China and Maritime Cooperation in East Asia: recent developments and future prospects

Future international relations in East Asia are likely to be largely shaped by the maritime strategies and policies of various actors. This paper examines China's policy and behavior in maritime cooperation in the East Asian region in recent years, a topic that has been insufficiently understood. I suggest that while it is necessary and useful to take into account China's naval power, more attention to Chinese intentions and policy on East Asian maritime issues is warranted to arrive at a more balanced, and arguably more accurate, understanding of China's role in East Asian maritime affairs. This paper takes stock of China's changing perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors in maritime cooperation in the region. I describe China's new policy moves in the South China Sea and East China Sea. I also address some of the major Chinese concerns for further maritime cooperation in East Asia. I conclude that while a grand cooperative maritime regime is still not possible from a Chinese perspective, China is likely to agree to more extensive and substantive maritime cooperation in many functional areas, most notably in the non-traditional security arena.     

China Urges Fair Play in Village Elections

China＇s central authorities issued a circular in Beijing on May 30, 2009, urging candidates to practice fair play in direct elections of village heads amid complaints of bribery and other dirty tricks to win votes. It was jointly issued by the General Office of the State Council and the General Office of the Communist Party of China （CPC） Central Committee.     

China in Africa: presence,perceptions and prospects

This article reports and analyzes China's presence in Africa with an emphasis on how that has been perceived by the Africans. Based on the findings from surveys and field research conducted in eight sub-Saharan African countries and interviews with scholars and practitioners from other African countries as well as Chinese and Americans in Africa, we outline the diverse, complicated and evolving African perceptions about China's explosive presence in general and the booming Chinese business activities in particular that now range from love to suspicion. Our findings about how China is perceived in Africa suggest that Beijing has acquired substantial goodwill in Africa yet is developing deep issues and facing uncertain challenges and growing obstacles.     

Economic Development and the Implementation of Village Elections in Rural China

Based on survey data from rural Fujian Province of China, this paper shows that economic development, especially village collective revenue, plays an important role in village elections. With economic development and industrialization, collective revenues will increase and differentiated interests will develop among villagers. Village elections are institutional channels for villagers to articulate their interests. The research findings show that it is the collective revenue and the relative living standard of the village compared with other townships within the same county or district that arouse villagers' interests for participation and candidates' motives for campaigning, and thus enhance the implementation of elections. The paper concludes that village-level economic development is crucial for the implementation of competitive elections. With economic development, village committees will control more collective revenues, thus increasing the stakes villagers have in elections. This will result in greater participation by villagers in elections, and in more competitive elections. Increased competitiveness of elections will facilitate changes in the institutions regarding village committee elections.     

Elections,Democratic Values,and Economic Development in Rural China

This paper assesses several assumptions underlying the promotion of democracy and good governance in rural China. We draw on a 1999 survey of 120 villages in four counties, two in Anhui and two in Heilongjiang provinces (sample of 2,997 households, including villagers, cadres and entrepreneurs). First, we look at how institutionalized ‘democratic procedures’, such as secret ballots, multi-candidate elections, public nominations, and village contracts, are in these villages. Then we analyze villager views on economic development and democracy, finding that villagers want more democracy, even if the economy is doing well. Third, we assess their views on the election process; do they see elections as efficacious, fair, and competitive, or do they feel that the local power elite manipulate outcomes? Fourth, we found that the richest people are less supportive of democracy, with the most democratic being middle-income households. Finally, elections have increased local elite turnover, cadres understand this, and therefore, democracy does lead to good governance.     

测量乡镇治理——基于10省市20个乡镇的实证分析

对"治理"概念的操作化和测量是国内学术界很少触及的研究课题。作者对如何测量中国乡镇层次的政府治理水平做了探讨,并根据田野调查收集到的数据,运用统计学的因子分析方法,对10个省市的20个乡镇的治理水平进行了量化评估。在此基础上,作者运用回归分析方法分析了影响乡镇治理水平的三个宏观因素:经济发展、民主发展和社会福利水平。分析结果发现,民主和社会福利水平会影响乡镇治理水平,但是经济发展水平却不会。对乡镇治理的量化测评在国内乡镇治理研究中属开拓性研究,测评结果也将有助于人们对乡镇层级的基层政府治理展开更为深入和系统的研究。     

Survival Strategies of Township Governments in Rural China: from predatory taxation to land trade

Based on my fieldwork in rural China in 2004–2005, where I conducted semi-structured interviews with 108 local cadres and villagers, this article explores the survival strategies of township governments as the most recent tax reforms (i.e. the tax-for-fee reform and the abolition of the agricultural tax) have been implemented since 2000. It argues that township governments have taken adaptive strategies to maintain over-quota personnel even under pressure to reduce it. It finds that the strategies have changed from predatory taxation in the 1990s to land trade in the last decade, while the implementation of the rural tax reforms has brought fiscal crises in agricultural villages. Local officials have a limited incentive to respond to collective resistance on taxation but do not have the same incentive on land disputes.     

The prospects for democratization in China: Evidence from the 1995 Beijing area study

Assessing the prospects for democratization in The People's Republic of China has been a mostly normative exercise over the past 20 years. Newer empirical work has focused on public opinion and the implications for a democratic transition but this literature is still in its infancy. This paper focuses on the distribution of public opinion in Beijing with respect to a direct, close end question about the respondent's most important value. Among the choices were political democracy and individual freedom. We hypothesize that if younger, more educated and wealthier people are more likely to select either of these options as their most important value then, over the next few decades, there would be increasing public pressure for democratization because of generational replacement and the expected increases in both wealth and average levels of education in China over the same time span. While there are some indications that in the future Chinese public opinion will be more favorable to a transition towards democracy, on balance the results of this paper provide scant evidence that the future will lead to increasing public pressure for democratization.     

乡镇党委领导成员直接差额选举的实践与探索

乡镇党委成员直接差额选举解决了权力与民主脱节和权力来源问题,体现了党管干部和群众公认原则,体现了党内对人民民主的示范和带动作用;同时,有利于扩大群众基础,扩大了选人用人视野;转变了干部监督方式;实现了对上负责和对下负责的统一。目前,乡镇党委成员直接差额选举还处在试点探索阶段,应注意处理好报名资格条件、民主推荐、党管干部原则、因乡镇制宜等问题。     

党内民主选举中存在的问题及其对策

目前,党内民主选举中存在着候选人的确定不能充分反映大多数选举人的意志,选举的竞争性不强,对选举结果不够尊重,以票取人面临着困惑等问题。完善党内民主选举,要正确认识民主选举的双重性质,大胆借鉴人类创造的反映民主选举规律的有益做法,有领导、有步骤地推行公开竞争型选举,完善党内民主选举机制。     

Municipal People's Congress Elections in the PRC: a process of co-option

Congress elections are an important part of political–legal studies in China. The literature has covered the direct election process, voters' attitudes and behaviors, and Party–congress–government relations in Chinese elections. Based on on-site observations, interviews and first-hand documents, this article explores the process of indirect elections at the municipal level. This article examines the interaction among institutions taking part in the municipal congress elections. It also addresses how the social structure changes affect congress elections and deputy compositions. It reveals that an implicit function of the congress election is to co-opt new social groups and interests into the establishment. Such co-option is an adaptive strategy of the Party state in the reform era.     

The 2001 Legislative Assembly Elections and Political Development in Macau

The objective of this article is to analyze the major trends in post-1999 Macau's political development as evidenced by the evolving role of its legislature as well as the 2001 legislative elections. The article argues that (1) the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) political system, thanks to the constitutional design of its Basic Law and the political convention inherited from the former Portuguese administration, is dominated by the executive branch of power or an ‘executive-led’ system; (2) the dramatic win by the Association for New Democratic Macau in the direct elections does not suggest a breakthrough in Macau's democratization process because altogether the pro-democracy groups won less than one-third of the total votes; (3) Macau is ruled by a conservative pro-Beijing power elite comprising prominent local businesspeople and leaders of the labour unions and neighbourhood associations; and (4) a new political convention that the MSAR government, though not popularly elected, is accountable to the Macau citizens seems to be emerging. In any event, democratization in Macau is likely to be a very long and gradual process.     

Foreign Direct Investment and Investment Environment in Dongguan Municipality of Southern China

Based on 26 case studies, this paper investigates the socio-economic causes of the inflow of FDI and its policy implications in Dongguan. The favourable factors for foreign investors in Dongguan can be categorised under the Dunning's OLI (ownership, locational and internalisation advantages) framework. This paper argues that factors other than policy incentive, such as sub-contractual and pseudo integration, are playing more important roles in attracting the inflow of FDI and maintaining the high level of economic growth in Dongguan. This finding questions the effectiveness of policy incentives, such as tax-breaks, implemented by the Government as a means to attract FDI in Dongguan. The existence of 'Chinese crony capitalism' calls for further improvement in the implementation of laws and regulations in Dongguan and the reduction of bureaucratic red-tape by the central and local governments.     

我国刑事诉讼应确立直接言词原则

直接言词原则是近现代各国通用的一项重要的诉讼原则，但在我国现行立法中却没有确立，司法实践中普遍采用间接书面审理方式。直接言词原则对控制犯罪与保障人权诉讼目的的实现具有重大价值，应在我国立法上尽快确立。     

Resolving the Tibet Question: Problems and prospects

The dispute over China's territorial sovereignty in Tibet has raged for more than four decades. In 1998, following remarks by Jiang Zemin at a press conference with Bill Clinton in Beijing, the prospects for negotiations over the Tibet Question seemed bright. Within months, however, it was obvious that there had been no breakthrough. This study analyzes the likely reasons for the failure to achieve negotiations in the light of the main obstacles thrown up by the two sides. It shows that internal and international factors since 1998 have put added pressure on China and the Dalai Lama's forces to compromise and that as a result more moderate positions are gradually emerging. A role in the reconciliation process for third parties, especially the United States, is also set out.     

在促进农村妇女参与村委会选举中推进社会性别平等——妇联组织与民间妇女组织的努力

文章对在促进农村妇女参与村委会选举中妇联组织与民间妇女组织的努力、效果与挑战进行归纳、分析与比较,指出妇联组织与民间妇女组织具有各自的优势,这形成了二者合作的基础。     

China's urban housing market development: Problems and prospects

This study analyzes the predicaments and prospects of China's urban housing market development. To this end, it examines the pre‐reform housing system in China's urban sector, presents major reform efforts, and investigates most recent reform designs and price subsidy schemes. The author maintains that China's housing market can be expected to develop vigorously as both fundamental factors and policy directives favor such a development.