Search

This paper critically examines China's national security review regime of foreign investment and compares it with that of the United States. Over the years, China has gradually established a comprehensive legal framework for national security review of foreign investment. Recent efforts were made to refine the public enforcement mechanism of the review in tandem with a new "pre-establishment national treatment plus negative list" system under the 2020 Foreign Investment Law. The United States also enacted the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 to enhance its national security review regime. By analyzing the law and practices of China and the United States, this paper finds that the national security review regimes of the two jurisdictions have functional convergences despite some formal divergences caused by diverse political-economy landscapes. Their functional convergences are highlighted by China's local practices, such as the de-facto national security screening in the name of anti-monopoly review. There are many factors affecting China's national security review regime for foreign investment, including the ongoing (and escalating) US-China competition (or conflict) at the international level and the evolution of state or party capitalism at the domestic level. These research findings will not only contribute to the existing comparative law scholarship but also benefit multinational enterprises that seek to enter Chinese and the US markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mutual hostility and confrontation characterized the first two decades of relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China. This article examines the impact of the Korean War on creating and perpetuating this mutual enmity. The first half describes how the U.S. reaction to the outbreak of the Korean War and especially Chinese military intervention in the conflict removed any chance for an early reconciliation, discussing Washington's specific policies from June 1950 until the armistice in July 1953 aimed at achieving diplomatic isolation and economic punishment of China's new regime. The second half defines China's five primary postwar foreign policy goals and explains how Beijing faced strident opposition from the United States in its attempts to achieve each objective. While Washington's efforts largely failed, U.S. actions ensured that Sino-American relations would remain poisoned for fifteen more years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid growth of China's national resources in the space domain may change the gap in power between China and the United States in relevant international rulemaking. This article proposes an analytical framework for identifying, comparing, and analyzing states' power resources critical to international rulemaking and uses the framework to compare the relevant resources between China and the United States in the space domain. First, this paper develops a method for identifying resources crucial to international rulemaking in outer space. The relevant resources of the two countries are then compared in this article. Finally, the article explores comparative advantages, consensus, differences, and cooperation possibilities of the two countries in specific international space rules. The framework could be adapted to compare diverse nations' resources critical to international rulemaking in other fields; it contributes to research on space law, international legislation, and national power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The US global leadership in science and technology has greatly benefitted from immigrants from other countries, most notably from China in the recent decades. However, feeling the pressure of potential federal investigations since the 2018 launch of the China Initiative, scientists of Chinese descent in the United States now face higher incentives to leave the United States and lower incentives to apply for federal grants. Analyzing data pertaining to institutional affiliations of more than 200 million scientific papers, we find a steady increase in the return migration of scientists of Chinese descent from the United States to China. We also conducted a survey of scientists of Chinese descent employed by US universities in tenured or tenure- track positions (n = 1,304), with results revealing general feelings of fear and anxiety that lead them to consider leaving the United States and/or stop applying for federal grants. If the situation is not corrected, American science will likely suffer the loss of scientific talent to China and other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comparative analysis of the divorce trends in the United States and China since 1980 and examines the consistency and disparity of alternative measures of divorce rate. While divorce rate is a special sociodemographic indicator, with different measures often yielding inconsistent or even contradictory results, this study contributes to the literature with a comparative analysis using data from the United States and China over 40 years. Results suggest that, as compared to the refined divorce rate (number of divorces per 1,000 married population) that counts only people with a possibility to divorce, the widely used crude divorce rate (number of divorces per 1,000 population) overestimated the increase in China's divorce rate from 1980 to 2019 by 60.76% and the decrease in U.S. divorce rate over the same period by 15.13%. Also, although in 1980 the U.S. divorce rates were much higher than the corresponding Chinese rates, divorce rates in these two nations, with very different socioeconomic systems and stages of economic development, are progressively getting closer in recent years. However, whether and when China's divorce rate may start to decrease, following an inverted U-shaped pattern over time observed in the United States and some other nations, remains a question for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the demand for military expenditure in eighteen selected Indo-Pacific countries for the years 1993–2018. As the dominant powers, the U.S. and China characterize the geopolitical structure of the Indo-Pacific region. Sino-U.S. relations are newly quantified by measuring the number of cooperative and conflict events between China and the United States based on the Global Database of Events, Language, and Tone (GDELT). After incorporating Sino-U.S. relation variables into neoclassical demand models, the panel data estimating results reveal that the increasing number of confrontations from the United States toward China has lead to increases in non-U.S. allies' military expenditure while the rise in China confronting the United States has not. U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific region have tended to increase military expenditure when the United States increases its pressure on China. The empirical results provide evidence that Sino-U.S. relations affect the level of military expenditure in the Indo-Pacific Region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the two largest economies in the world, the investor sentiment and stock return of China and the United States are the focus of global attention. In this paper, we study the dynamic spillover effects of investor sentiment and return between China and the United States. First, we use the relative price differences of 9 dual-listed companies in China and the United States simultaneously to verify whether investor sentiment affects stock returns. We find a significant positive correlation between the relative price difference of dual-listed companies and the difference of investor sentiment, indicating that the investor sentiment index indeed affects stock prices. Next, we construct the TVP-VAR model to study the dynamic spillover effects of investor sentiment and the return between China and the United States. Through the time-varying impulse response, we find investor sentiment has a significant dynamic impact on returns. Therefore, investment sentiment contagion and stock market linkage between China and the United States are obvious. In addition, we conduct various robust tests, and all results are consistent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Difference generalized method of moments (DIF-GMM) is used to explore trade destruction and deflection effects. • We find strong evidence of long-lived destruction and deflection effects. • Industry indicators play significant roles in deflecting trade. With a decrease in tariffs around the world, antidumping duties, as an important part of temporary trade barriers, have increased dramatically to take their place. China and the United States (US) are the two heaviest targets and users of antidumping investigations respectively. In this paper, using Chinese annual transaction-level export data from 2000 to 2017, we study the trade destruction effect and the trade deflection effect of all antidumping investigations initiated by the US against China. We find strong evidence of both destruction and deflection effects. American antidumping actions reduce China's exports to the US, while increasing exports to non-US countries. Critically, the trade destruction and deflection effects are long-lived, and industry indicators (including industry employment, industry concentration and capital intensity) play significant roles in deflecting trade. In general, the impact of antidumping actions could be greater than what the direct effect alone might suggest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the turbulent behavior that might exist under a national average rate of profit. We use a database—ORBIS—that allows our investigation to start from the level of the firm, with data from 2007 to 2014. A comparison between the United States and China organizes the statistical description of the rates of profit in those countries. Three issues are investigated: the trajectories of the national average rate of profit and their disaggregation; the distribution of different rates of profit by firms, economic sectors, and manufacturing sectors, and the stability of those distributions over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to survey the growth of solar energy worldwide, analyze US-China trade dispute in the solar industry, and evaluate the merits of US trade tariffs. Design/methodology/approach – The study surveyed archival data, publications by international organizations, government agencies, industry groups, and some academic research papers. Findings – Global demand for solar energy has been rising steadily and is projected to generate growing source of electric power. There is worldwide consensus that public support for solar industry in the development stages is necessary. The US Government provides generous support programs and subsidies to US solar industry. Accordingly, US punitive tariffs against China's solar industry on grounds of government subsidies are of questionable merit. Originality/value – This paper presents a concise profile of global solar energy and evaluates US trade policy toward China. The findings can be of value to government officials as they consider trade policies and their impact on the future of solar energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines US-China trade disputes under the World Trade Organization (WTO) and argues that Chinese leaders are increasingly resorting to the WTO's dispute settlement mechanism to target issues of most critical concern to domestic constituencies. The following overview of the WTO disputes initiated by China suggests that China's WTO disputes tend to be dominated by cases involving anti-dumping duties (ADs) and countervailing duties (CVDs). The disproportionate share of such trade remedy cases in China's WTO cases needs to be viewed in light of the fact that China has become the leading target of such cases worldwide in the past decades. The above pattern of China's WTO initiation is explicable within the leader cost-benefit analysis, which would lead us to expect Chinese leaders to use the WTO DSM either to open foreign markets for Chinese businesses or to shield domestic firms from perceived unfair foreign trade practices. This paper further argues that the significant expansion of bilateral trade relations in the past decades has provided opportunities for Chinese leaders to identify or threaten retaliation against anti-protectionist groups in the other country in order to mobilise them against the disputed measure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The foreign policy of a country is mostly determined by its geography. The geography compels sovereign states to cultivate relations with their neighboring countries to attain some predetermined interests. Similarly, China has created and maintained quite friendly relations with almost all Central Asian states to fulfill its ever-increasing energy needs and contain the escalating security threat being posed by the assorted terrorist, extremist, militant and separatist groups in the region. Since China is projected to overtake the US in terms of exporting energy resources by 2030, the communist state is striving hard to foster all sorts of ties with the energy-rich the Central Asian states. However, the growing Chinese closeness and affinity with the region have made the US apprehensive of the potential and ominous rise of China which could well dwarf and outclass the US in the regional. Therefore, it has led the US to craft strategies aimed at challenging and obstructing the increasing Chinese engagement with the region. Thus, it has instigated a kind of competition and low-intensity rivalry between the US and China in the region. Such a cut-throat completion would create marvelous opportunities and mounting issues for the regional countries. The article analysis China's economic and defence relations with all the Central Asian countries. It also discusses the escalating Chinese interests and the region's importance for China. In the end, the paper throws light on the impending competition and rivalry between China and the US in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the historical institutionalists' emphasis on the effects of ideas on policy making, this paper focuses on the importance of economic ideas and ideologies on China's trade policy making with regard to the signing of the WTO agreement with the United States in 1999. The paper argues that trade liberalization in China was a result of top Chinese leaders' embrace of neoclassical economic ideas which conceive a small role for the state in the marketplace, mainly as the regulator of the macro-economic environment and as the enforcer of the rule of law, rather than as a major player in the marketplace. Top Chinese leaders' socialization with neoclassical economic ideas enabled them to forge a political consensus to link state-owned enterprise (SOE) reforms with speedy WTO accession and led to China's major concessions in WTO negotiations with the United States in 1999 which were inconceivable just a few years ago. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Remote sensing (RS) has unique advantages over traditional satellite RS, including convenience, high resolution, affordability and fast acquisition speed, making it widely used in many fields. To provide an overview of the development of UAV RS applications during the past decade, we screened related publications from the Web of Science core database from 2010 to 2021, built co-author networks, a discipline interaction network, a keywords timeline view, a co-citation cluster, and detected burst citations using bibliometrics and social network analysis. Our results show that: (1) The number of UAV RS publications had an increasing trend, with explosive growth in the past five years. The number of papers published by China and the United States (US) is far ahead in this field; (2) The US has currently the greatest influence in this field through the largest number of international cooperations. Cooperation is mainly concentrated in countries and institutions with a large number of publications but is not widely distributed. (3) The application of UAV RS involves multiple interdisciplinary subjects, among which "Environmental Science and Ecology" ranks first; (4) Future research trends of UAV RS are expected to be related to artificial intelligence (e.g., artificial neural networks-based research). This paper provides a scientific basis and guidance for future developments of UAV RS applications, which can help the research community to better grasp the developments of this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, China has the world's largest wind power generation capacity, followed by the United States. Yet, China's utilization of this installed capacity trails that of the United States by a huge gap. This paper seeks to explain this gap by focusing on the role of institutions. First, it analyzes the institutions that either facilitate or impede wind integration in the two countries. Next, it synthesizes these institutions into coherent institutional logics for China and the United States. Then, it corroborates the institutional analysis with empirical evidence from China and the United States. Finally, it compares the two countries and summarizes what China can learn from the United States to reduce wind curtailment. Overall, this paper finds that China's dominant institutional logic of wind integration is state centrism and it is complemented by partial decentralization and liberalization – a system that is more conducive to capacity addition than capacity utilization. By contrast, the United States' dominant institutional logic of wind integration is market competition but a competing logic also exists which is regulatory interventionism – a system that aligns capacity addition and utilization better but engenders greater policy uncertainty. Because the two countries have distinct institutional logics that generate different root causes for wind curtailment, this paper argues that simply transplanting solutions from the United States to China will not work. What China can learn from the United States is to make incremental improvements to address the frictions between its dominant and complementary institutional logics. • China's dominant institutional logic of wind integration is state centrism. • The U.S.'s dominant institutional logic of wind integration is market competition. • Different institutional logics underpin different solutions to wind curtailment. • China shall make incremental improvements along its dominant institutional logic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper selects China and Thailand as a reference object. Based on the U. S. market, it analyzes the export competitiveness of the agricultural products of China and Thailand by market share and growth rate, measures the agricultural products of China and Thailand export competition degree by export product similarity innex and estimates the agricultural products of China and Thailand export competitiveness strength by shift share method. The results show that: At present, in the U. S. market, the competition of the agricultural products of China and Thailand is fierce, but export growth of China's agricultural products is faster and more competitive. Finally on how to further improve China's agricultural exports competitiveness in the U. S. market and promote China's agricultural export trade to the U. S. it puts forward the related countermeasures and suggestions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzed the impact and causal relation of outbound Chinese FDI on growth, employment and export performance of 16 selected US States by using Panel data. The contemporaneous panel fixed estimation results shows that the impact of Chinese outbound FDI on the economic growth, employment and export of selected states are insignificant. But the impact of FDI on growth turns positive and significant when interacted with States export to China. Applying heterogeneous panel causality approach on a refined dynamic panel model indicates that Chinese FDI does not cause GDP, exports and employment while the results of reverse causality confirm that US State GDP (market size) cause the inflow of Chinese outbound FDI. The overall impact of Chinese outbound investment, a small portion of the total FDI inflow to the US, varies from conditionally positive to utterly insignificant without any adverse impact on the local economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phytoplankton blooms have caused many serious public safety incidents and eco-environmental problems worldwide and became a focus issue for research. Accurate and rapid monitoring of phytoplankton blooms is critical for forecasting, treating, and management. With the advantages of large spatial coverage and high temporal resolution, remote sensing has been widely used to monitor phytoplankton blooms. Numerous advances have been made in the remote sensing of phytoplankton blooms, biomass, and phenology over the past several decades. To fully understand the development history, research hotspots, and future trends of remote-sensing technology in the study of phytoplankton blooms, we conducted a comprehensive review to systematically analyze the research trends in the remote sensing of phytoplankton blooms through bibliometrics. Our findings showed that research on the use of remote-sensing technology in this field increased substantially in the past 30 years. "Oceanography," "Environmental Sciences," and "Remote Sensing" are the most popular subject categories. Remote Sensing of Environment, Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, and International Journal of Remote Sensing were the journals with the most published articles. The results of the analysis of international influence and cooperation showed that the United States had the greatest influence in this field and that the cooperation between China and the United States was the closest. The Chinese Academy of Sciences published the largest number of papers, reaching 542 articles. Keyword and topic analysis results showed that "phytoplankton," "chlorophyll," and "ocean" were the most frequently occurring keywords, while "eutrophication management and monitoring," "climate change," "lakes," and "remote-sensing algorithms" were the most popular research topics in recent years. Researchers are now paying increasing attention to the phenological response of phytoplankton under the conditions of climate change and the application of new remote-sensing methods. With the development of new remote-sensing technology and the expansion of phytoplankton research, future research should focus on (1) accurate observation of phytoplankton blooms; (2) the traits of phytoplankton blooms; and (3) the drivers, early warning, and management of phytoplankton blooms. In addition, we discuss the future challenges and opportunities in the use of remote sensing in phytoplankton blooms. Our review will promote a deeper and wider understanding of the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many scholars argue that a sizable share of the news about China published in U.S. newspapers engages in 'China Bashing.' This paper quantifies the extent of the bashing and examines its effect on Sino-American relations. To measure bashing, I develop an index based on the count of articles in major U.S. newspapers that are related to China and also touch on one or more of the following issues: human rights, Tibet, democracy, child labor, and repression. I repeat this process for newspapers from Australia and New Zealand to net out 'fundamental' news. To examine the effect of the bashing on Sino-American relations, I use the China-US relations score of Yan et al. (Zhongwai guanxi dingliang yuce, [中外关系定量预测; Quantitative Forecasts of China's Foreign Relations]. Beijing, China: Shijie heshi chubanshe, , Zhongwai guanxi jianlan 1950-2005-Zhongguo yu daguo guanxi dingliang hengliang [中外关系鉴览1950-2005-中国大国关系定量衡量; China's Foreign Relations with Major Powers by the Numbers 1950-2005]. Beijing: Gaodeng jiaoyu chubanshe, ) and estimate a dynamic transfer model with the constructed bashing index, as well as other control variables. The results indicate that a one-standard-deviation shock in bashing leads to a 0.038 point decline in Yan's Sino-American index after about four months. The results further imply that the cumulative long-run effect of persistent China bashing is equivalent to about 50 % of the decline in Sino-American relations that followed the U.S. bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade on May 7, 1999, the worst shock to Sino-American relations during the sample period, 1990 to 2010. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite emergent trends of geo-economic integration between nation-states, the role of realist-driven geopolitical calculation appears highly enduring. This paper explores the potential contradictions between state-centric geopolitical concerns and transnational geo-economic formation through an exploration of China-US tensions over Taiwan, a territory of indeterminate geo-legal status and which China regards as its own province. I consider how the Taiwan Relations Act, a domestic public law of the US that frames US-Taiwan relations and has a major influence on East Asian geopolitics, could contradict emergent 'China region', and possibly even China-US, geo-economic integration. This is because the US-sustained arms sales to Taiwan rest on imagining and containing China as a 'threat', while geo-economic integration entails enrolling China as a strategic partner, if not an ally. Consequently, the Taiwan issue could stifle the enhancement of Sino-American relations at a historical juncture when the Chinese and American economies are more intertwined than ever. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 8 March 2009, five Chinese vessels shadowed and aggressively maneuvered in close proximity to the US Naval Ship (USNS) Impeccable. This paper seeks to explain the incident and its aftermath in the context of Chinese coercive diplomacy. China's strategy, designed to motivate the US to cease surveillance operations near its militarily sensitive areas in the South China Sea, included three components: (1) the use of military provocation, (2) a coordinated media campaign, and (3) a challenge to US interpretations of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS). This study goes beyond traditional research on Chinese use of force to explain why China's coercive diplomatic campaign took the form it did. Only by understanding the nature and factors affecting Chinese coercive diplomacy can the US design the effective counter strategy needed to protect US regional and global interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In March 2008, Tibet erupted in the biggest challenge to Chinese rule since 1959. While Beijing and Dharamsala engaged in their familiar battle of representations, pundits speculated on the causes of the uprising, ranging from conspiracy theories to informed policy analysis. Applying the framework of the insecurity dilemma, this article argues that Tibetan identity insecurity on account of the post-1989 hard-line Chinese policies was the chief cause of the uprising. Largely peaceful protests and occasionally violent riots in Tibet have been integral to Tibetan efforts to mitigate their societal insecurities provoked by Chinese migration, 'assimilationist' policies and 'cultural imperialism'. However, Tibetan protests and riots heighten Chinese insecurities and harden Beijing's policies both inside Tibet and towards the Dalai Lama. This paper reveals the dynamic cycle of hard-line Chinese policies provoking Tibetan uprisings; the resulting hardening in Chinese policies feeds back into Tibetan insecurities and protests. The 2008 uprising was the most recent cycle in the long-running saga of the Sino-Tibetan insecurity dilemma. The article warns that unless the Tibetans and the Chinese find a way to break out of the insecurity dilemma, Tibet could explode into another frenzy of violence and counter-violence in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines how crises in Korea, as well as rivalry between the U.S. and China, are influencing military strategies in Asia. The sinking of the South Korean Navy warship “Cheonan” by North Korea in March 2010 and the North Korean attacks on South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island in November 2010 have evoked different responses from China and the U.S. While China states that it wants to facilitate peaceful development in the region, the author attests that its long-term goal is to secure influence and exert power. The paper urges that the U.S. seek to maintain primacy in Asia for strategic purposes.

In charting the water of the post-Cold War world, one of the most prominent questions touches upon the likely effects of China's rise. Echoing more or less explicitly power transition theory's assumptions, the rapid and multifaceted ascent of China has popularized the idea of a likely overtaking of the American dominant power by the rising challenger. Sceptics have, however, pointed out that by most standards China remains far from being on a par with the United States. This paper argues that though a global power transition lies far beyond the horizon, the relevant level at which the transition should be considered is the East Asian region, or the Asian 'super-region'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although China and the US are starting their fourth decade of energy cooperation, it is only recently that there has been a concerted US effort to create a framework for US-China bilateral energy relations. The past 30 years have witnessed many successful energy projects that have lacked follow through and institutionalization, often becoming 'one-off' exercises that duplicated previous projects. Recent initiatives intend to establish long-term linkages between US and Chinese energy bureaucracies, linking energy efficiency, energy security, and environmental issues. The US is nesting the bilateral relationship in global and Asia-Pacific multilateral energy and environmental regimes, and is also using bilateral agreements as mechanisms to promote domestic energy and environmental reform. This paper will examine US-China relations in the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate and the Five-Country Energy Ministerial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

American politicians and policy makers have blamed China's exchange rate for the large US trade deficits. This paper explains why the USA treats its trade deficits with China as a security issue that have become a source of friction in Sino-US relations. The essay argues that this friction is a useful deflection from the politically difficult policy action needed to remedy the US economy and cannot easily be removed by the Chinese side alone. The structure of global trade and the reality of China's political economy, which forces Chinese leaders to develop policies for a “harmonious society” in the face of growing inequality also makes it difficult for China to respond positively to US pressure on the exchange rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the earliest years of the Internet’s creation, cyberspace has been distinguished from other types of political space because of three unique qualities: (i) its ability to mobilize users, particularly “outsiders” including those who have not been easily included in political systems using conventional means; (ii) its ability to quickly provide large quantities of information of uncertain or unregulated quality; and (iii) its ability to shrink distances between users, in some sense rendering conventional physical geography irrelevant. This paper presents three lenses for interpreting the significance of these developments: utopian, liberal, and realist. Evolving doctrines of cyberwarfare as put forth by China, Russia, and the United States in particular stress the ways in which cyberspace presents a unique security threat which may present greater advantages to nonstate actors engaged in unconventional warfare. Differing economic, political, and security policies derive from each lens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The remarkable economic rise of China and the recent turmoil in US financial markets inevitably raises questions about the respective fortunes of both countries. This paper assess the relative standing of the US and China by placing their relationship in historical context. It is suggested that China's accession to the WTO marked the highpoint of US influence and ascendancy. Since then, China's position has been steadily improving, something that the recent emergence of its first sovereign wealth fund and its subsequent role in bailing out distressed US financial institutions has dramatically highlighted. If China's form of 'state capitalism' continues to become more influential it will have major consequences for not only the US, but for the extant geopolitical order more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the history of US-China wartime relations, the Stilwell Incident has become 'hard evidence' that the Nationalist Government had no intention of fighting against Japan and would exploit Allied resources to expand its strength. Interestingly enough, Stilwell's successor, Albert C. Wedemeyer, despite taking command in a difficult and awkward situation, succeeded in strengthening the Nationalist armies to fight the Japanese and kept Sino-American relations out of a state of crisis. With the availability of Chiang Kai-shek's newly-released diaries and the Wedemeyer Papers, historians are now in a good position to explore how and why Wedemeyer could successfully fulfill his mission. The basis of Wedemeyer's success becomes clear upon close examination of his perception of and attitude toward the Chinese situation and of his dealings with Chiang Kai-shek, the ongoing offensive of the Japanese troops, and KMT-CCP conflicts. Wedemeyer's case provides insight into the nature of the US-China wartime relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper occupies a middle ground in the debate between regional area specialists in foreign policy analysis and international relations theorists in international studies. Based on balance of power and balance of threat theories, a 'dynamic balancing' model is introduced to explain states' foreign policy strategies. Its claims are: (1) the polarity of the international system shapes whether a state's strategic choices should be balancing with external efforts or balancing with internal efforts; (2) leaders' perceptions of external threats determine when and how a state pursues different balancing strategies. The application of the dynamic balancing model to China's balancing strategies towards the United States suggests that the future of Sino-American relations depends on the strategic interactions and mutual threat perceptions between the two nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has been a major power for far longer than is typically acknowledged in the West. This paper seeks to redress established discourse of China as a ‘rising’ power which now enjoys common usage within Western policy-making, academic and popular circles, particularly within the United States; China can more accurately be conceived of as a ‘recovering power’. A tendency by successive Washington administrations to view the world in realist terms has forced the label of ‘rising’ power onto China along with the negative connotations that inevitably follow. We should acknowledge the folly in utilising a theoretical approach largely devoid of any appreciation for the social and human dimensions of international relations as well as the importance of social discourse in the field. Finally, policy-makers in Washington must reconsider their realist stance and, with a fuller appreciation of world history, recognise that American hegemony was always destined to be short-lived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the following paper I explore the issue of the dollar as the unofficial reserve currency of the global finance system. I look at arguments for its "resilience" or continued use and how there is an inbuilt mechanism in liberalized capital that tends to reinforce the use of the dollar, and how this is to the advantage of the United States. I then look at the various ways in which the dollar has become increasingly vulnerable as a reserve currency because of the current constitution of the U.S. economy and because of its mutual dependency with China. I also set out how finance and other markets can go into sudden decline because of these vulnerabilities and how the constitution of the markets themselves can exacerbate this. Both of these factors, I argue, are problematic for the system, and provide the basis on which the dollar may ultimately cease to be the unofficial reserve currency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecosystem service (ES) supply and human needs are often spatially conflicting. Although the synergy between them is crucial for global sustainability, little is known about the real human needs for ES (RHN) and their integration with actual ES supply. This study established a novel hierarchy of human needs for ES. Taking China and the United States as case studies, multiple types of actual ES supplies and multi-dimensional human needs were integrated to calculate the value of effective ecosystem service supply (EFS). The results suggested that the overall EFS in the United States is higher than that in China. There was a significant gap between the United States and China in areas with the first grade of EFS (F-EFS); the United States accounted for 68% of the total in such areas in the two countries combined. Whereas China accounted for 32%, mainly concentrated in the Yangtze River Delta urban group. China exhibited a gradually decreasing trend from the east coast to the northwest. Moreover, the F-EFS in China displayed more spatial concentration than in the United States. It was also discovered that the reason for the gap was a sharp spatial mismatch between actual ES supply and RHN in China. Nevertheless, China was specifically found to have the potential to enhance its EFS. This paper proposes some solutions to mitigate the gap and also offers guidance on the realization of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). [Display omitted] • A novel hierarchy of human needs for ecosystem services was proposed. • A large-scale analysis integrated actual ES supply and real human needs. • Actual ES supply embodying goods-based and non-goods-based ES flows were assessed. • The overall effective ecosystem service supply in the US was higher than in China. • A sharp spatial mismatch between ES supply and human needs was discovered in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to analyze China's quest for energetic security and USA reaction, as well as its consequences for the international politics. The central debate is the Chinese ascension depend of external energetic supply that, consequently, unveiling the growing disputes with the USA in a scenario of international reorganization of forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of China provides a major challenge to the United States, the undisputed hegemon in the Asia-Pacific region since the second world war. This development provides regional states with an opportunity to shape the regional security architecture by adopting an inclusive approach to China. The role of the Association of Southeast Asian States (ASEAN) tends to be under-estimated by Western scholars who often see the European model as the only approach to regional integration. This paper discusses the significant achievements of ASEAN in serving as a catalyst for the establishment of regional institutions. Such institutions could serve as instruments for the management of China's relations with Japan and India. It is contended that the emergence of Asian powers, especially China, will result in a challenge to the Washington Consensus of Western norms and values focusing on individual rights which have governed international institutions. The rise of China is likely to see the application of a Beijing Consensus emphasising the balance between individual rights and social obligations, which would resonate positively in the region. In the twenty-first century, global institutions will need to reflect the norms, values and practices of global society and not just Atlantic perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, through a comparative study of the roles Chinese and Indian diasporas in the United States play in the political economy of their respective homelands, explores the relationship between the diaspora and homeland development and how this dynamic relationship contributes to economic growth and foreign relations of the homelands. The author argues that the roles of Indian and Chinese diasporas in their respective homelands’ development consistently reflect, and are heavily influenced by, their homelands’ economic development strategies as well as political history and culture. The author also argues that the impact of the diaspora on the foreign relations of their homelands is conditional upon the state of bilateral relations between their homeland and the country of residence. This study raises issues for future research, such as the relationship between the diaspora and regime type of the homeland. The author concludes by suggesting that since activities of overseas Chinese and non-resident Indians provide a unique perspective in the comparative study of Chinese and Indian political economy, the two diasporas warrant more scholarly and policy attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]