aquifer water abundance. Finally, an evaluation method and mathematical model for the water abundance index based on the variable weight model are developed. This study provides a detailed description of the specific implementation steps of the water abundance index method based on the variable weight model, using the direct water-filled J2z–#2 coal seam roof fissured aquifer in the Xiaojihan coal mine as a case study. The evaluation results were then verified using drainage data from the working face. The findings indicate that a comparison with the traditional constant weight evaluation results demonstrates that the variable weight model better reflects the characteristics of aquifer heterogeneity and achieves higher prediction accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The persistent gender inequalities in higher education are an ongoing concern among academics. This paper investigates how male and female academics perceive the need for gender-related changes to support academic women's career advancement in China. Drawing on 40 interviews with male and female academics at a leading Chinese research university, this paper finds that attitudes among male academics were overwhelmingly negative toward the necessity for gender-related changes, whereas the female academics' responses varied. Two underlying issues cause the relatively similar degrees of unwillingness of men and women to make gender-related policy changes at universities. First, these academics had a strong belief in merit-based rules for promotion, which embedded gender blindness in the name of 'fairness'. Second, the power of individual choice was the determining factor for women's career progression, although both men and women acknowledged that their traditional cultural beliefs were rooted in processes and practices that systematically disadvantaged women. The findings expose academics' low expectations for the successful creation or implementation of institutional policies that support academic women's career development, considering that male academics did not support gender-related changes, and female academics were not united in their perspectives. In addition, socio-cultural norms were a critical obstacle. The findings suggest that the successful implementation of any gender policies must meet two conditions: they should stress equal opportunities for both sexes and should not jeopardize the perceived 'fair' meritocracy in academia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China’s growing economic importance has led to a significant increase in the volume of empirical research about business and management in this country during the last few years. This study reviews the 180 empirical papers focusing on the Chinese context that were published in 12 leading international academic journals between 2000 and 2005. A summary of the methodologies used and the topics analysed is offered, along with various rankings of journals, authors, institutions, and papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In-depth research on the spatiotemporal patterns and evolution trend of urban land use carbon emission intensity (ULUCEI) can reveal the internal relationship between urban land use and carbon emissions, which is crucial for achieving carbon emission reduction and "double carbon" targets. This paper proposed a conceptual framework of ULUCEI; the methods of kernel density estimation (KDE), exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA), and spatial Markov chains were adopted for exploring the spatiotemporal patterns and evolution trend of China's ULUCEI from 2000 to 2017. The following conclusions are drawn through research. (1) There was an increasing trend in ULUCEI in China from 0.102 in 2000 to 0.283 in 2017. From the regional perspective, the ULUCEI in the eastern region is markedly higher than that in the central and western regions. Moreover, the results of nuclear density estimation indicate that China's ULUCEI shows an obvious upward and polarized trend. (2) China's ULUCEI shows a positive spatial autocorrelation. The types of spatial agglomeration include "high-high" agglomeration, "high-low" polarization, "low-high" collapse, and "low-low" homogeneity, and there are obvious disparities in the distribution rules of cities with different spatial agglomeration forms. (3) China's ULUCEI presents strong stability and "club convergence" trend. Moreover, spatial factors significantly affect the dynamic transition of China's ULUCEI, and its effect on the shifting upwards gradually enhances with increasing lag type. This paper therefore suggests that policymakers should formulate differentiated urban land low-carbon use models and carbon emission reduction policies to reduce ULUCEI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In China, exploring the relationship between human capital and green economy in the context of economic transformation can promote the construction of an ecological civilization and high-quality economic development. This paper is dedicated to assessing the impact of human capital stock, human capital structure, and the difference between the two on China's green economy. Using the super-efficiency slack-based measure (SBM) model, this paper evaluated the green total factor productivity (GTFP) of 30 Chinese provinces to assess the greenness of its economy and analyzed its spatiotemporal evolution from 2000 to 2017. A spatial error model (SEM) was established to explore the impact of human capital on green economy. The results show that (1) the GTFP of China increased continuously from 0.219 to 0.457, showing a regional spatial differentiation of "eastern region > central region > western region." The spatial gaps of the green economy in the east-west and north-south directions are narrowing. (2) Moran's I index and Moran's I scatter plot indicate a significant spatial correlation between human capital and China's green economy. The local spatial correlation between human capital and green economy is mainly characterized by "high-high" and "low-low" types of agglomeration. (3) The effects of human capital stock and human capital structure on green economy were both positive, with coefficients of 0.0005 and 0.1601, respectively, but the effects of human capital structure were not significant. (4) The results of regional regression show that the difference between the human capital impact coefficients on green economy in the eastern and midwestern regions is small. The impact of human capital stock and human capital structure on green economy is consistent with the national level results. It can be preliminarily concluded that the development of China's green economy relied more on improving the human capital stock than on the improvement of the human capital structure. This study further enriches the literature on the green economy and provides information that can support government policy-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green innovation (GI) has the dual attributes of green development and being innovation driven, and it has become an inevitable choice for solving the prisoner's dilemma of environmental protection and economic development under the action of the concept of sustainable development in the new era. This paper aims to clarify how environmental regulation (ER) can achieve a win‒win situation of GI and environmental protection by using data from prefecture-level cities in China and creating a dynamic panel model, quantile model, spatial econometric model, and panel threshold model to empirically analyze the dynamic effect and spatial effect of ER on GI as well as the nonlinear characteristics of the relationship between them and to examine the moderating effect of foreign direct investment (FDI). The results show that ER significantly promotes the development of the GI level and that FDI can play a positive moderating role. The impact has regional heterogeneity, time period heterogeneity, and resource endowment heterogeneity. After several robustness tests, the empirical conclusions are still credible. Based on the empirical conclusions, this paper makes policy suggestions on ER, foreign investment introduction, and the coordinated development of regional GI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pastoral areas are the key difficulty in China's pursuit of common prosperity and a key region for China to build the northern ecological safety barrier and to realize the Two Centenary Goals. It is of great significance to scientifically evaluate the quality of rural life (QRL), measure the relative poverty level (RPL), and identify the relatively poor areas, making it possible to dock poverty elimination with rural revitalization. Based on the socio-economic data of 18 pastoral areas in Inner Mongolia, this paper draws on spatial layout theory to evaluate QRL and measures RPL by the natural breakpoint method and then identifies the relatively poor areas in Inner Mongolia. The results show that (1) the QRLs of pastoral areas in Inner Mongolia were unbalanced and highly polarized. The mean score of QRLs was 0.2598. Eleven (61.11%) of the counties/banners had a QRL smaller than the mean score. On the spatial layout of QRLs, the western areas were stronger than the central areas. High QRL counties/banners are mainly concentrated in the western region. In the central region, the QRLs were very fragmented, falling onto all five levels. (2) The pastoral areas in Inner Mongolia differed significantly in RPL. The mean score of RPL stood at 0.3788. Nine counties/banners (50%) had an RPL greater than the mean. Contrary to the spatial layout features of QRLs, the central pastoral areas in Inner Mongolia had stronger RPLs than the eastern ones. High RPL counties/banners are mostly clustered in the central region. The spatial layout of RPLs is relatively reasonable in the central region: the RPLs decreased gradually from Dorbod Banner. (3) Nearly 45% of the pastoral areas in central and western Inner Mongolia face serious relative poverty and a high risk of returning to poverty. Eight counties/banners (45%) were identified as high composite relative poverty areas. From spatial layout, the composite relatively poor counties/banners clustered clearly, mainly in the western region. Finally, this paper establishes a warning mechanism against large-scale returning to poverty, aiming to lower composite RPL. The research results provide empirical reference and implementation path for consolidating the results of poverty eradication and facilitating rural revitalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a well-acknowledged central economic and diplomatic policy of the Chinese government, which was proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013. This paper intends to discover the relationship between the public diplomacy narratives of the BRI and its implementation. By using content analysis, this paper analyzes Chinese President Xi's speeches from 2013 to 2020 about the BRI, as well as official statements of the Chinese central government. It identifies the public diplomacy narratives of the BRI: an assemblage of constantly changing policy settings that accommodates various economic and political interests. Also, this paper draws on differences between countries joining the BRI or not, and several case studies to elucidate the implementation of the BRI. Different from repetitive literature that explores either the BRI narratives or its implementation, this paper contributes by combining and comparing the two. Despite positive interpretations of the BRI the Chinese government has adopted, the paper argues that there are no deceptive tricks with skeletons in the closet of the Chinese government, as the BRI public diplomacy narratives are, in general, consistent with its implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism is a large, environment-dependent global industry. As an important policy tool for environmental protection, environmental regulation plays a significant role in development of the tourism industry. Using the panel data of 284 prefecture-level cities in China from 2004 to 2018, this paper innovatively analyzes the impact mechanism of environmental regulation on China's tourism development from the perspective of the integration of institutional and environmental economics. At the same time, this paper uses the instrumental variable two-stage least squares method (IV-2SLS) to solve the endogeneity problem of environmental regulation and China's tourism development, which makes the research conclusions more robust. The main results were as follows: (1) environmental regulation significantly promoted the development of the tourism industry. Specifically, tourist arrival (TA) and tourism revenue (TR) increased 8.79% and 8.64%, respectively, when the intensity of environmental regulation increased by 1%. This effect was still robust after applying a series of tests; (2) the impact of environmental regulation on the development of the tourism industry was heterogeneous for three aspects: the domestic and inbound tourism market, urban type, and urban location; (3) environmental regulation contributed to China's tourism industry development through industrial structure upgrading, technological innovation, and urban image promotion. Our findings offer valuable insight for the concerned authority and tourism sector to understand the positive role of environmental regulation in promoting high-quality development of the tourism industry by corresponding policy-making, industrial structure upgrading, technological innovation, and urban reputation building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the reform and opening up, China's urbanization level has rapidly increased. However, urban civilization construction lags behind, creating a series of problems, such as environmental pollution, further restricting the healthy and sustainable development of cities. Therefore, China has carried out top-down civilized city construction led by the government. This paper regards the "national civilized city" selection implemented by the Chinese government as a quasi-natural experiment and empirically tests the impact of government-led civilized city construction on urban green innovation and the mechanism of this impact by using the progressive difference-in-differences (DID) model based on panel data of 281 Chinese cities from 2003 to 2018. The results show that civilized city construction contributes to increasing the level of urban green innovation, which is supported by a series of robustness tests conducted through variable substitution and sample adjustment. The quantile regression results show that the higher the level of green innovation, the stronger the green innovation effect of civilized city construction. This finding indicates that the marginal effect of green innovation in civilized city construction is gradually enhanced with the gradual increase in the level of green innovation in cities. The mediating effect analysis shows that civilized city construction can provide financial support for green innovation activities by promoting the expansion of the urban investment scale, which, in turn, increases the level of urban green innovation. In addition, environmental regulation can strengthen the promoting effect of civilized city construction on green innovation. These findings hold important theoretical and practical significance for understanding the green innovation effect of government-led civilized city construction and further leveraging the important role of government in the construction of the urban business environment as a means to promote urban investment clustering, lay the factor foundation for green innovation and strengthen the synergy between environmental regulation policies and civilized city construction policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community-based treatment has long been a major component of the criminal justice system in most Western jurisdictions; however, this is not the case in China. Based on a review of academic journal articles and legal documents, this paper highlights the evolution of community correction programs for juvenile offenders in China. Reflecting on its development over the past two decades, the existing community correction programs in China are not restorative in facilitating an offender's effective reintegration into the community. This paper aims to address the existing gap by examining the historical roots and characteristics of Chinese juvenile community corrections and analyzing how restorative justice can be incorporated into the youth rehabilitation system. In this regard, this paper advocates for a restorative juvenile community correction model that motivates social capital and actively engages all concerned parties in meeting various correctional goals of victim reparation, accountability taking, capacity building, and maintaining community safety. With the momentum of the recent criminal justice reform alongside the continued open-door policy in China, it is hoped that the Chinese government may be more willing to include restorative ideas for offender reintegration in the future. With more frequent applications of restorative justice, we are confident that effective intervention models could be put into practice in the years to come. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the more efficient involvement of both technology and policy factors in China's whole industry-chain, the year 2020 is a key period for photovoltaic (PV) industry to achieve grid parity. In this context, COVID-19 may trigger a certain time-delay in new installed PV projects, thereby bringing an uncertain influence on the whole PV industry. To forecast the influence degree and influence cycle of COVID-19 on PV industry, this paper firstly clarifies the key features of epidemic situation as well as the basic rule of such pandemics' transmission along industry-chain. Then this paper constructs a system dynamics model targeting at cost accounting of PV power generation under the influence of COVID-19 and thus forecasts the variation rules, superposition effects and influence cycle of levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of PV power generation and the operations cost of each sub-system. Empirical results show that PV industry has a lag response to the COVID-19 for 1 quarter and periodic response for 4 quarters, which is mainly embodied in the rise of short-term production cost. At the same time, the influence of COVID-19 on the upstream firms of PV industry is stronger than that on downstream firms. With the gradual recovery of whole industry-chain, LCOE of PV power generation will rapidly return to the previous expected level of grid parity by the end of 2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the spillover dynamics of shocks originating in China during the last two decades. More specifically, the paper compares the effects of a shock to China's GDP and exchange rate using early 2000s trade patterns with those of two decades later. We use a global vector autoregressive (GVAR) model as it allows to consider trade interactions as well as financial linkages through interest rates, stock prices, and exchange rates. Our results indicate that the shock spillovers from China have become more pronounced over the past two decades. While the world has become more exposed to China's economy, it has become more susceptible to Chinese economic shocks. This paper contributes to the literature by evaluating the dynamics of China's spillover effects and highlights the structural changes in trade between major global trade players. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protecting people from air pollution is an important task for developing countries. Over the past several decades, different types of policies have been enacted in developing countries to improve air quality, with policy impact analysis being conducted as well. As for China, while there is some existing literature on the impact of short-term action on air quality, there is much less research to investigate the roles of long-term air quality control mechanism on air quality change. This paper uses the "2 + 26" city cluster in China as a case study area to particularly analyze the roles played by short-term campaigns that compose the Winter Action Plan and a long-term mechanism referred to as the environmental accountability system in pollution control. Based on econometric and descriptive statistical analyses, it is found that the implementation of the Winter Action Plan has significantly improved the air quality, and the environmental accountability system seems to have exerted an impact, as cities with better air quality appear to establish a more stringent environmental accountability system. The paper provides the following insights for other developing countries: short-term campaigns can quickly reduce pollution and protect human health, while long-term mechanisms are needed to ensure sustainable environmental protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International higher education branch campuses (IBCs) in China and elsewhere possess dual identity. There are stakeholders on both the home and host sides. While international branch campuses receive scholarly attention, there has been little study of their research and the role of institutional dual identity in research capacity building. This paper develops a conceptual framework that brings the conditions, practices, and outcomes of research together with dual institutional identity, to study research capacity building at NYU Shanghai. Data from 16 semi-structured interviews with academics, administrators, and university leaders indicate that institutional dual identity is central to what the institution has achieved in building research, influencing every aspect of the process. NYU Shanghai's American identity has shaped academic practices and workloads, and NYU's multi-site structure provides significant networks and resources, yet the institution has also adapted to its Chinese identity and local stakeholders. Dual identity has generated policy conflicts and logistical hurdles yet has also opened institutional and academic opportunities unavailable to other US institutions. While every IBC is embedded in a complex and partly unique context, this study suggests a reflexive understanding of research capacity building in such settings, and contributes to empirical knowledge of cross-border institutions, especially in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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China communicates strategic narratives about artificial intelligence (AI) in digital media productions to create a shared meaning about its actions and its image in the global race to develop AI. Building upon the literature in emotions and strategic narratives, this study seeks to clarify which emotions are discursively used in China's international AI narratives, and their function and significance. Specifically, the study investigates emotion discourses in AI-focused videos disseminated on China's international broadcasting (CGTN YouTube channel). The analysis reveals that pride, hope and fear discourses have multiple functions in China's international AI narratives on CGTN. Hope is used to represent China as a key competitor in the global AI race, who is catching up to the US. China uses pride to showcase its advances in AI applications, to highlight its transformation of traditional industries, and to identity itself as equal to the US. Fear is used to frame US's perception of China's AI developments, to suggest their crisis of confidence, but also to refute the "China threat". Additionally, the fear discourse is used to deliberate anticipated risks, particularly on job loss and data privacy. These emotion discourses forge China's identity as a future global AI power. The paper then discusses how these findings contribute to key debates about Chinese discourse and media strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the advancement of science and technology and the popularization of the internet, information resources have become more and more abundant, but the attention of investors has become relatively scarce. In the face of surplus information resources, how investors allocate their attention will affect investors' decision making. This study examines the dynamic relationship between investors' attention and China's stock market liquidity, utilizing weekly data based on the component stocks of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange 100 Index in China from January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2020. The analysis reveals that investors' attention, measured by the Google Trends search volume index, negatively affects future stock liquidity. Moreover, a long-term cointegration relationship exists between investor attention and stock liquidity. The negative relationship between investor attention and stock liquidity is robust for an alternative liquidity measure using a stock fixed-effects model. The inverse correlation between investor attention and stock liquidity was more potent before the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic and weakened amid the pandemic. The findings in this paper can enrich the standard of investors' investment decisions and help investors make objective, rational, and scientific investment decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper documents the increase in the number of global billionaires from mainland China between 2004 and 2018. One of the key findings is that under conditions of an open economy, grassroots billionaire entrepreneurs (e.g., Jack Ma) could mitigate political economy as well as financial frictions via capital injections from foreign venture capitalists. By building a unique database, I report that (i) the politically unconnected billionaire entrepreneurs financed by foreign venture capitalists are more likely to go public their companies outside mainland China (mainly in Hong Kong and the USA), use offshore financing vehicles, and enter the innovation sector and (ii) the politically connected global billionaire entrepreneurs, however, are closely associated with a record of state-owned enterprise (SOE) restructuring. Plain English Summary: The increase in the number of billionaire entrepreneurs (e.g., Jack Ma) from mainland China between 2004 and 2018 is a new phenomenon, which necessitates a reassessment of the crony capitalism arguments, the types of entrepreneurs, and the sources of innovation. This paper has important implications for future research on entrepreneurship in a global economy and the design of relevant policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether there is housing disparity between homeowners and renters. Using data from Chinese Urban Household Survey, we find that homeowners on average have much higher housing quality than renters after controlling for household characteristics, regional factors, location and time fixed effects, and such disparity increases significantly over time. We also find that the disparity is mainly concentrated on the people who are disabled, divorced and the people with low education or rural hukou. Furthermore, we investigate possible factors contributing to this increasing disparity. Our results suggest that the disparity is largely driven by increasingly home improvement for owner-occupied houses but not rental houses. In addition, we also find that the 1994-1998 housing reform has contributed to inequality in homeownership between state employees and other groups, especially the disadvantaged groups such as people with rural hukou who are completely excluded from the reform. With housing prices soaring in the past two decades, people who benefited from the housing reform in the 1990s have enjoyed enormous housing appreciation. However, the disadvantaged people who were excluded from the housing reform now live in the bad housing conditions. Given the evidence that housing quality is key to both mental and physical health, our findings have important policy implications for Chinese government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population aging and carbon emissions are critical issues for China's development. As an enormous complex system, the population and the carbon emission development process have non-negligible differences in time, space, and speed. Therefore, this paper first demonstrates the spatial and temporal correlation between population aging and carbon emissions from 1995 to 2020, then uses the allometric growth analysis model to make a cross-sectional temporal comparison and a vertical spatial comparison of the relationship and development rate of the two, and finally uses the ridge regression model to determine the forces and interaction mechanisms of the factors influencing the relationship between population aging and carbon emissions at allometric rates. The results show that (1) China has a long-term positive temporal correlation effect relationship between population aging and carbon emissions from 1995 to 2020, and the overall correlation is high. The spatial correlation intensity between population aging and carbon emissions varies significantly across Chinese provinces, with a general spatial distribution trend of high in the south, low in the north, and prominent in the center. (2) China's population aging and carbon emissions mainly show a negative allometric growth type of relationship, i.e., a strong trend of population aging expansion and a strengthening trend of carbon emission system shrinking. The number of provinces with negative allometric growth is gradually increasing, mainly in North, East, Central, and Southwest China. (3) From 1995–2010 period to the 2011–2020 period, the influence of the factors of the population, production, and economic dimensions on the population aging index and the carbon emission allometric scalar index gradually weakened, and the influence of the consumption and technology dimensions increased significantly. The factors on the population and consumption side of the dimension mainly contribute to the expansion of carbon emissions and drive positive allometric growth. The production side, the economic structure, and technology dimension factors drive negative allometric growth. The paper fully explores the bidirectional correlation, differential development trend, and interaction mechanism between the two systems of population and carbon emissions and effectively compensates for the lack of research content in terms of elemental correlation, spatial and temporal connection, and speed synergy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antibiotics are one of the greatest inventions in human history and are used worldwide on an enormous scale. Besides its extensive usage in medical and veterinary arenas to treat and prevent the infection, its application is very prominent in other fields, including agriculture, aquaculture, and horticulture. In recent decades, the increased consumption of antibiotics in China saw a vast increase in its production and disposal in various environments. However, in this post-antibiotic era, the abuse and misuse of these valuable compounds could lead to the unreversible consequence of drug resistance. In China, antibiotics are given a broad discussion in various fields to reveal their impact on both human/animals health and the environment. To our knowledge, we are the first paper to look back at the development trend of antibiotic-related studies in China with qualitative and quantitative bibliometric analysis from the past decades. Our study identified and analyzed 5559 papers from its inception (1991) to December 6, 2021, from the Web of Science Core Collection database. However, with few authors and institutions focusing on long-term studies, we found the quality of contributions was uneven. Studies mainly focused on areas such as food science, clinical research, and environmental studies, including molecular biology, genetics and environmental, ecotoxicology, and nutrition, which indicate possible primary future trends. Our study reports on including potentially new keywords, studies' milestones, and their contribution to antibiotic research. We offer potential topics that may be important in upcoming years that could help guide future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite growing scholarly attention on the role of urban networks for understanding regional dynamics, there has been limited research examining the impact of cities' transportation network connections on regional market integration. This paper analyzes China's four major urban agglomerations: the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, and Chengdu-Chongqing. Applying a spatial Durbin model to cross-sectional datasets for 2019, we provide insight into the role of cities' transportation network connections in promoting regional market integration, considering both the potentially heterogeneous impact of network connections and the interplay between network and agglomeration externalities. Our results indicate that: (1) cities' transportation network connections have an inverted 'U'-shaped effect on regional market integration; (2) transportation network connections have spatial spillover effects; (3) the positive impact of transportation network connections on regional market integration becomes more pronounced as city size decreases; and (4) there are neither complementary nor substitution effects between network and agglomeration externalities. We reflect on the broader implications of our empirical findings for regional development strategies and discuss possible avenues for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is highly development-oriented and appeals to developing countries whose wish is to catch up with developed economies. China has called for co-construction of the BRI with all and sundry, particularly with African countries, which it has considered important and strategic in actualizing the BRI project. The call for co-construction echoes well with the African partners, who are keen on leveraging the BRI for their own development. Tied to China's status as a rising economic power, both partners have agreed to align the BRI with the African Union's development agenda for complementary and beneficial development. Our paper revealed that although the call for co-construction of the BRI is a welcomed initiative, there are potential setbacks that abound, and therefore offered strategies for responding to China's call for co-construction of the BRI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What type of investment strategies are effective for foreign venture capital (VC) firms investing in transition economies? This is the research question we address in this paper by analyzing recent institutional developments and investment activities of foreign VC firms investing in China. We find that foreign VC firms identify China as lacking fully-developed institutions necessary to effectively support VC investing. We further find that foreign VCs have evolved unique proactive, hands-on investment strategies via a bumpy road of investing in China: initially dominating the Chinese VC industry, but since the great financial recession playing a still-significant but reduced and disadvantaged-role subservient to the rapidly increasing role of domestic VC firms. We developed a novel triangulation research methodology that allows us to provide significantly more depth in our analysis of how foreign VCs compete in transition economies. This research contributes to both the institutional theory and VC investing literatures. We suggest that foreign VCs can increase their competitive advantage by developing hands-on value-added investing strategies, when investing in transitioning markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]