The Hong Kong Policy of the People's Republic of China, 1949-1997

China's policy toward Hong Kong in the period 1949-1997 was primarily driven by utilitarian calculations of national interests and the interests of the Chinese Communist Party. The Hong Kong policy of China, as an integral part of its foreign policy, was distinctive in that ideological fervor and nationalist passions had limited influence. The goals to be achieved by the Hong Kong policy remained unchanged throughout the period; the strategies adopted, however, changed in accordance with the changing international situation and the national interests as defined by the Chinese leaders. The primary goals of the Hong Kong policy were to secure a less threatening external political environment for China and to make calculated use of Hong Kong for China's economic development. By tolerating Hong Kong as a British colony, China also depended on Britain to control the potentially threatening anti-Communist Chinese population there. The 'over-dependence' on the British to control the Chinese people in Hong Kong on the eve of Hong Kong's reversion to China, however, alienated the Hong Kong people as well as impeded the formation of local political leaders in the territory. As a result, the acquisition of Hong Kong by China in 1997 has not been accompanied by political rapport between the Chinese government and the Hong Kong people, thus sowing seeds for lingering friction between them.     

Injunctive Relief: But Let's Agree Not To Have It?

The ability of parties contractually to limit their right to seek injunctive relief has not often been judicially discussed. An interesting case from Singapore now appears to suggest that this is much more than a theoretical possibility. Some arguments can, however, be made to demonstrate that this is perhaps not the vista of opportunity over which some contract draughtsmen might rejoice, and care should be taken to ascertain the boundaries of the law, as explained in this note.     

Du sollst nicht stören!

Natur und Recht - Das Urteil des EuGH vom 4.3.2021 hat große Aufmerksamkeit erlangt. Soweit grundlegende Klarstellungen zur Reichweite des die europäischen Vogelarten betreffenden...     

处理国外海商仲裁案件的一些策略与技巧

总结在处理国外海商仲裁案件时需要采取的策略及运用的案件处理技巧,内容涉及处理仲裁的基本态度,如何避免有关合同中的仲裁条款不一致而引致的严重后果,仲裁员的选择,处理证人证言及选择适当的仲裁程序等方面。     

Mother-Adolescent Language Proficiency and Adolescent Academic and Emotional Adjustment Among Chinese American Families

This study examined the role of adolescents’ and mothers’ self-reports of English and heritage language proficiency in youth’s academic and emotional adjustment among 444 Chinese American families. Adolescents who were proficient in English tended to exhibit higher reading achievement scores, math achievement scores, and overall GPA. Mothers who were English proficient tended to have children with higher academic achievement and fewer depressive symptoms. Results also indicated that adolescents’ heritage language maintenance was associated with positive adjustment, particularly amongst foreign-born youth and for youth whose parents were highly proficient in the heritage language. Mother-adolescent match in heritage language proficiency was related to higher math achievement scores and overall GPA. Additionally, higher heritage language proficiency was associated with fewer depressive symptoms for foreign-born but not U.S.-born youth. Overall, the findings suggest that proficiency in both the English and heritage language may confer advantages to Chinese American youth.

Zwischen Biologisierung des Sozialen und neuer Biosozialität: Dynamiken der biopolitischen Grenzüberschreitung

The article deals with recent developments in the field of biopolitics, which may lead to a fundamental change in the relationship between medicine, society and the individual. While the social scientific debates evaluated these developments rather controversial, there seems to be a tacit consensus regarding the homogeneity of the biopolitical field: its dynamics is interpreted either in terms of a biologisation and naturalisation of social life or in terms of increasing individual self-determination and of the emerging new forms of biosociality. This opposition is, however, ignoring the fact that, within biopolitics, we are rather facing different and heterogeneous social and technological dynamics. To comprehend this complexity, we are discerning four biopolitical dynamics: the extension of medical diagnosis, the extension of therapies and medical technologies, the detemporalisation of illness and the direct enhancement of human nature. These dynamics are not only questioning well-established conceptions of human nature, but tend to affect or even undermine the distinctions between health/illness and therapy/enhancement. In our conclusion, we are addressing the question of possible social limits to these tendencies of biopolitical transgressing of boundaries.     

Epidemiology of completed suicides in Singapore for 2001 and 2002

This study provides an analysis of 640 completed suicide cases in Singapore for the years 2001 and 2002, compared to previous years and in relation to demographic and socioeconomic factors, as well as to the characteristics of a subgroup of suicide victims with prior psychiatric illness. There was little change in the suicide pattern over the 2 years studied compared to previous years. The sex ratio was constant at 1.5. Population-adjusted ratios were 1 for Chinese, 0.5 for Malays, and >1 for both Indians and other ethnic groups. Falling from heights ranked first in terms of method adopted for both years. A disproportionately higher number of suicides were recorded for the 25-34 and the > or =75-year-old age groups. A total of 47 (17.2%) in 2001 and 74 (20.2%) in 2002 of the cases had a history of prior psychiatric illness, with psychotic disorders being the most common diagnostic category. There was also a statistically significant correlation between unemployment and incidence rates. Although the overall rate of elderly suicides had gone down since the 1990s, prevention strategy should focus on the elderly as this rate is still about 3-4 times the national average.     

Traditional Orientations and Political Participation in Three Chinese Societies

Based on three large-scale sample surveys in Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, this study purports to delineate the relation between traditional political orientations and political participation. It is found that among all three societies, Chinese in the Mainland are most traditional. In general, the negative impact of traditional political orientations on political participation is small once education is controlled for. In particular, political participation in Hong Kong is more individually based, facilitated primarily by modernization pressures. In Taiwan, institutional factors such as democracy, elections and civic associations are paramount and are buttressed by a rising white-collar class. In Mainland China, traditional political orientations have a positive impact on participation and this impact stays much the same even after controlling for education. The positive impact can be explained by institutional interference whereby traditional political orientations exert influence differently on different modes of participation: negative on adversary and protest activities but positive on voting, campaign and appeal activities. The findings of this paper imply that the argument that Confucian political culture makes a democratic China impossible is incomplete and will become irrelevant.     

The use of a packed column for the determination of bupivacaine in human plasma by gas chromatography: an application in a pharmacokinetic study of bupivacaine.

The method involves a single extraction of the drug and the internal standard, etidocaine, from alkalinized plasma with n-hexane. The gas chromatograph is equipped with a glass column (2.0 m x 2 mm) packed with 3% W/W SP2250 on Chromosorb W, (80/100 mesh) and a nitrogen sensitive detector. The method can accurately measure plasma bupivacaine concentrations down to 0.01 micrograms ml-1 using a sample size of 0.5 ml. The day-to-day variation of bupivacaine at 2.0 micrograms ml-1 is 6.90% (n = 10). The calibration graph is linear over the range 0.1-4.0 micrograms ml-1. The method is accurate, fast and sensitive and has been applied in a pharmacokinetic study of bupivacaine.     

Crime-money,reputation and reporting

The emphasis of government legislation on money laundering has been based on the assumption that reporting institutions are able to spot deviant customer behaviour and that implicitly such behaviour is criminal. This paper looks at the drivers for reporting of suspicious or unusual activity, in particular, focusing on the principle of reputation. It considers the evidence over bank disclosure within annual published reports with respect to their money laundering compliance activity; particularly examining whether there was any change in disclosure and hence reputation management reporting by those banks fined by the regulator for lapses of compliance. An attempt is also made to apply the principles of legitimacy theory to evaluate the association between money laundering and reputation looking for evidence of a ‘virtuous cycle of compliance’. However, the findings point to limited public awareness of money laundering and to the adoption of a deficit rather than enhancement model of reputation management.

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