Sharing Hopes and Opportunities

2009 marks the 35th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Malaysia. On May 18, prior to his official visit to China scheduled for early June to celebrate this grand occasion, among others, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak met with a Chinese media group at the prime minister's department in Putrajaya, and answered their questions. Beijing Review reporter Zhou Jianxiong was also part of the press corps. Excepts from the interview follow:     

How Has a Chinese Village Remained Catholic? Catholicism and local culture in a northern Chinese village

This article investigates the relationship between local culture and the inculturation of Catholicism in a northern Chinese village. Little research has been conducted on the effect of local culture on the continuation of Catholicism in China. Based on my ethnographic and archival research on a Catholic village and on a neighboring non-Catholic village in northern China, the findings of this research suggest that local culture is the underlying factor for the continuation of Catholicism. Differentiated life-cycle rituals in the Catholic village from those of the non-Catholic village, a combination of Catholic belief with fengshui, local religion and local cultural symbols have been used as effective means to carry on Catholicism. This article helps explain why hundreds of Catholic villages in northern China have kept their Catholic identity for generations, and why the underground church in China could survive, but the generalization of the findings requires more and diverse cases.     

西部民族区域开发的社会基础设施优先发展战略

社会基础设施是广义基础设施的重要组成部分 ,尽管西部民族地区的经济基础设施和制度基础设施都比较差 ,但是 ,从以人为本的新发展观来看 ,最大的发展约束还在于社会基础设施 ,因为它直接决定本地区国民的素质和集中经济资源的能力。正因为如此 ,西部民族地区经济发展的优先战略是发展社会基础设施。     

Gender(社会性别)在中国的旅行片段

本文借用赛义德“理论旅行”的概念和翻译研究中的一些理论,对gender概念自90年代在中国“旅行”的片段作一个大致地的分析,探索女权主义的gender概念为什么会在90年代来到中国?它是如何旅行到中国的?在旅行的过程中,这一概念是如何通过翻译、解释被接受或拒绝的?原因是什么?以及旅行中遇到哪些问题与挑战。     

Why China has been successful in attracting foreign direct investment: A transaction cost approach

An important factor that has contributed significantly to China's economic growth over the past two decades has been the dramatic increase of foreign direct investment in China. Based on the observation that overseas Chinese have been the dominant supplier of foreign direct investment in China, this paper employs the transaction cost approach to provide an explanation as to why China has been successful in attracting foreign direct investment. It first describes and analyzes the economic ‘institution’ in China. Then it shows that overseas Chinese have a competitive advantage in investing in China because they have the experience and knowledge of operating their business in an ‘institution’ that is similar to the ‘institution’ in China. Finally, the paper argues that some policies in China, such as the flexible contractual forms (particularly joint ventures) and the establishment of special economic zones, further reduce the transaction cost of doing business in China and contributed to attracting foreign direct investment.     

林业项目差别财政扶持制度设计研究

林业是一个具有典型外部经济的行业,兼具生态、经济和社会功能。从改善生态环境、推动经济发展、促进社会进步的角度看,当代中国林业是一个需要重点发展的行业。而林业建设与公共财政有密不可分的联系,政府需要对林业给予大力支持。林业项目需要补偿的是其巨大的社会和生态效益,在建立科学的评价体系、定量界定林业的生态和社会效益的基础上,国家可以根据不同林业项目的生态和社会效益指标,实施公平的差别扶持制度。而差别补贴、差别税率、差别信贷和贴息政策、绿色证书制度的设计都是建立林业财政差别扶持制度的必然选择。     

Stock market integration in Hong Kong and China

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange currently ranks sixth in terms of trading volumes in the world while China's fledgling securities industry at Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges combined is barely more than 7 years old. With 1997 handover of Hong Kong to China, the securities industries of the two sides ought to integrate into one market. However, the Basic Law governing Hong Kong maintains unchanged British Common Law system as well as the life style of Hong Kong capitalist society, at least for the next 50 years. To understand how the stock exchanges operate under such a situation and how they cooperate in the future is the theme throughout this paper. This paper first describes the market backgrounds separately in Hong Kong and China. It intends to answer how, what and why China needs Hong Kong market and how, what and why Hong Kong, at a different level, needs China's. Then it deals with the interactions or cooperation in the primary market operations. The paper also deals with broader issues such as the RMB convertibility with respect to the integration of the stock exchanges and tries to forecast the future trend in the regional as well as international perspectives. It concludes that as part of the ‘one country, two systems’, the SEHK will be stronger as it has an added value to China's financial window to the world.     

Interests,Power and China's Difficult Game in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)—an organization interpreted in various ways—officially announced that it intended to ensure regional security by countering international terrorism, ethnic separatism and religious extremism. This article discerns the motivations of the SCO members, arguing that they have their respective, albeit occasionally mutual, interests and priorities. There is generally asymmetry of interests—the principal reason why the SCO's strategic situation is largely a suasion game between China and the members—with China demonstrating a greater interest in the SCO; moreover, the power asymmetry between China and the Central Asian members and the power equality between China and Russia further complicates the situation. This sophisticated relationship implies that despite some measurable results, the SCO faces tremendous challenges in becoming a well-established regional organization.     

A MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL PLATFORM

Paulo Estivallet de Mesquita, Brazilian Ambassador to China China has been Brazil's main trading partner since 2009, and Brazil ranked ninth as China's main trading part-ner in 2020. Last year, Brazil and China established a record-high bilateral trade flow, with over $102 billion. A new bilateral trade record has already been achieved in 2021: From January to September, Brazil-China trade has surpassed $105 billion. Thus, it is fair to say that we have a mature and mutually beneficial commercial relation-ship. However, there is always room for improvement and that is why events such as the CIIE play an important role. More than 22 Brazilian companies were rep-resented at the CIIE, all of them aiming at deepening their knowl-edge of the Chinese market and increasing their local presence.     

提问和回答:关于六个“为什么”的思考

六个"为什么",不是新问题,也不是新事物。中国革命的历史事实,有力地回答了:在中国,必须坚持马克思主义的指导,必须坚持中国共产党领导的多党合作和政治协商,必须走社会主义道路,必须实行社会主义公有制。人民公社化和"文化大革命"的曲折发展,证明建设"纯而又纯"的社会主义公有制是不行的。改革开放是强国之路,四项基本原则是立国之本,已经对六个"为什么"作出完整而正确的回答。现在重提六个"为什么",是因为:国内外对社会主义的疑问仍然存在,国际上意识形态的斗争仍未停息,国内"资本主义化"论调甚嚣尘上,国内"纯而又纯"理论仍有市场。要做到科学回答,必须做到:要从理论高度解释清楚六个"为什么",要从历史角度重新申明六个"为什么",要从特殊背景明确回答六个"为什么"。     

美国国会“台湾连线”成员分布决定因素实证分析

2002年成立的美国国会台湾连线已成为美国国会议员介入美国对华、对台政策的重要渠道。本文对台湾连线成员在第110届国会众议院的分布进行了实证研究，发现加入该连线的议员多来自美国南部，来自那些亚裔人口比重较大、与中国经济关系密切、“台独”组织FAPA活跃的选区。外交委员会成员、意识形态保守议员和共和党议员参与台湾连线几率较高。基于台湾连线分布的特点，本文提出理性处理台湾问题中美国国会因素的建议。     

A Former French Official Sets the Record Straight

Beijing Review: Why have you been inter-ested in researching China-related affairs and why are you willing to refute Western media reports? Bruno Guigue:? At this historical juncture, China raises a series of fascinating issues on development, governance and democracy, especially for those Western analysts pre-pared to challenge conventional wisdom. I realized that China was providing us with answers different from those we were accus-tomed to, and that these answers were either ignored or distorted by both mainstream media and research institutes across the West. I just want to make a modest contribu-tion to provide more objective insights on China and a new outlook on the workings of Chinese society.     

Lifting the Veil

As the offspring of a Chinese immigrant, Madagascar's Ambassador to China Jean Louis Robinson has every reason to explore his ancestral roots in China and learn about its development. His grandfather moved to Madagascar from Foshan, a city in Guangdong Province. In 2008, Robinson returned to Foshan for the first time in search of all things related to his lineage. After years of frequent visits, when Robinson saw local members of the Communist Party of China (CPC) testing out various measures to help villagers out of extreme poverty and promote rural development, he came to realize why China was able to achieve such rapid progress in various fields.     

论原因自由行为的可罚性

我国《刑法》第十八条规定：“醉酒的人犯罪,应当负刑事责任”,此规定被认为是类似于大陆法系中原因自由行为的立法例。所谓原因自由行为是指行为人故意或过失的使自己陷入无责任能力或限制责任能力状态而实施犯罪的行为,因其行为人的主观恶性和所具有的社会危害性理应对此行为进行处罚。但我国《刑法》第十八条的规定并不严谨,故此有必要在我国刑法中引入原因自由行为的概念。     

地缘政治中的中美关系与台湾问题

台湾所处的地理位置决定了它在东亚-西太平洋地区的地缘政治与地缘战略中具有 特殊重要的意义。中美冷战时期,台湾成为美国遏制中国的地缘战略工具。随着中美关系的缓和, 台湾在该地区地缘政治中的重要性大幅下降。冷战结束以来,随着中美关系被美国的战略决策者 定位成战略上的竞争关系,台湾对美国而言的地缘战略价值再次上升。这正是台湾问题具有长期 性、复杂性的根本原因之一。     

CRISIS FOCUS Forex Reserves to The Rescue

When Premier Wen Jiabao told this year's World Economic Forum in Davos that the Chinese Government was explor- ing more efficient ways to use its massive foreign exchange (forex) reserves to boost the domestic economy, he empha- sized that the reserves could only be used overseas. Zuo Xiaolei, Chief Economist of Beijing-based China Galaxy Securities Co. Ltd., recently wrote an article in the Securities Times explaining why the country's forex reserves can only be used overseas and how they can help stimulat...     

Representation without Taxation: political changes in Chinese authoritarian regimes

The question of why some authoritarian regimes choose to incorporate institutions of democracy such as village elections into their governing systems remains largely unanswered. As a typical case of a resilient authoritarian state that implements democracy in its villages, China has provided an invaluable case for researchers to study. Current theories focus on the influence of political elites and rural forces separately. Insightful as they are, these theories are invalid as an explanation of the variation of local governance in China across time and thus are incomplete. It should be recognized that central fiscal strategies have great effects on local governance. Specifically, if the central government largely relies upon fiscal revenue from rural areas, it has to expand its bureaucracy to the countryside to extract revenue. In contrast, if it does not rely on the rural areas for revenue, the central government will establish local democracy in the countryside. This hypothesis is historically reflected in the authoritarian regimes led by the Nationalist Party (KMT) and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in China. As opposed to the familiar story about representation through taxation, the logic of representation without taxation seems to be the case in China.     

Pollution,Institutions and Street Protests in Urban China

Street protests have become commonplace in China. Utilizing extensive survey data, this study attempts to shed light on the nature of environmental street protests in China. The key question to be answered in the article is: why, facing the same issue, do some people choose the option of participating in street protests while others do not? Multivariate analytical findings indicate that Chinese urban residents’ willingness to participate in street protests over a hypothetical pollution issue in China is significantly related to their attitudes toward institutions in China. What motivates people to participate in street protests has a lot to do with their trust and support of the political system in China and their perceived government transparency. In other words, these protests are not just what Lewis Coser calls ‘realistic conflicts’ which primarily involve specific issues and solutions. One implication from this study is that street protests in China may not be as benign and non-regime threatening as some scholars might think.     

中国共产党执政生态系统的变革能力分析

回顾90年余的发展历史，中国共产党之所以能够由弱变强、由小到大．成为领导中国革命、建设和改革开放事业从胜利走向胜利的执政党，究其原因是其善于对自身的执政生态系统进行变革，在与其他党派的竞争中保持了系统性、整体性、严密性和先进性优势，使党的学习能力、创新能力、组织结构、体制机制与党在各个不同时期的目标任务和经济社会发展要求相适应。党执政生态系统的变革不仅有内因、外因的制约，而且政党政治发展的客观规律也是一个重要的因素。     

坚持共产党在多党合作制度中的领导地位

中国共产党领导的多党合作与政治协商制度是我国的一项基本政治制度 ,也是具有中国特色的政党制度。理解这一政治制度的基本内容 ,最核心的问题就是要全面、正确地理解为什么要坚持中国共产党的领导地位。这是与西方多党制和某些国家的一党制的根本区别。它对抵御西方敌对势力的侵蚀 ,反对国内一些不良的政治思潮 ,有着重要的意义。本文拟从我国多党合作制度的形成、存在、发展和广阔前景入手 ,对共产党在多党合作中的领导地位进行阐述。