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This study seeks to explain how Chinese state media bolster the use of visions in global internet governance. The empirical data for the article consist of 1,158 internet-related articles published in the Global Times between 2009 and 2018. I develop a theoretical perspective that distinguishes between grand and strategic narratives. Based on a mixed-methods approach, I show that "internet sovereignty" has qualified as a grand narrative since the second half of 2013. State media facilitate this shift with strategic narratives that push the content and context of "internet sovereignty" from domestic political rationales towards a matter of global affairs. The article contributes to theoretical and methodological advancement in textual analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of relations between the European Union and China represents an endless source of diverse analytic approaches and possibilities of creating appropriate evaluations and projections based on historical and actual happenings that concerns both analyzed subjects. Various literature depending on the sources and affiliation of the authors points out to the different approach in the analysis of the historical retrospective of the relations between the European Union and China which covers different scientific fields from politics, geopolitics, geostrategic to possibly the most important economic premises on their continuous process of cooperation. The main thesis in the whole research efforts divided in two papers is related with the question could EU and China be strategic partners and contribute in the creation of a constructive world order? The research in this paper is done based on the overall available literature which the authors could gather. Initially, accessing to the open Internet resources and as well as the official websites of the European Union and China. Consequently, sources of official media portals and analytical centers were used in the research. The entire material is analyzed with an appropriate methodological framework whereupon the obtained results represent an original scientific effort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing research on the impact of digital inclusive finance on corporate behaviour is relatively extensive, but the research on the impact of digital inclusive finance on corporate value is ignored. To fill in this gap, this study examines the impact of digital inclusive finance on firm value from the perspective of financing constraints, utilizing data on A-share listed companies in China from 2012 to 2019. We found that digital inclusive finance helps increase corporate value. And digital inclusive finance uses digital technology to alleviate financing constraints and improve the credit supply, which in turn increases firm value. Moreover, the impact of digital inclusive finance on firm value demonstrates heterogeneity. Compared with other firms, digital inclusive finance has a greater value-enhancing effect on small-scale and private firms. Our findings suggest that increasing the level of digital inclusive finance in developing countries can help enhance firm value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International agenda setting is the initial and key stage of the creation of international institutions. This paper constructs an analytical framework that includes three elements: institutional platform, agenda setting, means and capabilities. Using methods such as historical institutionalism, text analysis, institutional comparison, and case study, this paper studies the agenda setting strategies in the four paths of China's participation in the construction of international institutions in the digital space. This paper holds that the agenda setting in the four paths has a relationship of inheritance and development, and the autonomy is gradually improved. Specific means of advancing the agenda are limited by institutional platforms; the effect is still not obvious, so the idea should be further improved and the means optimized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Big digital companies have become key elements in economy, communication, education, and politics in 21st century societies. The neutral ideology in their digital platforms, applications, and services, as well as the exponential growth in their activities can be used by world superpowers —especially the United States and China— to implement geostrategical operations, massive social manipulation or influence democratic processes with the objective of increasing their power and dominance over other nations. The aim of this paper is to state the different strategies of digital expansionism performed by the United States and China, and, additionally, to showcase the negative consequences of these strategies on the population and democracies of the European Union. The first section of this paper will define the concepts of digital sovereignty and digital expansionism as well as their importance in 21st century geopolitics. Next, the important role that big digital companies have on digital expansionism will be analysed, and the usage of digital authoritarianism and digital instrumentarianism performed by the United States and China will be further examined. Finally, the negative consequences of the implementation of these methods in the democratic systems of the European Union will be analysed, as well as what possible solutions there might be for said consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Adaption to clinical work during the internship can induce several stressors among medical students, especially in the context of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Particularly, job stress could be linked to the development of psychological traits and the formation of the professional identity of medical interns. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore the relationship between job stress, psychological capital, and professional identity through a mediation analysis of Chinese medical interns. METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in 30 hospitals and clinics in China from June 2021 to March 2022. A total of 665 medical interns filled out questionnaires related to demographic questions, psychological capital, job stress, and professional identity. Data analysis was executed using the IBM SPSS version 22.0 software and its add-in PROCESS Windows version 4.0. RESULTS: The findings indicated a statistically significant mediating effect of psychological capital between job stress and professional identity. Job stress and job stress combined with psychological capital accounted for 5.3% and 37.9%, respectively, of the variance in professional identity. The bootstrapping method corroborated the significance of the indirect effect of job stress through psychological capital (95% bootstrap CI = –4.7921, –2.4345). CONCLUSION: The current findings underscore the need for increased attention on improving the psychological capital of medical interns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Roughly one-quarter of the world's people and Internet users live under governments that engage in heavy censorship. A large portion live behind "The Great Firewall" of China, which places strategic importance on Internet control. The Internet can serve counterhegemonic purposes, as numerous groups in civil society use it to connect isolated populations, unite women's movements, and enable human rights and political minority activists. However, China sees Internet censorship as crucial for national security and social stability. Through legal research, translating Chinese sources, and drawing on personal experiences in China, this paper argues that Chinese domestic censorship poses an international threat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this special issue, we explore the geopolitics, aesthetics and future potentiality surrounding TikTok to assess the possibility and implications of a new phase of digital globalisation. A phase in which China-based innovative platform technologies, infused with state power, generate and potentially disrupt digital cultures in places outside China. We will further explore this in the next part of this introduction, showing how the global rise of TikTok is feeding into increasing geopolitical anxieties worldwide. At the same time, we argue for the need to diversify our approaches to TikTok and platform studies – the latter field is very much dominated by questions around production, monetisation, data and political economy. More approaches, focusing on aesthetics, visual culture and users, are needed. In the second part of this introduction, we mobilise the notion of repetitive creativities as a way to engage with the aesthetic affordances of TikTok. This brings us to our conclusion, in which we allude to the possibility that TikTok can be seen as a kind of silly archive, offering glimpses of a future that is not yet here, but that may well come. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

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

How the United States pursues its decoupling policies towards China is an essential topic in studying U.S.‒China relations. Although the U.S. policy orientation towards China can be examined from several perspectives, this study uses a text-mining approach by extracting the China-related legislation in the 115th–117th Congress to observe the activities of the U.S. Congress regarding the affairs of China. Our analysis shows that Congress has seen a surge in China-related legislation since the introduction of decoupling policies. At the same time, it has not improved its negative view of China and maintained a competitive attitude in the economic, scientific and technological, and military fields after party rotation. It is worth noting that Congress under the Biden administration has placed greater emphasis on ideological competition, requiring allies who share common values to work together to counter the 'Chinese threat' in various areas. In this article, it is found that congressional legislation, as important political texts, conceal value judgements and institutional orientations that guide and constrain diplomatic practice. Political texts, ideology, and power are intertwined and shape the current U.S. congressional diplomatic strategy towards China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped China's film consumption, moving audiences from theaters to over-the-top (OTT) platforms. This study delves into the factors molding the preferences of Chinese cinephiles in this new era, particularly emphasizing the dynamic interplay between OTT platforms and traditional cinema. Leveraging a survey conducted in Tier I cities, encompassing 656 participants, this research scrutinizes demographic variables, technological influences, and consumption patterns. Findings illuminate intriguing trends: while females exhibit a slight inclination towards OTT platforms, males marginally favor traditional cinemas. Notably, young adults aged 21 to 25 emerge as avid users of both platforms. Additionally, smartphone usage prevails, with 70% accessing OTT services via mobile devices. Despite perceived challenges posed by OTT platforms, a majority envision their dominance in the future of the film industry. Genres such as comedy, drama, and action remain the favorites among cinemagoers, reflecting evolving viewing preferences amidst changing consumption landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a transnational lens, this narrative study examines the online information literacies of six Chinese international graduate students in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic. The data of the study were collected from phenomenological interviewing, weekly informationseeking dairies, and focus group discussions. This study illuminates Chinese international students' transnational information literacies in navigating the pandemic online information environment. These students stayed attuned with the pandemic conditions and relevant regulations in order to inform their important decision-making concerning health, safety, visa issues, and international travel. The study also highlights participants' cultural ways of information seeking and pragmatic approaches to information credibility assessment. Results from the study show the importance of understanding and empowering the information literacy of international students, especially during a global health emergency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay aims to identify vulnerabilities and exploitation means necessary to use destabilization to support a military, and ultimately political, objective in a potential conflict between China and the governments supporting a liberal rules-based order. Japanese efforts during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 showed destabilizing a regime as a credible way to support military objectives during a conflict and provided some key insights by which destabilization efforts function. Based on the historical case and contemporary analysis of China, this essay makes recommendations to decision makers in a conflict on how to best execute and support destabilization efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anxieties about China's growing data power have begun to drive geopolitical and technological competition. Yet, the size of Chinese data power is unclear. Most assessments are unsystematic. Drawing on Barnett and Duvall's fourfold power taxonomy and insights into the stack-layers of information technology, this article develops a new conceptual framework. Using the concepts of compulsory, institutional, infrastructural, and productive data power, we assess how China exercises different forms of data power and what shapes and limits the increase of Chinese data power. The study concludes that China's data power is less grandiose than often assumed. The Chinese state wields influence and obtains desired outcomes predominantly through compulsory and institutional data power operations. But by contrast, infrastructural and productive dimensions remain limited, largely due to China's high compulsory and institutional data power. The intricacies of China's case demonstrate the complexities of power research in the age of datafication as different forms of data power evolve in tension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As China's global footprint expands and Sino-American competition intensifies, it is apparent that one of the most important arenas for competition between Western Liberal norms and Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) authoritarian norms is going to come in competing technologies (Western/Korean/Taiwanese 5G/chips vs Huawei 5G/chips) and competing cyber-norms (Western cyber-libertarianism vs Chinese cyber-sovereignty). Inside China, China's technologies and its cyber-sovereign norms converge.Outside of China, while China champions the norm of cyber-sovereignty, Huawei itself may pose the greatest challenge to sovereign states' cyber-sovereignty where Huawei controls or otherwise participates significantly as a provider for telecommunications networks, given its relationship to the Chinese state. Is China sincere in advocating cyber-sovereignty as an international norm, or is this just something it is concerned about inside China?Are the laws of China and the technologies and practices of its own Huawei antithetical to China's own stated norms of cyber-sovereignty? Is cyber-sovereignty simply a stop-gap measure adopted by an insecure regime to justify draconian censorship and thought control at home while it seeks to use its growing presence in 5G telecommunications to expand its surveillance of foreign powers/actors worldwide? Finally, in keeping with the theme of this special issue, does digital orientalism explain the growing tension between China and some of the Western/Liberal powers as it regards competition in 5G? Is the US/West needlessly securitizing Huawei and its 5G, or is there something there worth securitizing? Clarity about these issues and the implications of the answers arrived at are important for nations around the world as China expands its technological reach via Huawei and other national champions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A powerful but anxious Chinese regime is now engaged in an aggressive effort to make the world safe for autocracy and to corrupt and destabilize democracies. Democracy promotion may be out of style in U.S. foreign policy, but democracy prevention is very much at the heart of Chinese strategy today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between news consumption via new media and political trust has been constantly contested in prior research. This dispute has become more salient in an authoritarian context. Both "networked authoritarianism" and "non-confrontational digital activism" are concepts that have been used to capture the methods of political control or resistance by appropriating new media technologies under an authoritarian regime. This study responds to the dispute by investigating news media effects on hierarchical political trust to parse the mechanism of effective governance using national survey data (N = 3781) in China. We found that the effects of news consumption from various media sources on political trust in both central and local governments were mediated by perceived happiness and moderated by the authoritarian values of Chinese netizens. These findings remind us that the formation of political trust is a sophisticated socio-psychological process in which diachronic social and economic changes, as well as the persistent political culture need to be fully considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper mainly focuses on the construction of a system dynamics model of an online lending platform and the application of Vensim simulation technology in the analysis of the evolution trend of the investment interest rate. The system dynamics flow graph models of the investment subsystem, loan subsystem, and interest rate subsystem of the online lending platform were innovatively constructed; the level variable, flow rate variable, auxiliary variable, and mathematical relations between these variables as they relate to the platform were innovatively studied. Based on the key variables of the online lending platform, a system dynamics model of the online lending platform was innovatively constructed. The parameters were assigned using data from China's online lending industry, and the logical consistency, sensitivity, and validity of the simulation data of the system dynamics model were tested. Finally, we used Vensim simulation technology to simulate and analyze the impact of emergency scenarios on the interest rate evolution trend. Overall, this paper provides a scientific simulation technology and data analysis method for examining online lending platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic is alarmingly a global health catastrophe that has created an unprecedented mental health decline especially in young adults, who have been noted to be a vulnerable population. In this study, we investigated the prevalence of depression and anxiety in university students in China and Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic, the significant factors contributing to the prevalence of anxiety and depression, the differences in factors affecting the different groups being investigated and to emphasize that psychological intervention are as important as the physical interventions during and after the pandemic. The study was conducted through online surveys, with 684 participants using Patient Health Questionnaire-9 and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 standardized scales. Comparing all groups combined, of the 636 participants, 361 (56.8%) had depression and 227 (35.7%) had anxiety. Chi squared tests at significance level (P<0.05) showed that country of citizenship, religion, parents' educational background, household monthly income and, having family members with COVID-19 variables were strongly associated with depression and anxiety. In contrast, age, gender, educational background, and major showed no significant association. Comparing the individual groups separately using chi square (P<0.05), the Chinese students in China group had 35.6% with depression and 13.1% with anxiety. The variable associated with both depression and anxiety was education major, with depression only was parent's educational background and with anxiety only was gender. The African students in China group had 70.3% with depression and 45.0% with anxiety. Gender was strongly associated with both depression and anxiety, and religion and having family members with COVID-19 with anxiety only. Africans in Africa had 66.0% with depression and 50.5% with anxiety. Educational background was strongly associated with depression. There was no statistically significant variable for anxiety. Chi square test showed a statistically significant difference in depression and anxiety levels with the Chinese group compared to both African groups, and no significant difference between both African groups. Our findings demonstrated that COVID-19 had a negative psychological impact on university students. Therefore, more attention should be put on youth's mental health during this pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The performance of the provincial cable television (CATV) industry in China has become one of the main points of interest as competition in this market intensifies and policy making gradually moves from the central to the provincial level with the introduction of Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) and Over the Top (OTT). The CATV industry has two different vertically integrated activities: program production and service transmitting. In this paper, we develop a dynamic framework to describe an integrated system aiming to reflect the operation process of the CATV industry. Considering the service transmitting division further affects the program production division in the following period, this paper proposes a multi-period two-stage DEA model with feedback structures between service transmitting stage in the current period and program production stage in the next period to evaluate the relative performance. Detailed empirical results are presented from a panel data set of Chinese CATV industry from 2010 to 2019, covering two Five-Year Plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have been experiencing a global pandemic with baleful consequences for mankind, since the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was first identified in Wuhan of China, in December 2019. So far, several potential risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection have been identified. Among them, the role of ABO blood group polymorphisms has been studied with results that are still unclear. The aim of this study was to collect and meta-analyze available studies on the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 infection and different blood groups, as well as Rhesus state. We performed a systematic search on PubMed/MEDLINE and Scopus databases for published articles and preprints. Twenty-two studies, after the removal of duplicates, met the inclusion criteria for meta-analysis with ten of them also including information on Rhesus factor. The odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated for the extracted data. Random-effects models were used to obtain the overall pooled ORs. Publication bias and sensitivity analysis were also performed. Our results indicate that blood groups A, B and AB have a higher risk for COVID-19 infection compared to blood group O, which appears to have a protective effect: (i) A group vs O (OR = 1.29, 95% Confidence Interval: 1.15 to 1.44), (ii) B vs O (OR = 1.15, 95% CI 1.06 to 1.25), and (iii) AB vs. O (OR = 1.32, 95% CI 1.10 to 1.57). An association between Rhesus state and COVID-19 infection could not be established (Rh+ vs Rh- OR = 0.97, 95% CI 0.83 to 1.13). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Often combined with other traditional and non-traditional types of data, geospatial sensing data have a crucial role in public health studies. We conducted a systematic narrative review to broaden our understanding of the usage of big geospatial sensing, ancillary data, and related spatial data infrastructures in public health studies. Methods: English-written, original research articles published during the last ten years were examined using three leading bibliographic databases (i.e., PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science) in April 2022. Study quality was assessed by following well-established practices in the literature. Results: A total of thirty-two articles were identified through the literature search. We observed the included studies used various data-driven approaches to make better use of geospatial big data focusing on a range of health and health-related topics. We found the terms 'big' geospatial data and geospatial 'big data' have been inconsistently used in the existing geospatial sensing studies focusing on public health. We also learned that the existing research made good use of spatial data infrastructures (SDIs) for geospatial sensing data but did not fully use health SDIs for research. Conclusions: This study reiterates the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration as a prerequisite to fully taking advantage of geospatial big data for future public health studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Faced with ongoing large-scale cyber espionage and the rising prominence of information operations targeting social media, the cyber conflict scholarship has entered into a renewed debate over how to characterise the role and place of cyberspace conflict in broader patterns of international security. In response to these empirical challenges, this paper argues that the current scholarship is limited because it uses the 'cyberspace domain' – a doctrinal concept originating in the U.S. military – as a conceptual foundation. This paper argues that the cyberspace domain should be replaced with a holistic conception of "information competition" of which there are three paradigms: cyberspace domain, mixed, and information. All states seek to intervene in the flow and storage of information across domestic and international contexts; information competition is better able to capture information-related interactions between states and observed empirical variation in how states approach information technology and conflict. For example, China and Russia centre 'information' as the core organising framework for their approach to information technology and conflict. This paper also demonstrates how an information competition framework better clarifies the role that the U.S. has played in shaping Russian and Chinese approaches to information competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advent of the Information Revolution is challenging ethicists and policymakers alike to confront the difficulties caused by the societal integration of technology policy. As a technological giant operating under its own distinct governing ideology, the ramifications of China's digital policies and use of surveillance tools are subject to great scrutiny. In its advertised pursuit of long-term stability, the Chinese government looks not just to the future but also to the past, building upon Confucian notions of harmony, legitimacy, and social hierarchy to inform contemporary technology applications and foster acceptance towards them. China is not the only Confucian-influenced society, and the counterfactuals provided by Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore demonstrate Confucianism, as a cultural values system does not institute unanimous approaches to digital governance. Thus, rather than explicitly precipitating modern digital policy, we argue Confucianism instead guides and informs the implementation and justification of the current system of digital governance in a politico-cultural continuum. To demonstrate the intersectionality between Confucianism as a cultural values system and the Chinese Communist Party as an authoritarian governance system, we present the Cybersecurity Law and Social Credit System as exemplar digital tools applied by the Chinese government to efficiently maintain stability and control by establishing a unique contract with citizens regarding their right to privacy. The ethicality of China's digital governance strategy relies critically on the ethical notions posed by a Confucian philosophical system. Viewing technology policy through a politico-cultural lens informs an understanding as to why the ethics of China's digital endeavors, which may present a conundrum beyond its borders, find justification within them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National image building (NIB) has become a critical strategy in public diplomacy. Extending the existing sender-focused literature on NIB, this study takes the receiver side into account. Our focus on the Confucius Institute (CI), China's critical NIB effort in the USA, examines how a powerful receiver's resistance affects the sender's image locally. Based on an extensive data set of American CIs, we also pinpoint exactly who in the receiver country motivates the resistance to China's NIB endeavours. The analytic results show that CI closures may indeed have diminished local US media attention to China, but empirical evidence nevertheless proves the resilience of China's NIB—one whose ethos lingers even in places where institutes have been closed down. As to the motivators of NIB resistance, American colleges have called for a certain level of autonomy in regard to deciding the fate of CIs, and the government undoubtedly has influence on the issue, largely through public school decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the reshuffle of the global industrial structure, some industrial parks in China are facing problems such as unclear industrial positioning, unclear agglomeration effect, and lack of impetus for independent innovation. It is urgent to seek a way of transformation and upgrading. The arrival of the era of big data also provides new opportunities for the transformation of China's industrial parks. In this context, the model of "character towns" proposed by Zhejiang Province provides a new concept for breaking the bottleneck of industrial park transformation and also provides a platform and space for the application of data technology and digital governance in the era of big data. Based on the theory of creative destruction and self-organization, this paper holds that the essence of industrial park transformation under the concept of character towns is the self-organization process of creative destruction and high-quality reconstruction. After sorting out the development process of parks in China, this paper divides industrial parks into production-oriented parks, consumption-oriented parks, and trade-oriented parks according to the economic activities classified by classical economics. By constructing a six-stage creative destruction model, this paper analyzes the path selection of transformation and upgrading of three types of parks under the concept of character towns and proposes that industrial structure replacement for the production-oriented parks, upgrading the consumption structure for the consumption-oriented parks, and change of trade control points for the trade-oriented parks are the possible transformation paths for the three types of parks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Texto & Contexto Enfermagem is the property of Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Programa de Pos-Graduacao de Enfermagem and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article contributes to the understanding of authoritarian states as norm entrepreneurs of content control norms. These emerging norms challenge the norm literature, which disregards illiberal norms and illiberal actors as norm entrepreneurs. This article focuses on two distinct but coexisting strategies that Russia and China apply for promoting and developing internet governance norms. It shows that these countries use a combination of socialization and persuasion strategies. They employ a sequencing strategy of regional coalition-building in order to create support, after which they expand a norm's range via international organizations. These norm entrepreneurs adapt their strategies to different target groups based on the degree of internalization of the norm. The article shows that a reassessment of norm theory in a broader context allows for extension to illiberal norms and illiberal actors, but also shows the limits since the applicability of strategies such as naming and shaming should be questioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

It is often predicted that rising powers such as China will seek to reshape the international order as they gain influence. Drawing on comparative analysis of the maritime and cyber domains, this article argues that China poses a challenge to the global commons because its actions reflect a pragmatic focus on national interest that that disrupts more collaborative conceptions of their governance. However, instead of directly rejecting existing regimes, China has pursued a mixed strategy of complying when these regimes confer benefits and employing contestation or subversion when they conflict with its strategic aims. In particular, China has used contestation and subversion to push for the enclosure of the maritime and cyber domains, extending ideas of sovereignty and territoriality to them to varying extents. While the relatively well-institutionalized nature of maritime governance has limited China's focus to the application of specific rules in areas where it prioritizes sovereign control, the embryonic status of the cyber regime has enabled China to call into question the fundamental definition of cyberspace as a global common. Subversion has also allowed China to accomplish strategic goals through 'gray zone' tactics, resulting in increased conflict below the level of war in both domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current rapid development of online car-hailing services creates a serious challenge to the existing paradigm of market governance and antitrust policy. However, the debate on the market structure of the car-hailing platform requires more empirical evidence to uncover its functions. This research adopts an interdisciplinary methodology based on computer science and economics, and including software reverse engineering tools applied to the interoperability of the terminal application and resource allocation model, to demonstrate the topological market structure of personal data resources allocation in China's car-hailing industry. Within the discussion of the hybrid nature of technology and economy, the analysis results clearly show that China's car-hailing platform services present a multi-sided market structure when seen from the perspective of personal data resource allocation. Personal data resource (PDR), that is considered an essential market resource, is applied as an asset transferred unhindered between platforms via the application programming interface, and thus, creating a new market allocation mechanism. The connection between the car-hailing platforms and social media platforms is an essential aspect of the market competition in the domain. As applications of online platforms increase in the global context, this research offers a new perspective in personal data resource allocation with implications for the governance of the platform economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beijing has long sought to shape global narratives about China. The Xi Jinping administration not only continued that effort but also added an entirely new dimension: it now seeks to use discourse power, particularly through formulating and promoting strategic narratives, to reshape the international system itself. Drawing upon social identity theory (SIT) and strategic narratives framework, this study shows that Beijing employs a multifaceted narrative strategy to redefine existing norms or create new ones in varied global governance domains. A theoretical framework is presented to explain the strategy and subsequently applied to illustrate China's strategic narratives at the international system level and in three global governance areas, i.e., climate change, human rights, and Internet governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The sudden outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic influenced people's daily life. During lockdown of Wuhan city, the oral health and its associated issues of preschool children were investigated and guidance for dental clinics when the epidemic were controlled in the future were also provided. Methods: A national online survey was conducted among preschool children and completed by their caregivers. The questionnaire related to children's oral health status and care behaviour, caregivers' attitudes. The information was statistically analyzed between Wuhan residents and others residents. Results: 4495 valid questionnaires were collected. In oral health status, during Wuhan lockdown, 60.8%, 35.5% and 18.3% children had self-reported dental caries, toothache and halitosis respectively. In oral health attitudes, respondents who would increase attention to oral health was more than that would decrease. In oral hygiene behaviour, compared to non-Wuhan children, the children in Wuhan became more active in brushing their teeth. In utilization of dental services in the future, less Wuhan residents would choose to have dental visit directly, 28.5% Wuhan residents and 34.7% non-Wuhan residents agreed all of procedures could be done if proper protected. Conclusions: Oral health status and associated issues of preschool children in Wuhan were significantly different from that of others during lockdown of Wuhan city and in the future. Effective measures should be taken as early as possible to protect children's oral health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The precise classification of community service cases is the most fundamental aspect of intelligent community service systems. However, data imbalance makes it challenging to achieve the desired level of precise classification. Existing transfer learning methods use open Internet knowledge for identifying case features and mining potential feature relations. However, community service cases have the characteristics such as short text length and non-public content, which restrict the transfer learning modes. In this paper, a cross-region transfer learning method is proposed to solve the classification problem of cases with small datasets in data imbalance situation while considering the perspective of regional cooperation. First, an ontology modeling method is applied to standardize the case features, reducing the effect of semantic ambiguity on transfer results. Secondly, to improve the effectiveness of source domain classification, this paper utilizes an extended marginal fisher analysis where the distance is measured by the inner product between data. Next, the mapping matrix from target domain to source domain is learned through domain adaptation. Finally, the method is verified based on the empirical data from Lanzhou and Beidaihe in China. Experimental results on classifiers show the proposed method helps regions to improve case classification rates significantly through knowledge complementation. The proposed approach can be followed to build case-based community service systems of reasonable accuracy and limited sample sizes. • We seek to classify community service cases with small datasets in data imbalance situation. • Existing transfer learning methods have high requirements both for the length and openness of case content. • We use a cross-regional transfer learning to learn the map from local weak classes to non-local strong classes. • Classifiers equipped with learned maps may use few samples for training. • Both the cross-region semantic ambiguity and source domain feature representation are considered for effective classification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of China's Internet finance industry and the continuous growth of transaction amount in recent years, a variety of financial risks have increased, especially credit risk in the financial industry. Also, the credit risk evaluation is usually made by using the application card scoring model, which has the shortcomings of strict data assumption and inability to process complex data. In order to overcome the limitations of the credit card scoring model and evaluate credit risk better, this paper proposes a credit evaluation model based on extreme gradient boosting tree (XGBoost) machine learning (ML) algorithm to construct a credit risk assessment model for Internet financial institutions. At the same time, an Internet lending company in China is taken as a case study to compare the performance of the traditional credit card scoring model and the proposed machine learning (ML) algorithm model. The results show that ML algorithm has a very significant advantage in the field of Internet financial risk control, it has more accurate prediction results and has no particularly strict assumptions and restrictions on data, and the process of processing data is more convenient and reliable. We should increase the application of ML in the field of financial risk control. The value of this paper lies in enriching the related research of financial technology and providing a new reference for the practice of financial risk control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Cloud manufacturing (CMfg) is a networked manufacturing mode that promotes the agile, service-oriented, green and intelligent development of the manufacturing industry. Although some scholars have reviewed related studies of CMfg from multiple perspectives, these reviews are not fully systematic or well justified and fail to fully reveal the key characteristics in the development process of CMfg. The purpose of this paper is to systematically review the relevant research on CMfg via identification of key characteristics of definition, architecture, supporting technology and application of CMfg to provide critical information in decision support for the innovation and development of CMfg. Design/methodology/approach: This study systematically reviews the relevant research on CMfg across theoretical methods to technical applications by integrating quantitative and qualitative methods. Word cloud method is used to quantitatively analyse the structure and feature of different definitions of CMfg. The principle of System Science is used to explore the basic components and functions of various CMfg architectures and their common and differing characteristics. A multi-level technology framework is developed to explore the development status of CMfg supporting technologies. A multi-stage application classification is proposed to reveal the application status of CMfg. Findings: Through literature review, this study found that CMfg architecture is currently dominated by general architectures and lacks architectures that fit the actual enterprise characteristics; CMfg supporting technology is mature in the traditional cloud computing-based technology, but it is still weak in the development of virtualization and servitization technology, service scheduling technology; CMfg application is still in the initial stage and still lacks a relatively complete system application. By analysing the development status of CMfg, this study also identified potential research directions of CMfg in information management, service composition and evaluation, system application and sustainable development and other aspects. Research limitations/implications: This paper predominantly focuses on journal articles and some key conference papers published in English and Chinese. Chinese articles account for more than half of the total. The reason is that CMfg was proposed by the Chinese and CMfg is suitable for the development of China's manufacturing industry because of China's intelligent manufacturing environment. It is believed that this research has reached a reliable comprehensiveness that can help scholars and practitioners establish new research directions and evaluate their work in CMfg. Originality/value: Prior literature reviews ignore the identification and analysis of key feature identification for the current development of CMfg, including common and unique feature identification of different CMfg architectures and functions, multi-layer analysis and interpretation of CMfg technology and different stage analysis of CMfg applications. This study addresses these limitations and provides a comprehensive literature review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's drive for technological dominance has resulted in a long-term, government-driven national strategy. This includes the creation of native technologies which reflect local policies and politics, micromanagement of the internet from the top down, and the use of international standards development organisations (SDOs), such as the UN agency the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), to legitimize and protect these technologies in the global marketplace. Alternate internet technologies based on a new 'decentralized internet infrastructure' are being developed in SDOs and marketed by Chinese companies. In a worst-case scenario, these alternate technologies and a suite of supporting standards could splinter the global internet's shared and ubiquitous architecture. They also pave the way to a new form of internet governance, one that is multilateral instead of multistakeholder. A fragmented network would introduce new challenges to cyber defence and could provide adversaries with a technical means to undermine the norms, predictability and security of today's cyberspace – which would also impact human rights and widen the digital divide. Western nations and like-minded allies need to intensify their cooperation with one another, international partners such as the EU, and other stakeholders like industry, academia and civil society to understand and limit the potential ramifications of these new technical developments. This paper aims to shed light on how China's activities in SDOs contribute to the execution of its long-term technical, economic and political strategic ambitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concerns about China's ambitions to return to the global centre stage as a great power have recently begun to focus on the Digital Silk Road (DSR), an umbrella term for various activities – commercial and diplomatic – of interest to the Chinese government in the cyber realm. Part of (or a spin-off from) the 2013 Belt and Road Initiative, by 2020 the DSR had become a focal point of China's foreign policy. But the DSR remains ill-defined and poorly understood. At the heart of such concerns is not that Chinese technology companies are becoming globally competitive, but rather that Beijing could use them to 'rewire' the global digital architecture, from physical cables to code. Dominance by Chinese technology could shift global norms from a free cyber commons to competing systems of cyber sovereignty or cyber freedom. This Adelphi book brings together eight experts to examine the development of the DSR; explore its impact on economics, security and governance in recipient countries; and assess its broader impact on patterns of economic and technological dependence, on the emerging rules and norms of tech globalisation, and on global geopolitics and great-power relations. Beijing has grasped the opportunity to leverage the entrepreneurial strengths of its private tech sector to gain prominence in the world's digital ecosystem. But the more interventionist Beijing becomes, the more Chinese firms will be seen as instruments of the state, and the greater the pushback against Chinese technology and the DSR may be. To achieve great-power status and global centrality, Beijing might ultimately need to change tack. How it innovates in further rolling out Chinese tech across the world, and what the DSR will then look like, will have far-reaching impacts on global economics, politics and security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concerns about China's ambitions to return to the global centre stage as a great power have recently begun to focus on the Digital Silk Road (DSR), an umbrella term for various activities – commercial and diplomatic – of interest to the Chinese government in the cyber realm. Part of (or a spin-off from) the 2013 Belt and Road Initiative, by 2020 the DSR had become a focal point of China's foreign policy. But the DSR remains ill-defined and poorly understood. At the heart of such concerns is not that Chinese technology companies are becoming globally competitive, but rather that Beijing could use them to 'rewire' the global digital architecture, from physical cables to code. Dominance by Chinese technology could shift global norms from a free cyber commons to competing systems of cyber sovereignty or cyber freedom. This Adelphi book brings together eight experts to examine the development of the DSR; explore its impact on economics, security and governance in recipient countries; and assess its broader impact on patterns of economic and technological dependence, on the emerging rules and norms of tech globalisation, and on global geopolitics and great-power relations. Beijing has grasped the opportunity to leverage the entrepreneurial strengths of its private tech sector to gain prominence in the world's digital ecosystem. But the more interventionist Beijing becomes, the more Chinese firms will be seen as instruments of the state, and the greater the pushback against Chinese technology and the DSR may be. To achieve great-power status and global centrality, Beijing might ultimately need to change tack. How it innovates in further rolling out Chinese tech across the world, and what the DSR will then look like, will have far-reaching impacts on global economics, politics and security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that as China becomes more central to streaming platform revenues, the global influence of Chinese content regulators will rise, not just because of restrictions in the Chinese market, but because of the active participation of US technology firms, driven by the demands of US capital markets. This article demonstrates how financialization, or prioritization of shareholder value above all else, in the US technology industry expands the influence of Chinese digital media standards. To explain this phenomenon, the article examines the case of Netflix and its competitor and partner in China, iQiyi. Netflix has predicated its growth on being able to enter global markets but has thus far only been successful in distributing limited amounts of its content in China, most notably through licensing deals with the Chinese platform iQiyi. Through its iQiyi content partnership, Netflix is participating in China's media content control regime. iQiyi leveraged content from Netflix to expand its user based prior its IPO in the United States, where it can operate, but Netflix cannot. Ultimately, this article demonstrates how the US technology industry expands the influence of Chinese regulators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A well-designed game can offer enormous opportunities for pragmatics learning by providing an immersive environment where learners can practice L2 in a variety of social contexts. To examine the applicability of gaming to L2 pragmatics learning, this study used the platform Unity to develop a scenariobased digital game (Questaurant) to teach Chinese formulaic expressions. In the game, the player took the role of a robot who works in a restaurant in China and runs quests by interacting with built-in characters. The game incorporated four key gaming attributes: context (representation), goals, feedback, and interactivity. This paper reports the usability of these gaming attributes based on interview data collected from 12 learners of Chinese who completed the game. Results showed that the combination of context and interactivity in Questaurant delivered an engaging learning experience, while explicit feedback directly contributed to learning. Participants raised some concerns regarding the motivational appeal of goals and implicit feedback in the game. This paper further discusses implications for developing and utilizing digital games for pragmatics learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article begins by looking into the discussion that has emerged in recent decades among some Western scholars about China's development and deployment of soft power. While a number of scholars have regarded China's soft power as benign and lagging behind the U.S. in its technology and effect, a few other specialists have sounded the alarm, noting how China's soft power efforts have become highly sophisticated and their malign influence should rather be termed "sharp power." After examining these assessments of China's soft power or sharp power, this article points out the origins of the PRC sharp power efforts in longstanding CCP (Chinese Communist Party, a.k.a. the Communist Party of China, or CPC) "thought-remolding" practices, and draw attention to the intensification of such efforts under Xi Jinping. The article discusses the danger these efforts pose for liberal democracies (with a particular focus on Taiwan), the need to raise awareness within liberal societies, and possible strategies to resist China's sharp power. Finally, the article examines China's disinformation campaign against Hong Kong's anti-extradition bill protesters to illustrate the workings of a digital dictatorship China has developed for its sharp power operations, at home and abroad, and how the democracies may counter it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to explore how China uses a social credit system as part of its "data-driven authoritarianism" policy; and second, to investigate how datafication, which is a method to legitimize data collection, and dataveillance, which is continuous surveillance through the use of data, offer the Chinese state a legitimate method of monitoring, surveilling and controlling citizens, businesses and society. Taken together, China's social credit system is analyzed as an integrated tool for datafication, dataveillance and data-driven authoritarianism. Design/methodology/approach: This study combines the personal narratives of 22 Chinese citizens with policy analyses, online discussions and media reports. The stories were collected using a scenario-based story completion method to understand the participants' perceptions of the recently introduced social credit system in China. Findings: China's new social credit system, which turns both online and offline behaviors into a credit score through smartphone apps, creates a "new normal" way of life for Chinese citizens. This data-driven authoritarianism uses data and technology to enhance citizen surveillance. Interactions between individuals, technologies and information emerge from understanding the system as one that provides social goods, using technologies, and raising concerns of privacy, security and collectivity. An integrated critical perspective that incorporates the concepts of datafication and dataveillance enhances a general understanding of how data-driven authoritarianism develops through the social credit system. Originality/value: This study builds upon an ongoing debate and an emerging body of literature on datafication, dataveillance and digital sociology while filling empirical gaps in the study of the global South. The Chinese social credit system has growing recognition and importance as both a governing tool and a part of everyday datafication and dataveillance processes. Thus, these phenomena necessitate discussion of its consequences for, and applications by, the Chinese state and businesses, as well as affected individuals' efforts to adapt to the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the relationship between cryptocurrency, internet, mobile phones, financial inclusion, and financial sector development in China, India, Nigeria, and South Africa for the period 2009–2017 using fully modified ordinary least square (FM-OLS) and causality analysis. The empirical results show that cryptocurrency, internet usage, and mobile subscriptions have a significant positive relationship with financial inclusion and financial sector development, suggesting that countries with higher levels of cryptocurrency, internet usage, and mobile subscriptions have higher levels of financial inclusion and financial sector development. This finding is further buttressed by the causality analysis which shows that cryptocurrency, internet usage, and mobile subscriptions cause financial inclusion and financial sector development in the four countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to examine the demographic differences of Chinese nationals' travel experience sharing through different offline and online platforms. Design/methodology/approach: Cross-tabulation analysis was applied on a national sample of 6081 respondents in China. Findings: The study found that Chinese women tend to share travel experience more often than Chinese men; old people in China tend to use the face-to-face approach more than online or social media to share their travel experience. About 66.5 per cent of the survey sample used WeChat Moments to share their travel experience, highlighting WeChat as the dominating social media platform in China for travel sharing. In general, people who share via online platforms (WeChat, Weibo, QQ Space) tend to be young, single or unmarried, well-educated and earning a high monthly income. Originality/value: The study offers an in-depth understanding of travel experience sharing idiosyncrasies in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing smart city systems are designed mainly for urban management from a governmental perspective, but they fail to cover the wide spectrum of citizens' daily lives. We propose a crowdsourcing-based platform through which multiple players can collaborate to produce more abundant, personalized, and proactive services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is one of the world’s most sophisticated Internet censoring countries. Chinese Internet users who wish to visit blocked Web sites will have to use circumvention tools to get around the Great Firewall, a censoring system inspecting, filtering, and blocking foreign Web sites outside China. Using a nationally representative survey dataset, this study compares circumvention tool users and nonusers in terms of demographic features, Internet-use motivation, levels of media trust, and, most importantly, political attitude and behavior differences. We found that more than 11% of Chinese Internet users had ever used circumvention tools and they were most likely to be young and well-educated. Compared to nonusers, circumvention tool users were more likely to oppose censorship, to place less trust in news media, and to participate more actively in civic activities. However, circumvention tool users tend to hold more politically conservative attitudes than nonusers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article explores Chinese fans of the television series "The Big Bang Theory." ("TBBT") Particular focus is given to online resistance to censorship of the show. Additional topics discussed include the streaming Web site Sohu TV, the television critics Gong Haomin and Yang Xin, and online communities of fans.