Impact of inflation on Chinese economy: Growth,investment, and regional development

After 15 years of economic reforms, the most notable feature of today's Chinese economy is high economic growth compounded with high inflation. The continuous coexistence of these events has raised two questions that are important to address. That is, what is the meaning of the positive correlation between high growth and high inflation, and what is the real impact of the current inflation on China's economy. The objective of this paper is to explore the impact of inflation on Chinese economy with particular reference to economic growth, investment in fixed assets, and spatial distribution of inflation. Findings of this paper suggest that high inflation that has accompanied the recent rapid economic growth has made the GDP growth rate of today's China highly suspicious. What is more, while inflation in China has mainly been generated by over‐investment and unfruitful development in the eastern region, which is financed by excess money printing and central budget deficit, the ill effects of inflation have mostly been borne by the poor regions.     

Foreign Policy Implications of Chinese Nationalism Revisited: the strident turn

This paper revisits the debate about foreign policy implications of Chinese nationalism in the context of China's increasingly confrontational and assertive behavior in recent years. It argues that while the Chinese government made effective efforts to control popular nationalism and Chinese foreign policy was therefore not dictated by emotional nationalistic rhetoric before 2008, it has become more willing to follow the popular nationalist calls to take a confrontational position against the Western powers and to adopt tougher measures in maritime territorial disputes with its neighbors. This strident turn is partially because the government is increasingly responsive to public opinion, but more importantly because of the convergence of Chinese state nationalism and popular nationalism calling for a more muscular Chinese foreign policy. Enjoying an inflated sense of empowerment supported by its new quotient of wealth and military capacities, and terrified of an uncertain future due to increasing social, economic and political tensions at home, the communist state has become more willing to play to the popular nationalist gallery in pursuing the so-called core national interests. These developments have complicated China's diplomacy, creating a heated political environment to harden China's foreign policy.     

The Rise of China in Chinese Eyes

The rise of China will create a huge market that will eventually make substantial contributions to scientific progress. The rise of China will benefit the Chinese as well as the rest of the world. Economic globalization makes it impossible for any country to keep its scientific and technological achievements from benefiting others. Every rich country inevitably invests largely abroad and imports many products from others. During the process of economic globalization, the rise of China will inevitably stimulate world economic growth by more inventions, investment, and importation. It is natural that there will be different views about the rise of China. Despite this, everyone agrees that China will increasingly play an important role in global affairs as China's modernization has a major impact on the world.     

A New Chinese Discourse of India

Conventional wisdom has held that China is a success and India is a failure, that India's democracy leads to its poverty and religious intolerance, and China's economic reform without political opening was the only correct path to development and stability. The success of the Indian domestic software industry awed many Chinese and contributed to recent online discussion of India among Chinese scholars. This article sheds light on the changing views of India in China through surveying online articles posted on two major Chinese websites. The new discourse focuses on the historical, cultural, and institutional roots, particularly government policies that have led to the current situation in India. The new Chinese discourse also reflects evaluations of China's own economic policies in the past few decades.     

我国农民犯罪的现状、原因与对策（下）

6、进城农民平等意识与相对剥夺感之间的矛盾,促使部分进城农民非法致富动机扩张一直生活在穷乡僻壤的农民,不容易体会到农民与市民之间的不平等,而一旦走进城市试图生存下来的时候,进城农民就会对自己所遭遇的不平等产生强烈的震撼。在城市,工作肯干并有效率的“农民工”往往受到带有歧视性的雇用,工资低,待遇差,大多只能干“累、脏、差”的活,多劳少得,缺少福利,缺乏安全感;相反,一些不肯出力而“混日子”的城市“固定工”,由于具有“高附加值的社会身份”,往往向管理、技术的工作岗位聚集,得到的报酬也往往较高。由此形成二者工资待…     

New Migrants and the Revival of Overseas Chinese Nationalism

Emerging at the turn of the twentieth century, overseas Chinese nationalism played an important part in the evolution of the overseas Chinese community and modern history of China. It is generally held that overseas Chinese nationalism had died out and had become ‘a historical phenomenon’ by the 1950s, when the China-centered allegiance of the overseas Chinese was replaced by a local-oriented identity. The fundamental change of the Chinese diasporic communities over the last two decades, however, has put this conventional wisdom into contestation. This essay is concerned with the emergence of the xin yinmin (new migrants) and corresponding manifestations of a reviving overseas Chinese nationalism since 1980. It is divided into two main parts. The first is empirical, examining the rise and characteristics of the new migrants, who are composed of four main types: students-turned-migrants, emigrating professionals, chain migrants, and illegal immigrants. The second section is conceptual and comparative, looking at the manifestations and limitations of the reviving overseas Chinese nationalism and placing them in a historical perspective. It also considers the embedded tensions between nationalism and transnationalism and the strategies employed by both the Chinese state and new migrants in tackling these tensions. I argue that there are complex reasons behind the re-emergence of overseas Chinese nationalism. From overseas, it is a by-product of the formation of sizeable new migrant communities, particularly in the West. As the first-generation immigrants who have extensive links with the homeland, they remain culturally, and often, politically, attached to China (as a nation-state and/or site of transnational imaginary) and are concerned greatly with Chinese matters. Through such intermediaries as Chinese-language newspapers, websites and TV programs, they form a borderless and imagined greater China that is bound by both the ideas of sovereignty and transnational culture. From the mainland, a series of policies relating to the Chinese overseas facilitate the connections between China and its population overseas, thus providing a potential ground for the revival of overseas Chinese nationalism. I argue that the key agendas of this reviving overseas Chinese nationalism are China's economic prosperity, cultural regeneration, and national unification. This nationalism, furthermore, is characterized by its reactive nature and embedded contradictions with the simultaneous process of transnationalism, which in turn reduces the centrality and intensity of nationalism. As a result, it is unlikely to constitute a unified ideology or a movement with centralized leadership such as that in the 1930s.     

The US Global Strategy in the Post-Cold War Era and Its Implications for China‐United States Relations: A Chinese perspective

At the early stage of the post-Cold War era, Chinese scholars put more attention into the study of US international standing than to the study of US global strategy. Around the middle of the 1990s, it became obvious for Chinese scholars that the power structure in the post-Cold War era was 'yi-chao-duo-qiang' (one super-power and several big powers). People realized that the leading position of the US would be unshakable and its comprehensive national power would be unparalleled by any single country in the foreseeable future. Since then, Chinese scholars have paid more attention to the study of US global strategy. Chinese scholars tend to agree that the Bush Administration's strategy was a transitional one, and that the US global strategy in the post-Cold War era came into being in the middle of President Clinton's first term. It is symbolized by the appearance of so-called 'engagement and enlargement strategy'. At the very beginning of his Administration (January 1993), President Clinton set forth that 'economy, security and democracy' would be the three pillars of US foreign policy. This greatly changed the traditional 'security first' strategy. The new strategy reflects some new features in the international and domestic contexts of the post-Cold War era. It has very important influences on Sino‐US relations.     

Frustrations and Hopes: Chinese perceptions of the engagement policy debate in the United States

This paper argues that now, more than at any other time, the way that China‐US relations evolve will shape each country's interests and affect the development of global politics. Thus, at this critical point, it is important that the two countries develop a mutually beneficial relationship. In this respect Chinese views of US intentions matter because these views translate into policies; policies that influence US domestic politics and shape relations between the two countries. It is ironic, then, that while Chinese understanding of US domestic politics has never been better and its response to it has never been more sophisticated, the criticisms of China in the US have never been stronger than at any time since rapprochement in the early 1970s. And, pointing specifically to the debate in the US since 1994 over the Clinton Administration's engagement policy, Jia analyzes this as a key source of current Chinese frustrations.     

Chinese Perceptions of US Return to Southeast Asia and the Prospect of China's Peaceful Rise

This article systematically examines the perceptual dimension of US–China–ASEAN relations. It specifically focuses on Chinese perceptions of American intentions in Southeast Asia, Chinese perceptions of the impact on China of the US's return to Southeast Asia, and suggestions of the Chinese scholarly community as to how China should respond to the US's return. Chinese scholars believe that the US returns to Southeast Asia for a variety of reasons and one of the most important is to manage the rise of China, and that the US's return has both positive and negative impacts on China's interests and the negative impact outweighs the positive. Overall, Chinese perceptions of the US return, especially Chinese scholars’ suggested response, indicate that Chinese scholars have internalized the strategy of peaceful rise which would give us added confidence that China is seriously committed to this strategy. If both the US and China stick to their relevant commitments, the rise of China, unlike that of most great powers in the past, would quite likely be peaceful.     

Factors Associated with Modern Urban Chinese Food Consumption Patterns

One key element in the development of regional and global food production systems is the corresponding changes in food consumption patterns. The 'modernization' of food consumption is encouraged by businesses and policy makers alike. For example, in China, change and growth in food consumption behaviors are promoted as a means for improving nutritional well-being, promoting economic growth via expanding consumer demand, and appeasing citizens. The objective of this paper is to investigate the pattern of dissemination of modern food consumption in contemporary China. It utilizes Sklair's notion of the 'culture-ideology of consumption' to differentiate between Chinese consumers according to whether their food consumption patterns are more or less modern. As a proxy for time-series analysis, household food consumption patterns are analyzed by age, household income level, food shopping behaviors and attitudes, and interest in imports and branded products, in order to determine if more modern food consumption patterns are more likely to be evidenced by one group than another. The data used in the analysis were obtained in a food consumption survey in metropolitan Qingdao, People's Republic of China. Results indicate that a modern culture-ideology of food consumption is being built around high-income consumers who sometimes shop at supermarkets, rather than through advertising or generational differences in consumption.     

Lost in revolution and reform: The socioeconomic pains of China's red guards generation, 1966–1996

This paper examines why the socioeconomic life of China's Red Guards generation has been difficult in both Mao's time and in the post‐Mao reform era. It shows that Mao's Cultural Revolution destroyed the normalcy of society and prevented this generation from securing the life they expected. When reform moved China toward a market economy, their past misfortunes produced their present disadvantages. Their limited education disqualified them from the opportunities of employment and career promotion; their protracted sent‐down to the countryside postponed their marriage and normal social life; and their longtime economic hardships debilitated their market competitiveness. Mao's revolution made them ill‐prepared for the coming economic liberty, yet the post‐Mao reform, instead of compensating them for their distress, left them behind when it pursued market efficiency.     

Identity,Sovereignty, and Economic Penetration: Beijing's responses to offshore Chinese democracies

Investigating how the PRC responds to democratization in Taiwan and Hong Kong, this paper argues that the Chinese Communist leadership has mainly developed three strategies in managing the complicated crises, including Beijing's own legitimacy crisis and the integration crisis of the Chinese nation, caused by the rise of offshore Chinese democracies. These strategies are: identity politics, sovereignty politics, and economic penetration. With ‘identity politics’, Beijing identifies ‘identification with the Communist leadership’ as the sole Chinese national identification, and utilizes the nationalistic passions of mainland and even overseas Chinese people against democrats in Taiwan and Hong Kong, by labeling the latter as ‘separatists’ or ‘national traitors’. Further, Beijing defines ‘sovereignty’ in a way in which the ‘central’ government monopolizes all possessions of the nation, and excludes ‘people's sovereignty’ from the politics of national reunification or the ‘one country, two systems’ model actualization. While appealing to both ‘soft power’ based in ‘patriotic nationalism’ and ‘hard power’ embedded in national sovereignty, however, the Chinese regime also mobilizes business resources and opportunities provided by China's growing economic power and China's dominance in Greater Chian economic integration for its political purposes of curbing offshore Chinese democracies.     

Discussion of 'International Political Economy from a Chinese Angle'

According to Zhu Wenli, Chinese scholars of political economy have been examining many of the same issues as their American counterparts, but have reached quite different conclusions. Chinese scholars accept the importance of globalization, but do not believe that globalization is making the nation-state less relevant or international regimes more powerful. They concede that economic and other transnational issues are becoming increasingly salient in international affairs, but conclude that they are simply altering the ways in which nations compete for power rather than making the international system more cooperative. They agree that much of today's world order is rooted in American hegemony, but do not consider that US foreign policy can be characterized as 'benign'. These conclusions have troubling implications for US‐China relations. They suggest that China will not agree to be integrated into an international community led by the United States, and that the relationship between Beijing and Washington is more likely to be competitive than cooperative.     

Explaining Chinese Foreign Policy toward North Korea: navigating between the Scylla and Charybdis of proliferation and instability

This article examines the sources of Chinese foreign policy in a particularly important case—recent policy toward North Korea. It surveys that policy in several areas: the economic backdrop, leading the six party talks, permissive support for United Nations Security Council measures, signals—some rhetorical, others more tangible—warning against future transgressions, and some coercive measures that impose costs on North Korea today. In sum, it finds Beijing has wielded a number of coercive tools aimed a North Korea, while avoiding excesses that might lead to spirals on the peninsula or regionally. Defensive realism best explains this policy, both in the aggregate and in detail in many cases. Offensive realism, strategic culture, and bureaucratic politics approaches do a particularly poor job of explaining outcomes in what should be for each of them a relatively easy case. This has important implications for understanding the sources of Chinese foreign policy in other areas. Further, on North Korea policy, while it is important for American policy makers to recognize that Beijing is not working fundamentally at cross-purposes to Washington's own goals, it is also important to recognize that Beijing has mixed motives.     

Discussion of 'Four Contradictions Constraining China's Foreign Policy Behavior'

Chinese foreign policy behavior is constrained by different sets of contradictions, but at the same time these contradictions serve to inspire and focus Chinese foreign policy, both in negative and positive ways. As China transitions to a developed country that is fully integrated into regional and global economic, political and security regimes, these contradictions may become less salient, however. With the growth of China's comprehensive national power, the Chinese will come to view their country less as a poor nation and more as a great power and thus this dual-identity syndrome should diminish in importance as a factor constraining China's foreign policy behavior over time. The contradictory impetus behind Chinese foreign policy that derives from the desire to benefit from pursuit of 'open-door' policies and the compulsion to protect state sovereignty will similarly likely become less important as China's power grows, but only if there is mutually acceptable settlement to the Taiwan problem and Beijing's confidence in its ability to secure its territorial integrity is enhanced. A stronger, more confident China will also likely become more actively involved in regional and global issues on a pragmatic, rather than principled basis. Finally, while bilateral ties will remain important to Beijing, its participation in multilateral fora will no doubt increase, including in the security sphere, as it becomes more experienced and self-assured in multilateral interaction. Ultimately, bilateral and multilateralism may take on the role of parallel tracks in Chinese diplomacy with little tension between them.     

Reconfiguring Chinese Propaganda and Control Modalities: A case study of Shanghai's television system

China's television industry has experienced a number of internal changes that have shaped this system's structure into the new millennium. The Chinese Government has reconfigured the propaganda and control modalities of this industry to allow television to become the prime mover for economic reform. A case study of Shanghai's dynamic television system from 1995 to 1999 is used to understand the changes that have taken place. This analysis provides an understanding of how the Chinese Government policy changes impact on the interrelatedness of the system's components. The consequences of these changes have had dramatic and lasting effects on the way the television industry operates in China. These effects have serious implications for foreign organisations, that are attempting to find a foothold in this booming industry, and for the Chinese television viewer.     

Economic Reform and Social Welfare: The Chinese perspective portrayed through a social survey in Shanghai

This article starts with a brief comparative analysis of China and East Europe in terms of their stark differences in approaching economic reform and social welfare. Perhaps China has the benefit of learning, from the 1989 Tiananmen Incident, of the undesirable social costs incurred by economic reform. Henceforth, it has adopted a pragmatic and gradualist approach towards economic reform. This article reports the findings of an attitude survey in Shanghai, which by and large are compatible with the gradualist approach of the Chinese Government toward economic reform and social welfare. The survey finds that the Chinese in Shanghai positively rate economic reform in light of the benefits that it has brought about, but they are also aware of the large income disparities caused as a result. In the light of the evidence, the article suggests that China's economic reform has not transformed people's beliefs to be in line with the market system. The Chinese are still, in general, in favor of a large role for the state in welfare and they themselves are not willing to shoulder heavier welfare responsibility. In the concluding section, the article explains this mixed pattern of public perceptions and pinpoints the likely developmental trend of China's welfare system.     

抗战时期国民政府救侨政策研究——以安徽宣城侨乐村为例

20世纪30年代初,日本、欧美等地被难华侨陆续回国,南京国民政府成立专门的救济失业华侨委员会,决定对归国失业华侨实行根本救济,选定安徽宣城水阳镇一带试办侨乐村:由政府提供荒地让归侨集中垦殖,并制定《侨乐村垦殖纲要》等文件。开办侨乐村、安排被难归国华侨不仅是救济失业归侨、解决他们生活问题的一种试验性的根本办法,而且被赋予在世界工商业形势不景气背景之下复兴中国农村的任务。侨乐村设计者陈树人希望宣城侨乐村试办成功后能作为一种模式在全国推广。由于国民政府一直采取重心向外的华侨政策,对于归国华侨的安置缺乏准备,也没有切合实际的系统举措等原因,侨乐村的建设并不成功。在国民政府迁都重庆后又酝酿成立归侨新村,建设地点变为城市近郊。侨乐村的试办是南京国民政府华侨政策的一次重要尝试,在华侨政策史上有一定影响。     

China's Unbalanced Economic Growth

This paper summarizes empirical findings and results from the author's most recent research publication in Chinese: China's Unbalanced Economic Growth. It studies China's economic growth with a special emphasis on its regional disparities. It provides an analysis of China's overall economic landscape as well as an empirical study of China's unbalanced regional development. Based on its quantitative findings and results, the author predicts the emergence of ten Chinese metropolitan economies in the early twenty-first century and recommends a regional development strategy as well as implementation policies for China's future development. The major empirical findings, results and conclusions of this research are outlined in three sections: the first describes China's economic future—the emergence of ten regional metropolitan economies, the second reports the empirical findings of China's national and regional economic disparities and discusses policy implications, and the third investigates China's future economic growth and discusses its growth limitations.