China InformationPub Date : 2024-08-03DOI: 10.1177/0920203x241261197b
Priscilla Roberts
{"title":"Book Review: From Missionary Education to Confucius Institutes: Historical Reflections on Sino-American Cultural Exchange by Jeff Kyong-McClain and Joseph Tse-Hei Lee (eds)","authors":"Priscilla Roberts","doi":"10.1177/0920203x241261197b","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203x241261197b","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45809,"journal":{"name":"China Information","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-08-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141940001","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}
China InformationPub Date : 2024-06-13DOI: 10.1177/0920203x241259431
Emilie Szwajnoch
{"title":"Regulatory capture of the Chinese social credit system: Bureaucratic self-interests in project implementation","authors":"Emilie Szwajnoch","doi":"10.1177/0920203x241259431","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203x241259431","url":null,"abstract":"The construction of China’s social credit system (SCS) involves numerous bureaucratic agents who develop mechanisms aimed at contributing to the SCS’s overall objective of building mutual trust in society. This article traces the development of centrally designed censorship-related SCS mechanisms and examines them in a broader regulatory context. In doing so, we examine the effects that single SCS solutions produce for particular areas of governance, and the impact of bureaucratic interests on the proposed mechanisms and the entire SCS. The findings reveal that agents design mechanisms which support the underlying logic of their governance areas but which often diverge from the core SCS assumption of strengthening trustworthiness in society by raising the cost of violating legal provisions. This article also argues that, despite the trend towards centralization and controlling institutions, the ability of the Chinese party-state to develop a novel, complex, and coherent project may already be compromised at the central level due to the interplay of bureaucratic self-interests. Even though constructing the SCS has involved testing and introducing innovative mechanisms, these often fail to serve the project’s core assumption. As a result, long-existing mechanisms that now serve the SCS punitive regime may be more potent than the novel solutions in raising the cost of violating legal provisions.","PeriodicalId":45809,"journal":{"name":"China Information","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141346228","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}
China InformationPub Date : 2024-04-24DOI: 10.1177/0920203x241248412
Miriam Driessen, Ruiyi Zhu
{"title":"Chinese standards from the ground up","authors":"Miriam Driessen, Ruiyi Zhu","doi":"10.1177/0920203x241248412","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203x241248412","url":null,"abstract":"China’s transformation from a standards-taker to a standards-maker has sent a shock wave through the global economy. While Chinese standardization is conventionally perceived and analysed as a top–down process, led by the central government and the Standardization Administration of China, this article demonstrates the merits of studying standards from the ground up. Sustained engagement with those who make, adopt, reject, and recalibrate standards reveals, first, the human face of standardization. Standards depend on people to be their advocates. The effectiveness of their implementation and the scope of their acceptance rely on practitioners who imbue standards with value and promote them within and across national borders. Furthermore, a bottom–up approach sheds light on the hierarchical nature of standards, the processes of inclusion and exclusion, and the dynamics of elevation and marginalization that hierarchies generate. Finally, it prompts us to look beyond de jure standards. As a producer of cheap commodities for developing countries, China has long been a maker of informal, or de facto, standards that grow out of repeat transactions and mutual agreements among actors along these value chains. Only by considering the human, hierarchical, and informal dimensions of standardization can we fully understand China’s rise as a global standards power.","PeriodicalId":45809,"journal":{"name":"China Information","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140661758","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}
China InformationPub Date : 2024-04-15DOI: 10.1177/0920203x241245686
Daniel Fuchs, Sarah Eaton
{"title":"Practice diffusion in China’s two-pronged engagement in global technical standardization","authors":"Daniel Fuchs, Sarah Eaton","doi":"10.1177/0920203x241245686","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203x241245686","url":null,"abstract":"In the context of intensifying geopolitical rivalry, China’s transition from rule-taker to rule-maker in technical standard-setting has generated deep contention with established stakeholders in the Global North. This article analyses how China, as a latecomer to global technical standardization, has navigated this increasingly contested arena of global economic governance. Building on the ‘practice turn’ literature in International Relations and a conceptualization of standard-setting processes as shaped by ‘communities of practice’, this article argues that ‘practice diffusion’ is of crucial significance for China’s rising standards power. Just as it sees mastery of global standardization practice as a key dimension of increasing its influence in established standards developing organizations, China has also begun to diffuse its standardization practice abroad in the effort to lay the foundations of a China-centric standardization regime. The article develops this argument by identifying four specific mechanisms of practice diffusion – learning the basics, learning to lead, learning within the region, learning to build – and by illustrating the role that each has played in Chinese stakeholders’ evolving engagement in global technical standard-setting.","PeriodicalId":45809,"journal":{"name":"China Information","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140699676","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}
China InformationPub Date : 2024-04-11DOI: 10.1177/0920203x241241839
Yu You
{"title":"Regulating local government debt in China: Intended and unintended consequences","authors":"Yu You","doi":"10.1177/0920203x241241839","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203x241241839","url":null,"abstract":"This study integrates institutional and empirical analyses to investigate the intricate policies that regulate local government debt in China. It finds that, within a remarkably short period, China has skilfully incorporated local government debt into the local budget management system, thereby transforming it from a mere transaction between local governments and credit agencies to an intergovernmental fiscal relations framework. The study also establishes that the pivotal debt-regulating policies are more geared towards prioritizing the cost of debt over its scale. Official documents, statistical data, and in-depth interviews provide evidence to support these findings. Drawing on an analysis of county-level panel data in Sichuan Province, this study identifies two main effects of these policies. Primarily, the cost of local general debt may trigger the notorious soft budget constraint, thereby incentivizing county-level governments to depend more heavily on superior transfer payments. Additionally, the fiscal consolidation policy, which focuses on the cost of local special debt, may lower the debt ratio. However, it also has the unintended consequence of bolstering the local government’s reliance on land finance.","PeriodicalId":45809,"journal":{"name":"China Information","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-04-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140714379","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}
China InformationPub Date : 2024-04-02DOI: 10.1177/0920203x241241370
Zhili Lin, Charity Lee, Surinderpal Kaur
{"title":"The socialization of nationalist and socialist values: Construction of the model youth in a Chinese reality TV show","authors":"Zhili Lin, Charity Lee, Surinderpal Kaur","doi":"10.1177/0920203x241241370","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203x241241370","url":null,"abstract":"Commenting on the future development of China, President Xi Jinping said, ‘China’s children today are not only undergoing and witnessing the realization of the country’s first centenary goal, they are also a new force for achieving the second centenary goal and building China into a great modern socialist country.’ This statement reflects a socially shared belief that Chinese children and youth are expected to shoulder the responsibility of nation-building. This study explores how the ideology of nationalism is disseminated through the popular Chinese reality TV show, X-Change, via the legitimation of the model Chinese youth. Using Rowan Mackay’s multimodal legitimation framework to analyse six episodes from Season 18 of X-Change, this article explores how the model Chinese youth is semiotically constructed and legitimized. Findings from the analysis reveal how the model Chinese youth represents a specific normalized national identity. This is promoted through the embodiment of the urban–rural binary by the show’s main characters and the representation of the exchange journey as the inner transformation of ‘problematic’ citizens.","PeriodicalId":45809,"journal":{"name":"China Information","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140755481","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}
China InformationPub Date : 2024-03-01Epub Date: 2023-08-10DOI: 10.1177/0920203X231193086
Reza Hasmath
{"title":"The operations of contemporary Han Chinese privilege.","authors":"Reza Hasmath","doi":"10.1177/0920203X231193086","DOIUrl":"10.1177/0920203X231193086","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article discusses the conceptual underpinnings and performance of Han Chinese privilege in the People's Republic of China. It suggests that Han Chinese privilege has gained salience from specific public policies and philosophies of governance. This is aptly viewed across a range of sites, including the labour market and media, and involves state institutions and micro-level everyday interactions between the Han Chinese and the ethnic minority populations. Finally, the article theorizes why a robust Han Chinese privilege discourse has not emerged, and remains largely an unacknowledged concept.</p>","PeriodicalId":45809,"journal":{"name":"China Information","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10906100/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45292387","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}
China InformationPub Date : 2024-02-23DOI: 10.1177/0920203x241230611b
Ray Yep
{"title":"Book Review: Decolonisation in the Age of Globalisation: Britain, China, and Hong Kong, 1979–89 by Chi-kwan Mark","authors":"Ray Yep","doi":"10.1177/0920203x241230611b","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203x241230611b","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45809,"journal":{"name":"China Information","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-02-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140437219","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}
China InformationPub Date : 2024-02-23DOI: 10.1177/0920203x241230611d
Alessandra Ferrer
{"title":"Book Review: Taiwan’s Green Parties: Alternative Politics in Taiwan by Dafydd Fell","authors":"Alessandra Ferrer","doi":"10.1177/0920203x241230611d","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203x241230611d","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45809,"journal":{"name":"China Information","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-02-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140437457","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}
China InformationPub Date : 2024-02-23DOI: 10.1177/0920203x241230611c
Pui Chi Lai
{"title":"Book Review: Hongkongers’ Fight for Freedom: Voices from the 2019 Anti-Extradition Movement by Nam Kiu Tsing","authors":"Pui Chi Lai","doi":"10.1177/0920203x241230611c","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203x241230611c","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45809,"journal":{"name":"China Information","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2024-02-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140437886","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}