An Emerging China and Diasporic Chinese: historicity,state, and international relations

The past decade has seen a growing body of literature on the (re)emergence of China and its implications for the new international order, and this scholarship is accompanied by the attempts from both within and outside of China to establish Chinese schools of international relations (IR). These admirable efforts, however, have been largely state-centric and concerned mainly with the balance of power, with little attention being directed to the diaspora's role in the evolution of China's international relationship and their potential contribution to bridging China studies and international relations theorization. Drawing upon theoretical insights from both IR and diaspora studies and employing a wide range of primary data including archives and personal interviews, this essay examines the diaspora's role (or the lack of it) in China's diplomacy since 1949 and attempts to conceptualize the Chinese experience in an historical and comparative perspective. I argue that historicity and state have played a significant part in shaping the interactions between the diaspora and diplomacy. The Chinese state's resilient capacity in domesticating (potential) diplomatic problems with respect to the diaspora and transforming them into new policy initiatives through facilitating diasporic participation in China's socio-economic and political processes has opened up new venues for the Chinese overseas to be involved in China's diplomacy. This article concludes by considering three different routes in engaging the diaspora with diplomacy at a time of China rising and by calling for strategic integration of diaspora into the emerging discourses on ‘IR theories with Chinese characteristics’.     

Head hunting from the Hutong Executive search industry matures in China,with foreign firms leading the way

BEIJING wasn’t always called Beijing. During the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) the capital was known as Dadu, and it was under the Yuan that the urban design of     

The Changing Face of Music in China

Having recently seen the LA thrash metal band Metallica in Shanghai,I’ve come to reflect on the fact that I’ve been in China for seven years,and I need to be honest—the live music scene here is pretty small.Having said that,I guess that I was spoiled in my native land of Australia,where I had a smorgasbord of live acts to see on any given night,and nothing short of an avalanche of national and international artists descending on Melbourne every summer.But here?Well,during seven years,I’ve seen only four bands.Let me elaborate.When I say"bands"I mean seeing people who write and perform their own music,opposed to those playing     

Illegal drugs,policy change,and state power: The case of contemporary China

This article describes and analyzes the rapid resurgence of illegal drugs in contemporary China since the late 1970s. It also examines the evolution and implementation of China's anti‐narcotic policy, especially the people's war on drugs launched in 1990. It is suggested that the resurgence of drug trafficking and drug abuse provides additional evidence of the severe erosion of regime legitimacy in China     

非“酷儿”亦非“同志”:台湾电影中的同性恋现象

台湾电影中的"同志"故事,往往放置在封闭的学校场域,表达未成年人已然苏醒的性别意识;但另一方面,传统意识的惯力仍然强大,规约另类情欲的放纵,拒绝边缘的"酷儿",从而决定了"同志"这种性别的狂欢,在迎合观众的审美惯力中难以获得"微观政治"学意义.从性别设置上说,"T"应该是最具底层性质的群体,不仅承受着社会周遭的性别歧视,面临无路可退的人生绝境,而且自身的情感空间也存在着崩塌的危险.台湾电影大量出现的被剥离阳刚气质的"去势"男性与"T"这一难以摆脱悲剧命运的人物群体,就是划分出一个社会底层的"庶民",这种"性别殖民"再次确认了西方殖民主义的逻辑,生产出全球化的流行身份.     

Industrial productivity in China's state‐owned enterprises: The textile industry in Guangzhou, 1979–1993

This article examines productivity growth and effects of incentive payments on it in China's state‐owned enterprises. Data spanning the 1979–1993 period were taken from 20 large‐and medium‐scale state‐owned textile enterprises in Guangzhou. The empirical study finds that the sample enterprises experienced an average increase in total factor productivity growth by 1.8% annually. The analysis of the effects of incentive payments on productivity shows that total factor productivity growth is positively tied to increases in retained profits but it bears no significant relationship with increases in bonuses. Besides, the study suggests a positive time trend of total factor productivity growth by 0.8% per year.     

国际格局变化与领导者的战略思维

国际格局的变化给领导者的启示和要求是多方面的,最重要的是要学会战略思维。在全球化、多极化趋势发展的国际背景下,要求领导者具备改革开放、相依并存、合作协调、竞争双赢等战略思维。     

Law Guanxi: MNCs,state actors,and legal reform in China

Since 1978, China has opened itself to foreign direct investment and has undertaken significant legal reform, especially in the area of international commercial arbitration. I analyze the roles that foreign actors and state officials have played in changing Chinese legal institutions such as the Chinese International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC) and personal relations, or guanxi. 1 ^1. La guanxi is a Chinese expression, meaning ‘to pull strings (to get things done)’. View all notes Foreign investors, attorneys, and non-governmental organizations are helping China to adopt formal commercial arbitral institutions that follow international norms. In that sense, foreign actors are contributing to rule of law in China. Yet, foreign investors also attempt to use guanxi to get around central regulations, thereby contributing to informal legal institutions. The combination of guanxi and formal legal institutions follows a model of path dependent institutional change. I use the terms, ‘layering’ and ‘bricolage’ to elucidate the ways that actors combine existing institutions with new legal forms introduced by foreign investors, attorneys, and NGOs.     

The Rise of China: media perception and implications for international politics

In recent years, the rise of China as an emerging great power has been widely perceived across the world. How has the rise of China been represented over time in the Western news media? Has the image of China as a rising power had any impact on the country's soft power? These questions remain unanswered but answering them is of great significance in helping us understand the impact of the news media on the transformation of international politics in the information age. This paper conducts a longitudinal study to examine the nature of Chinese coverage and explores how the image of a rising China—economically, politically, regionally and globally—has been represented in three transnational newspapers in Europe. It further argues that the Western media coverage of China's rise is as a soft power, which, to some extent, has an impact upon China's foreign relations.     

台湾加入WTO《政府采购协议》的背景、动机与影响

加入＂政府采购协议＂（GPA）是台湾继加入WTO之后在扩大国际经济空间上的又一重大收获。这一举措的动机并非为获得GPA所带来的政府采购市场机会,而更多是出于扩大国际参与度的考虑。这也决定了其谈判过程多次波折。从谈判结果来看,加入GPA对台湾本身的经济和贸易发展影响不大,但对两岸关系以及祖国大陆加入GPA谈判却有一定的潜在影响。     

Taiwan's Foreign Policy and Africa: The limitations of dollar diplomacy

The search for status, or more correctly, the desire to maintain status, lies at the heart of the Republic of China on Taiwan's (ROC) foreign policy. This is particularly so vis-a ¤ -vis its official state-to-state relations. In this regard, the ROC has been constrained by a conscious policy by the People's Republic of China (PRC) to try and marginalize Taiwan on the international stage. Due to objective realities, Taiwan has had to become satisfied with maintaining official state relations with small states only. All, with the exception of the Vatican, are in the developing world, with a number in Africa. This paper examines Taiwanese foreign policy and its diplomatic initiatives, with particular reference to its use of 'dollar diplomacy' in its activities in Africa. The constraints and limitations of such policies are drawn out.     

Defining the limits of local government power in China: The relevance of international experience

This paper looks at the impact of decentralization on China's market system. It is argued that as the Chinese central government relaxed its control over the economy through decentralization, local governments turned many of the transferred powers to restrict market competition. This paper proposes that an umbrella legislation of Interregional Commerce be enacted and a Fair Trade Commission be created to ensure that government policies at all levels be pro‐competition. As an institutional prerequisite, the government organizational reform should be extended to more sectors of the economy.     

The Changing Structure of Communist Party Membership in Urban China, 1988–2002

This paper examines changes in the membership structure of the Communist Party of China during the 1990s. It concentrates on urban China to investigate the relationship between socioeconomic characteristics of the region (city) and the age, educational, and occupational structures of the regional party. The major findings are as follows. First, the development of marketization has widened opportunities for the younger generation to achieve socioeconomic success outside party membership. Second, the younger generation's incentives for joining the party have consequently been increasingly important determinants of the party's membership structure. Third, the subsequent technocratic reorganization of the urban party seems to have progressed through the conventional bureaucratic-elite path in the government and publicly owned sectors rather than through the newly emerging qualified professional-elite path.     

中国政党与国家政治力

国家政治力在综合国力中具有能动性和主导性。政党是国家政治力中的重要力量。我国政党作为国家政治力的核心性要素,具有独特的条件和优势。我国政党功能作用的发挥有利于现阶段我国社会的发展,是国家政治力增强的重要内容和根本保证。     

Organizational Formations of Organized Crime in China: perspectives from the state,markets, and networks

Chinese lawmakers and law-enforcers have viewed the hierarchical structure as the defining feature of organized criminal organizations. Such a flawed framework has hampered China's recent efforts to fight organized crime. Based upon organization theory, this paper argues that by adapting to the changing institutional environment, Chinese criminal forces have chosen a variety of organizational structures ranging from hierarchy to the market and the network. The recently uncovered cases point out that networks have become a more popular organizational form than the traditional hierarchies (such as secret societies) and contractual relationships in illicit markets. By offering a classification of organizational formations of organized crime in today's China, the author suggests network analysis as a new tool to help China's law enforcement effectively respond to surging organized crime.     

Leverage,Technical Efficiency and Profitability: an application of DEA to foreign-invested toy manufacturing firms in China

Based on a representative sample of the 238 largest foreign-invested toy manufacturing firms in southern China by output value, we adopted a two-stage approach to examine the role of leverage on firm performance as measured by technical efficiency, and the effect of efficiency on profitability. In the first stage, we use data envelopment analysis (DEA) to estimate the technical efficiency of the sample firms. In the second stage, we conduct a regression analysis to study the effects of leverage on efficiency and of efficiency on profitability. Our empirical results support the view that leverage has a positive effect on firm technical efficiency and that there is a positive relationship between technical efficiency and profitability.     

中国当前公共领域里道德一法律关系的一个侧面

中国社会变迁中,当公共领域里,利益矛盾直接而尖锐,主要须靠法律调节的情况下,道德-法律关系发生着重大变化.这个变化的表层是,道德论地位日益缩小,论作用逐渐减弱,从社会调控的前线退居二线;法律论地位日益扩大、上升,论作用日益强化,进入社会调控的第一线.这个变化的深层则是,道德是法律的精神或灵活,在立法、执法、司法、守法的全过程都是如此;而法律则是体现道德之精神、灵魂的载体.可以比方说,道德是统帅,法律是送统帅去其想去之处的车子;或可用中国哲学的范畴来表达:道德是体,法律是用.     

The ‘Tianxia Trope’: will China change the international system?

The tianxia trope has been advanced as an organizing principle for post-Cold War international relations encompassing the rise of the People's Republic of China. The tianxia system is defined as a Sino-centric hierarchical relationship among unequals, governed according to Confucian principles of benevolence. As traditionally practiced, it incorporated an important role for the observance of ritual, including the presentation of tribute to the emperor as Son of Heaven, purportedly resulting in a Pax Sinica. Its supporters believe that, if adopted in today's world, tianxia would constitute a great improvement over the anarchic Westphalian system of theoretically equal states who possess sovereignty, i.e. inviolability within their own borders. Because they answer to no superior authority, the Westphalian system is by its very nature conducive to discord and war. This article will argue that both the tianxia and Westphalian systems have serious flaws and were rarely practiced as either their proponents or detractors argue. However, even states whose domestic autonomy is compromised by internal dissent and whose weaknesses prevent their playing an influential role internationally have vested interests in maintaining adherence to the Westphalian system, if only as a bargaining position. The PRC government itself has accepted the principles inherent therein through such actions as joining the United Nations and becoming a signatory of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. It zealously defends its sovereign prerogatives when useful, even as it makes efforts to educate the world on the virtues of a Confucian Great Harmony, and its supporters advocate following a somewhat nebulously defined Chinese model. In the absence of compelling incentives for major players in the current international system to adopt the tianxia system, Westphalian sovereignty appears likely to remain the organizing principle of international relations for the foreseeable future, its serious deficiencies notwithstanding. To paraphrase Winston Churchill's remarks on democracy, it may be the worst form of government except for all the others.     

非营利组织问责:概念、体系及其限度

随着非营利组织在公共治理中扮演着越来越重要的角色,其问责已成为近年来人们关注的热点。本文在对非政府组织问责的概念、类型、内容等进行梳理的基础上,通过对非营利组织委托抑或代理人角色定位的厘定、自主性与依赖性的平衡选择以及自律与他律结合方式的探讨,阐明其问责的限度。     

关于我国民营企业法律地位的几点思考

民营企业是我国市场经济的重要参与者,为我国经济发展作出了突出贡献。民营企业的法律地位关系着民营企业的权益保护,也关系着我国民营经济的发展前途。因此,研究我国民营企业的法律地位具有非常重要的意义。