Pub Date : 2023-10-13DOI: 10.1177/0920203x231204681c
Yuan Gong
{"title":"Book Review: <i>The Chinese Lifestyle: The Reconfiguration of the Middle Class in Contemporary China</i> by Alfonso Sánchez-Romera","authors":"Yuan Gong","doi":"10.1177/0920203x231204681c","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203x231204681c","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45809,"journal":{"name":"China Information","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135858897","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-13DOI: 10.1177/0920203x231204681a
Julie Yu-Wen Chen
{"title":"Book Review: <i>Hong Kong Professional Services and the Belt and Road Initiative: Challenges for Co-evolving Sustainability</i> by Linda Chelan Li and Phyllis Lai Lan Mo (eds.)","authors":"Julie Yu-Wen Chen","doi":"10.1177/0920203x231204681a","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203x231204681a","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45809,"journal":{"name":"China Information","volume":"123 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135858674","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-26DOI: 10.1177/0920203x231202442
Yuqing Yang
The Ding Zhen phenomenon saw a young Tibetan herder from Litang County of Sichuan Province gain a spotlight within China’s new-media celebrity industry, introducing a mode of translocal connectedness through a fan economy. The mode of connectedness features social engagement between Ding Zhen’s extra-local fans and a state-owned company in Litang with aims to profit from the influence of this cyber star to develop ethnic tourism, in line with the trend of using technological marketing solutions for poverty alleviation. Interacting with Litang’s media tactic, Ding Zhen’s fan communities on two Super Topics (超话) on Weibo compete to define proper fan behaviour and champion the rights and subject personhood of their idol beyond the limits of his localized identity. At the same time, the company aligns with the state’s stance on fan disciplining as a way of regulating fan friction and activism. The challenges faced by fans within the current media climate as they attempt to uphold fan subculture, as well as those faced by a highland ethnic town grappling with the complexities of unbalanced spatial development, serve as the underlying factors driving translocal cooperation and conflicts. In their intertwined situations, both extra-local fans and the local community seek empowerment, navigating their tensions towards a dynamic of accommodation.
{"title":"Contending Fan Engagement Strategies in China’s Translocal Economy: The Case of Tibetan Cyber Star Ding Zhen","authors":"Yuqing Yang","doi":"10.1177/0920203x231202442","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203x231202442","url":null,"abstract":"The Ding Zhen phenomenon saw a young Tibetan herder from Litang County of Sichuan Province gain a spotlight within China’s new-media celebrity industry, introducing a mode of translocal connectedness through a fan economy. The mode of connectedness features social engagement between Ding Zhen’s extra-local fans and a state-owned company in Litang with aims to profit from the influence of this cyber star to develop ethnic tourism, in line with the trend of using technological marketing solutions for poverty alleviation. Interacting with Litang’s media tactic, Ding Zhen’s fan communities on two Super Topics (超话) on Weibo compete to define proper fan behaviour and champion the rights and subject personhood of their idol beyond the limits of his localized identity. At the same time, the company aligns with the state’s stance on fan disciplining as a way of regulating fan friction and activism. The challenges faced by fans within the current media climate as they attempt to uphold fan subculture, as well as those faced by a highland ethnic town grappling with the complexities of unbalanced spatial development, serve as the underlying factors driving translocal cooperation and conflicts. In their intertwined situations, both extra-local fans and the local community seek empowerment, navigating their tensions towards a dynamic of accommodation.","PeriodicalId":45809,"journal":{"name":"China Information","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134958788","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-14DOI: 10.1177/0920203x231199436
Si Chen
Between 2014 and 2023, the China Chamber of Commerce of Metals, Minerals & Chemicals Importers & Exporters (known by its acronym CCCMC) developed a set of corporate social responsibility guidelines which aim to steer Chinese outward mining investment toward a socially responsible model. This article presents an in-depth analysis of these voluntary industry-specific corporate social responsibility guidelines. The article also unfolds the less visible processes in which a Chinese industry association proactively engages with the dynamics of multi-level governance of corporate social responsibility in global mineral supply chains. While focusing on the rising role of the CCCMC, the article takes a ‘multi-level and actor-centred’ approach to understand the development of corporate social responsibility standards in the global economy. The article finds that CCCMC guidelines are inspired by and infused with pre-existing corporate social responsibility standards, especially international standards. Furthermore, it showcases the CCCMC’s continuing follow-up measures to implement the guidelines and increase recognition from other actors in global mineral supply chains. In particular, the article finds that the CCCMC has taken substantive measures to formulate and implement applicable labour standards in global mineral supply chains.
{"title":"Shaping corporate social responsibility standards in the global economy: Chinese industry guidelines for responsible mineral supply chains","authors":"Si Chen","doi":"10.1177/0920203x231199436","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203x231199436","url":null,"abstract":"Between 2014 and 2023, the China Chamber of Commerce of Metals, Minerals & Chemicals Importers & Exporters (known by its acronym CCCMC) developed a set of corporate social responsibility guidelines which aim to steer Chinese outward mining investment toward a socially responsible model. This article presents an in-depth analysis of these voluntary industry-specific corporate social responsibility guidelines. The article also unfolds the less visible processes in which a Chinese industry association proactively engages with the dynamics of multi-level governance of corporate social responsibility in global mineral supply chains. While focusing on the rising role of the CCCMC, the article takes a ‘multi-level and actor-centred’ approach to understand the development of corporate social responsibility standards in the global economy. The article finds that CCCMC guidelines are inspired by and infused with pre-existing corporate social responsibility standards, especially international standards. Furthermore, it showcases the CCCMC’s continuing follow-up measures to implement the guidelines and increase recognition from other actors in global mineral supply chains. In particular, the article finds that the CCCMC has taken substantive measures to formulate and implement applicable labour standards in global mineral supply chains.","PeriodicalId":45809,"journal":{"name":"China Information","volume":"86 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135551787","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-03DOI: 10.1177/0920203x231191098
Marianne von Blomberg
Under the social credit system project, China’s government promotes credibility-based regulation (信用监管), a mode of discretionary decision-making informed by quantified assessments of regulatory subjects’ credibility. Credibility-based regulation is intended to combat China’s law enforcement problem by activating non-state actors to participate in regulatory work through conducting and sharing credibility assessments. However, little is known about its implementation. This article argues that a yet unexplored series of voluntary national standards provides the technical link between central-level rhetoric on credibility-based regulation and its implementation. Specifically, these standards lay down assessment methods and quantitative indicators for assessing credibility, and are drafted for the use of regulatory agencies, platform companies, industry associations and other state and non-state stakeholders. National standards provide a suitable link for implementing credibility-based regulation because, unlike top–down laws and policies, their creation involves a range of non-state affiliated actors, producing negotiated solutions that co-regulators may be more likely to adopt.
{"title":"Credibility Standards: A new social credit mode of regulation?","authors":"Marianne von Blomberg","doi":"10.1177/0920203x231191098","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203x231191098","url":null,"abstract":"Under the social credit system project, China’s government promotes credibility-based regulation (信用监管), a mode of discretionary decision-making informed by quantified assessments of regulatory subjects’ credibility. Credibility-based regulation is intended to combat China’s law enforcement problem by activating non-state actors to participate in regulatory work through conducting and sharing credibility assessments. However, little is known about its implementation. This article argues that a yet unexplored series of voluntary national standards provides the technical link between central-level rhetoric on credibility-based regulation and its implementation. Specifically, these standards lay down assessment methods and quantitative indicators for assessing credibility, and are drafted for the use of regulatory agencies, platform companies, industry associations and other state and non-state stakeholders. National standards provide a suitable link for implementing credibility-based regulation because, unlike top–down laws and policies, their creation involves a range of non-state affiliated actors, producing negotiated solutions that co-regulators may be more likely to adopt.","PeriodicalId":45809,"journal":{"name":"China Information","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136327687","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-01Epub Date: 2023-02-13DOI: 10.1177/0920203X231155148
Bartosz Kowalski, Magdalena Rekść
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the authorities of Serbia have undertaken a concerted effort to secure China's support in containing the coronavirus. This asymmetrical cooperation, apart from aspects concerning health security, has allowed both sides to obtain considerable political and economic benefits. This article examines how China and Serbia utilize pandemic cooperation to pursue and realize their wider foreign and internal policy goals through patron-client ties, as well as highlighting the pitfalls of this kind of relationship. Although the outbreak of the pandemic and the medical cooperation that followed do not constitute a turning point in the well-established relations between the two countries, the article argues that pandemic cooperation has considerably strengthened relations. In many ways, the pattern observed by the authors resembles China's pandemic exchanges with other countries, especially smaller states with authoritarian inclinations.
{"title":"Pandemic diplomacy and patron-client relations in Sino-Serbian cooperation.","authors":"Bartosz Kowalski, Magdalena Rekść","doi":"10.1177/0920203X231155148","DOIUrl":"10.1177/0920203X231155148","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the authorities of Serbia have undertaken a concerted effort to secure China's support in containing the coronavirus. This asymmetrical cooperation, apart from aspects concerning health security, has allowed both sides to obtain considerable political and economic benefits. This article examines how China and Serbia utilize pandemic cooperation to pursue and realize their wider foreign and internal policy goals through patron-client ties, as well as highlighting the pitfalls of this kind of relationship. Although the outbreak of the pandemic and the medical cooperation that followed do not constitute a turning point in the well-established relations between the two countries, the article argues that pandemic cooperation has considerably strengthened relations. In many ways, the pattern observed by the authors resembles China's pandemic exchanges with other countries, especially smaller states with authoritarian inclinations.</p>","PeriodicalId":45809,"journal":{"name":"China Information","volume":"37 1","pages":"185-206"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9929180/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42627990","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-01DOI: 10.1177/0920203X231180070c
D. Plekhanov
and three metropoles, as well as on only young gay men, similarly adds to the clarity and coherence of the book. It also makes one curious about how tongzhi cultures are shaped in the countryside, or among different ‘minorities’. Finally, the book clearly focuses on cisgender gay men, the slowly expanding acronym LGBTQAI+ that prompts a likeminded study of, for example, lesbian and transcultures. After reading Kong’s book, this reviewer feels that he got to know the research participants intimately and to understand their life struggles and aspirations. The book unpacks and probes deep into the curious and often quite hidden entanglement between politics, family, community, locality, gender, and sexuality – all the more urgent, given the increasingly tense geopolitics of the three locales. This is a remarkable achievement for an academic book. Kong successfully steers away from using the three localities as an empirical case to apply Western theory, just as he is critical about assumed indigenous categories or claims to knowledge. As such, the book helps to decolonize not only sexuality and queer studies, but also to decolonize (and to queer) China studies. For anyone working on sexual cultures in East Asia and beyond, this book is essential reading. Its readability and clarity, and profoundly personal style of writing, without compromising on theoretical depth, also make it highly recommended for teaching purposes.
{"title":"Book Review: Sporting Superpower: An Insider's View on China's Quest to Be the Best by Mark Dreyer","authors":"D. Plekhanov","doi":"10.1177/0920203X231180070c","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203X231180070c","url":null,"abstract":"and three metropoles, as well as on only young gay men, similarly adds to the clarity and coherence of the book. It also makes one curious about how tongzhi cultures are shaped in the countryside, or among different ‘minorities’. Finally, the book clearly focuses on cisgender gay men, the slowly expanding acronym LGBTQAI+ that prompts a likeminded study of, for example, lesbian and transcultures. After reading Kong’s book, this reviewer feels that he got to know the research participants intimately and to understand their life struggles and aspirations. The book unpacks and probes deep into the curious and often quite hidden entanglement between politics, family, community, locality, gender, and sexuality – all the more urgent, given the increasingly tense geopolitics of the three locales. This is a remarkable achievement for an academic book. Kong successfully steers away from using the three localities as an empirical case to apply Western theory, just as he is critical about assumed indigenous categories or claims to knowledge. As such, the book helps to decolonize not only sexuality and queer studies, but also to decolonize (and to queer) China studies. For anyone working on sexual cultures in East Asia and beyond, this book is essential reading. Its readability and clarity, and profoundly personal style of writing, without compromising on theoretical depth, also make it highly recommended for teaching purposes.","PeriodicalId":45809,"journal":{"name":"China Information","volume":"37 1","pages":"304 - 305"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45180137","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-01DOI: 10.1177/0920203X231181458
Zhenjie Yang, L. Li
Decentralized court finance and personnel management practices have been criticized for breeding extra-judicial interventions and corruption in China. Determined to advance law-based governance and to constrain recalcitrant local leaders, the Chinese leadership under Xi Jinping in 2014 rolled out reforms to centralize local court finance to the provincial level with the aim to sever local courts from local influence. Despite high expectations, implementation is at best partial. Close to half of all provinces have not accomplished the required changes, and more than half of all court expenditure continues, to date, to remain reliant upon local governments. The direct reason is that provincial governments lack sufficient and sustainable fiscal capacity to finance the operation of local courts without central assistance. Different interests between major stakeholders, namely the courts and the fiscal bureaus, also add to coordination problems and difficulties in reform implementation, in particular the tension between fiscal adequacy pursued by the judiciary and fiscal management efficiency stressed by finance bureaus.
{"title":"Court finance and floundering judicial reform in China","authors":"Zhenjie Yang, L. Li","doi":"10.1177/0920203X231181458","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203X231181458","url":null,"abstract":"Decentralized court finance and personnel management practices have been criticized for breeding extra-judicial interventions and corruption in China. Determined to advance law-based governance and to constrain recalcitrant local leaders, the Chinese leadership under Xi Jinping in 2014 rolled out reforms to centralize local court finance to the provincial level with the aim to sever local courts from local influence. Despite high expectations, implementation is at best partial. Close to half of all provinces have not accomplished the required changes, and more than half of all court expenditure continues, to date, to remain reliant upon local governments. The direct reason is that provincial governments lack sufficient and sustainable fiscal capacity to finance the operation of local courts without central assistance. Different interests between major stakeholders, namely the courts and the fiscal bureaus, also add to coordination problems and difficulties in reform implementation, in particular the tension between fiscal adequacy pursued by the judiciary and fiscal management efficiency stressed by finance bureaus.","PeriodicalId":45809,"journal":{"name":"China Information","volume":"37 1","pages":"278 - 298"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43265851","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-01DOI: 10.1177/0920203X231180070
D. Mumby, J. Hartley, D. Fryer, R. Henry, K. Rogers, J. A. Waterworth, D. Cramer, Alan Garnham
China’s economy has grown steadily despite the rise and fall of globalism and antiglobalism in the past two decades. Its Western trading partners often criticize its manipulation of trade practices through the so-called state capitalism model. As the United States and others claim, China has successfully emerged as the largest trader in the world. ‘Yet, having the right elements can only guarantee a nice story, not the correct answer’ (p. 2). This book sets out to investigate the relationship between China’s state capitalism and WTO rules, offering recommendations for further promoting world trade rules and practices. The book consists of eight chapters. Chapter 1 presents the background of the book by providing definitions of some key concepts such as state capitalism and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and introducing the challenges posed by SOEs to the global trading system. Chapter 2 reveals how the Chinese government has enhanced its influence over SOEs. Chapter 3 debunks the myth of China’s state capitalism. WTO members have been well aware of the clashes between WTO rules and China’s state capitalism since the very beginning. Bearing these problems in mind, WTO members have carefully crafted practical solutions to reinforce a category of WTO rules in order to discipline ‘market-distortive behaviours of SOEs and subsidies that enhance their competitive advantages’ (p. 10). These solutions are discussed in Chapters 4 and 5. Recent rulings by the Appellate Body have contributed to the ‘softness’ of WTO rules, because of which the crafted solutions as discussed in Chapter 4 are all of limited utility. To rebut the claim that all WTO rules are useless, the analysis in Chapter 5 underlines the promising potential of some China-specific rules in the original Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Book reviews
{"title":"Book Review: Between Market Economy and State Capitalism: China’s State-Owned Enterprises and the World Trading System by Henry Gao and Weihuan Zhou","authors":"D. Mumby, J. Hartley, D. Fryer, R. Henry, K. Rogers, J. A. Waterworth, D. Cramer, Alan Garnham","doi":"10.1177/0920203X231180070","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203X231180070","url":null,"abstract":"China’s economy has grown steadily despite the rise and fall of globalism and antiglobalism in the past two decades. Its Western trading partners often criticize its manipulation of trade practices through the so-called state capitalism model. As the United States and others claim, China has successfully emerged as the largest trader in the world. ‘Yet, having the right elements can only guarantee a nice story, not the correct answer’ (p. 2). This book sets out to investigate the relationship between China’s state capitalism and WTO rules, offering recommendations for further promoting world trade rules and practices. The book consists of eight chapters. Chapter 1 presents the background of the book by providing definitions of some key concepts such as state capitalism and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and introducing the challenges posed by SOEs to the global trading system. Chapter 2 reveals how the Chinese government has enhanced its influence over SOEs. Chapter 3 debunks the myth of China’s state capitalism. WTO members have been well aware of the clashes between WTO rules and China’s state capitalism since the very beginning. Bearing these problems in mind, WTO members have carefully crafted practical solutions to reinforce a category of WTO rules in order to discipline ‘market-distortive behaviours of SOEs and subsidies that enhance their competitive advantages’ (p. 10). These solutions are discussed in Chapters 4 and 5. Recent rulings by the Appellate Body have contributed to the ‘softness’ of WTO rules, because of which the crafted solutions as discussed in Chapter 4 are all of limited utility. To rebut the claim that all WTO rules are useless, the analysis in Chapter 5 underlines the promising potential of some China-specific rules in the original Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Book reviews","PeriodicalId":45809,"journal":{"name":"China Information","volume":"37 1","pages":"299 - 300"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48179271","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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