Business‐Government Relations in Industrializing Rural China: A principal‐agent perspective

This paper explains why rural enterprises prosper in the post-Mao reform era. Based on a case study of Shaanxi province, the paper argues that the institutional arrangements in rural China under economic reforms are conducive to sustained economic growth because the principal‐agent problem is alleviated in two dimensions. First, the interests of local government officials and enterprises overlap. Prompted by the fiscal pressures on local governments as a result of the fiscal reforms, particularly the 1994 tax-assignment reform, local governments are eager to promote local industrial growth. Apart from absorbing rural surplus labour and contributing to the provision of communal welfare to local residents, rural enterprises provide local governments with tax and non-tax revenues to finance their expenditure obligations. In return, local governments provide preferential aid to their enterprises in the form of tax and credit privileges. Second, the principal‐agent problem is abated by a closer effort-and-reward link for the various parties involved in the operation of rural enterprises.     

Bond Market Integration: the Chinese Mainland and Hong Kong

This paper seeks to examine the integration of the evolving bond markets in the Chinese Mainland (CM) and Hong Kong (HK). To tap the international pool of capital, the CM government and CM enterprises have issued foreign currency bonds in HK and other developed markets. Since 1998 offshore CM bonds offered to the public have not been denominated in HK dollars probably because of concerns over the stability of HK's linked exchange rate and the differential credit ratings of the two economies. Even though HK has become increasingly well equipped to handle the clearing, settlement and custody of local and foreign currency bonds across its borders, it needs to continue to lobby for and attract CM government and corporate issues of foreign currency bonds (and Rmb bonds, if this were to be permitted) if it is to establish itself as a regional bond centre in Asia.     

When Loving Means Hurting: An Exploration of Attachment and Intimate Abuse In a Community Sample

Intimate relationship abuse can be understood by considering two critical tenets of attachment. First, attachment fulfills a basic need for survival. Thus, the tenacity of the attachment bond is independent of relationship quality. Second, individuals whose attachment needs have been frustrated may strike out violently to regain proximity to the perceived loss of an intimate partner. We examined how individual differences in attachment were associated with women's and men's relationship abuse. A telephone survey assessed levels of psychological and physical abuse in 1249 Vancouver residents. Of these, 128 completed an attachment interview exploring their interpersonal relationships. Hierarchical regressions revealed that attachment variables contributed significant variance to prediction of both receipt and perpetration of psychological and physical abuse, with preoccupied attachment acting as an independent predictor. There was no evidence that gender moderated these associations. The findings suggest that attachment preoccupation in either partner may increase likelihood of abuse in couples.     

Peer Relations and Chinese-Canadian Delinquency

The main and interactive effects of delinquent friends, peer attachment, and association with Chinese friends on delinquency are examined based on a sample of Chinese-Canadian youths. The results reveal that association with delinquent friends increases delinquency involvement, whereas attachment to peers has just the opposite effect. In terms of interactive effects, it is found that strong attachment to peers dampens the criminogenic effect of delinquent friends. There is also the unexpected finding that association with Chinese friends increases the likelihood of delinquency involvement. Further analyses have shown that association with Chinese friends may indicate the degree of balance between same-ethnic and cross-ethnic friendship ties that, in turn, affects delinquency. The results underscore the importance of both cultural adherence and friendship ties in the prevention of delinquency.     

Foreign banks in the People's Republic of China

Many foreign banks are attracted to the PRC economy, as a result of its continuing economic growth and financial liberalisations. This paper provides an empirical analysis of the factors contributing to this development and of the features of those foreign banks choosing to enter this market. In addition, a survey questionnaire permits an assessment of the attractions and weaknesses of the PRC banking market as perceived by foreign banks. It has been shown that large, financially sound foreign banks have helped to stimulate trade and investment in the PRC. However, China's restricted movement of capital and inadequate legal framework has reinforced the need for international banking services from Hong Kong.     

The regulatory style of environmental governance in China: the case of EIA regulation in Shanghai*

The body of literature that examines how institutional contexts affect environmental governance in advanced industrial countries finds that style of environmental regulation is country‐specific. In the pluralist form of democracy like the United States, environmental policy formulation involves bargaining and compromises among interest groups and regulation enforcement through relatively formal and legalistic means. In the corporatist form of democracy like Sweden and Great Britain, in contrast, environmental policies are more accommodating to divergent societal interests and tend to be less formal in their enforcement. These variations in regulatory style have been attributed to differences in basic constitutional structures, regime types and cultures. How do institutional contexts affect the style of environmental regulation in China, which is both a non‐democratic and developing country? This article examines China's regulatory style by focusing on environmental impact assessment (EIA) regulation in Shanghai. The Shanghai EIA system is analyzed in terms of policy ideology, policy content, regulatory process, public participation and policy consequences. It is shown that China's being a single‐party regime with a ‘rule of persons’ tradition has heavily shaped its environmental governance. Based on Shanghai experience, China's style can be characterized as formal in requirement, agency‐dominated in the regulatory process, legalistic in enforcement, and informal politics as the substance of regulation. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Political repression in a sub-national hybrid regime: the PRC’s governing strategies in Hong Kong

Existing literature has long recognised that the Beijing government has utilised different strategies to suppress the opposition in Hong Kong. However, with the rise of localism against the Chinese government, the implications of such political repression require new exploration and insight. This article adopts Hale’s analytical framework on political repression and argues that the Beijing government can comparatively tolerate an opposition fighting for democratisation, but the localists who advocate self-determination or separatism are harshly condemned and suppressed. In Beijing’s approach, this ‘red line’ was adopted to place national security, territory integration and sovereignty as the top considerations. Theoretically, this paper contributes to distinguishing between two types of opposition groups within sub-national hybrid regimes and analyzes different responses from the sovereign state. Empirically, the case of Hong Kong will help enrich the existing literature by comparing Beijing’s strategies of repression in regard to the democratic opposition and localists.     

Forbidden Workers and the U.S. Labor Movement: Fuzhounese in New York City

Sweatshops exist when capital can exert maximum leverage over workers in setting wages, hours of work, conditions of labor, flexibility of hiring and firing, as well as in stopping workers from organizing and authorities from enforcing labor laws. In our globalized economy, these shops do not have to exist only in Third World countries. This article shows that sweatshops exist in the United States, especially in immigrant communities, where labor enforcement does not exist and employers have the upper hand. Employers like those in New York City's Chinatown are able to recruit illegal immigrants to work for them. Chinese illegals, having to pay their smuggling debts or face the possibility of physical violence, are willing to work under almost any circumstance just to meet their debt obligations. Employers take full advantage of this situation by lowering the working standard even further for everyone including legal immigrants under nineteenth century-like conditions. This will not change unless there is a rank-and-file U.S. labor movement that includes everyone regardless of color, nationality, and legal or illegal status. Only then will labor be in a position to rid the United States of sweatshops and lift up the condition of all U.S. workers.