Dynamics of Trade in Value-Added in “Factory Asia”

ABSTRACT

Trade patterns in East Asia are termed the “Factory Asia” model, whereby Asia functions as a “global factory” that imports intermediate goods from its regional networks and then assembles and exports them as finished goods to higher-income developed countries. In 2001, China’s accession into the World Trade Organisation consolidated this pattern by becoming the core economy in this model. However, is this pattern still valid after more than a decade of rapid development in East Asian countries? The main objective of this article is to examine the evolution of this pattern of trade in East Asian countries. Although the key findings of this study show that the Factory Asia model continues, it is changing as different East Asian countries capture more value in global value chains. The gaps in the rate of upgrading are identified and mainly attributed to differences in government policies and competition. However, the dependence on foreign inputs still remains an important part of high-technology production in East Asian countries. Hence, the idea that East Asia is evolving from a “factory” into a “Research & Development hub” remains far-fetched.     

Evangelical violence: Western Christianity and the use of force against the Third World

Abstract

Recognising the impact of religion on state action, this article identifies two variables that interact to affect the type and level of violence employed by Western states against Third World targets. First, variation in the degree to which the prominent Christian denominations and organisations within these states view evangelisation as either an individual-level or national-level process – Christian individualism vs Christian nationalism – has determined church support for using violence as a tactic. Second, the level of influence that churches and missionary organisations have over their home states affects the ability of Christian actors to directly impact state actions. Western violence against Third World peoples is expected to be lowest when churches and Christian organisations view evangelisation in primarily individualistic terms and have significant influence over the state. The article examines the relationships between concepts of evangelisation, Christian influence over state policies, and levels of violence against the Third World by examining British, French and German colonialism during the late colonial period of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.     

略论全球治理理论对当代国际法的影响与挑战

全球化的加速发展和全球治理理论的兴起给现代国际法理论与实践带来了新的挑战。虽然全球治理的理论模式还不成熟和完善,但它已深刻影响到国际社会未来的发展方向。一方面,国际法作为调节国际社会行为主体之间关系的法律规范和制度,对全球治理的实现起着重要的规范作用;另一方面,国际法也应积极适应全球化的潮流,使其和全球治理理论在交流与互动过程中得到共同发展。中国作为负责任的发展中大国,应更积极地在全球治理进程中扮演维护者和建设者的角色。     

A Cartography of a Global Civil Society Advocacy Alliance: The Case of the Global Call to Action against Poverty

The last few decades have witnessed the emergence of global civil society advocacy networks as major players in global governance. The Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) is one of the recent phenomena in this arena and epitomizes high-level involvement of a multiplicity of actors in GCAP, with various multilateral governance institutions, as well as states. This article analyses the origins of GCAP, motivations for its formation, evolution, and operations, with specific references to its structures and architecture. It argues that alliances are very different from ‘normal’ forms of organizations because they are made up of diverse forms of organizations, coming together voluntarily to achieve a specific purpose and therefore are by their very nature complex, unstable, and difficult to co-ordinate. The result of such, within GCAP, is an organization that is somewhat amorphous and exhibits both aspects of anti-systemic protest (in Polanyian terms) as well as a pacifying force (part of the hegemonic historic block in Gramcsian terms). I argue that the loose nature of global civil society alliances is a positive contributor to mass mobilization but causes frustrations in decision-making and actions. This, in effect, calls for a more bureaucratized and institutionalized architecture, albeit with a potential to alienate some constituencies. A key lesson from GCAP's evolution, structures, and strategies, I posit, is that it is not possible to push through individual positions without compromising so as to accommodate others.     

E-Commerce and Industrial Upgrading in the Chinese Apparel Value Chain

The economic and social gains from electronic commerce (e-commerce) that promote innovation, industry upgrading and economic growth have been widely discussed. China’s successful experience with e-commerce has had a positive effect in transforming consumer-goods sectors of the economy and motivating economic reform. This article looks at how e-commerce reduces barriers to entry and enables firms to move up the value chain by using the global value chain framework to analyse the impact of e-commerce on the upgrading trajectories and governance structures of China’s apparel industry. For large Chinese brands, e-commerce has enabled end-market diversification. For small- and medium-sized enterprises, e-commerce has facilitated entry with functional upgrading as well as end-market upgrading. In the “two-sided markets” created by platform companies, the “engaged consumers” are the demand side of this market, and “e-commerce focused apparel firms” are the supply side of the new market. Consumers and platforms are more directly involved in value creation within this emerging internet-based structure.     

“同舟共济”与适应性变革:经济增长、权力转移及中美关系

由于经济增长的差异,新兴市场日益崛起,亚太地区日益崛起,其中中国崛起尤为瞩目。纵观权力转移历史、理论与现实,中国积极寻求融入当前美国主导的国际制度安排,在战略上是正确的,中国成为这一制度的得利较多者,也是满意者和维护者。因此综合长期战略和当前金融危机冲击下的策略,除了积极推动美国对当前制度进行适应性变革外,对于美国目前的困境,中国应该量力积极帮助,共同促进全球经济早日复苏和全球善治,与美国"同舟共济"符合中国战略利益,中国需要战略规划;同时,需要面向未来,准备好美国经济复苏后的策略变化。美国凭其发达的金融业在全球财富再分配中占领制高点,金融业的发展意味着可以在财富的再分配中获得竞争优势,因此中国需要大力发展现代金融业。     

金融危机下中国与马来西亚贸易的挑战与机遇

2008年下半年以来的全球金融危机极大地冲击了中国与马来西亚贸易，并使得双边贸易面临贸易额增长趋缓、主要商品进出口增速大幅回落等诸多严峻挑战。与此同时，中马双方为应对金融危机所采取的一系列政策措施也为双方贸易发展提供了诸多新的机遇，并取得了预期的显著进展。     

私人主体参与全球行政法

在全球化环境下,除了国家、正在争取独立的民族以及国家间的国际组织,越来越多的私人主体直接参与到超国家行政关系中来,成为全球行政法的主体。"全球行政法"被定义为包括那些促进或以其他方式影响全球行政机构问责性,特别是确保其达到透明度、参与性、合理决策和合法性方面的充分标准以及对其形成的规则和决定提供有效审查的机制、原则、惯例和支持性的社会认同。从全球行政法形成的三个阶段可以清晰看出,传统二元性法律理论与全球行政法发展之间的联系,进而明晰私人主体是如何一步步迈向全球行政法,成为全球行政法主体。在当前的环境下,私人主体参与全球行政法也面临一些困境,需要逐步解决。     

试论跨国社会运动的特点及其对当代国际格局演变的影响

冷战之后迅速勃兴的新一轮跨国社会运动,出现了运动范围的全球化、社会诉求的多样性、组织形式的网络化以及运动目标的去革命化等特征,这些都与以往的跨国社会运动形成很大区别。更为重要的是,当代跨国社会运动通过不断地冲击着国家在国际格局中的"垄断"地位,推动非国家行为体走向全球治理的前台,促使国际格局向着多元化的方向不断发展,以及促进国际规范结构的重构而推动着当代国际格局的演变。     

Falling from the sky

Back examines the human costs of immigration policy through recovering the stories of the desperate stowaways who are literally falling out of the skies over London. Some 3,000 people have died trying to gain entry to Europe. These are the human costs of contemporary forms of immigration policy. Back attempts to problematize the ways in which the global movement of people is understood within an immigrant/host framework. He argues for an alternative way of thinking about the movement of people, culture and imagination in the context of globalization.