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This paper examines how Chinese transnational investments, as (re)framed in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), contribute to changes in urbanisation processes in Southeast Asia. On the ground, the BRI becomes contextualised and intersects with local and national development trajectories. The growing presence of Chinese actors in the region intensifies urban dynamics, especially in secondary cities and emerging urban sites, where the BRI is used as a lever for local internationalisation strategies. The heterogeneous nature of the links between the BRI and various large urban projects is demonstrated on the basis of case studies involving changing consortia of private and public Chinese and Southeast Asian actors. A regional approach allows us to identify connections and shared processes across Southeast Asian countries. It provides a historically grounded understanding of how the BRI incorporates long‐term interactions with China and more recent partnerships in Southeast Asian countries. The paper paves the way for a research agenda that contests the image of China as a monolithic actor implementing the BRI uniformly and consistently. Further analyses are needed to examine systems and networks of actors as well as the local urban politics that affect the BRI on the ground. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has attracted wide scholarly attention. However, discussions among social scientists on BRI have largely premised on the academic infrastructure in English language contexts. Academic research on BRI in China has often been only briefly mentioned as background information in English language publications. This disjuncture between scholarship on BRI inside and outside China reflects the multiple geographies of BRI. Thinking through BRI in English and Chinese scholarship, this paper considers how existing and future factors such as funding sources, language politics, political framing of the research and institutional surveillance may yield different intellectual spaces for understanding the knowledge production of BRI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using China Migrants Dynamic Survey Project data from 2012 to 2018, this paper evaluates the causal impact of equalisation of basic public health and medical services on the long‐term urban settlement intentions of internal migrants by the difference‐in‐differences approach. The results reveal that the equalisation of basic public health and medical services has a negative impact on the long‐term urban settlement intentions of internal migrants of 4%. Male, middle‐aged, and unmarried internal migrants have a much stronger negative response, in terms of long‐term urban settlement intentions, to changes in basic public health and medical services. Moreover, more recent internal migrants, those in first‐tier cities and those in cities in eastern regions also have a much stronger negative response. Mechanism checks imply that the negative impact on the long‐term urban settlement intentions of internal migrants is caused by social integration decline after implementation of equalisation of basic public health and medical services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Viewing the Salween River as a transboundary commons, this paper illustrates how diverse state and non‐state actors and institutions in hybrid and multi‐scaled networks have influenced water governance in general, and large dam decision‐making processes in particular. Putting power relations at the centre of this analysis and drawing on the conceptual lenses of hybrid governance and critical institutionalism, we show the complexity of the fragmented processes through which decisions have been arrived at, and their implications. In the context of highly asymmetrical power relations throughout the basin, and the absence of an intergovernmental agreement to date, we argue that hybrid networks of state and non‐state actors could be strategically engaged to connect parallel and fragmented decision‐making landscapes with a goal of inclusively institutionalising the transboundary commons and maintaining connected local commons throughout the basin, foregrounding a concern for ecological and social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While internal migration in contemporary China ascribes a great change to urban China's demographic composition, social structures and economic development trajectories, it is yet to restructure the formal definitions of urban identity and belonging, which are still dominated by the household registration system (hukou). The paper suggests that as a result of changes in the political, economic, demographic and social contexts within which China's internal migration develops, there emerge a crucial need to re‐examine the crude forms of determining identity and belonging, questioning the addressing of spatiality within the existing mechanisms (such as hukou system or the shiminhua discourse). To do so, the paper argues that the existing de‐territorialisation of the migration experience has to be replaced with a more nuanced understanding of how spatial practices and conceptualisations shape migrants' experiences, as it is becoming imperative to develop a new framework that is more sensitive to migrants' lived process of identification and belonging, especially as these traverse multiple geographies and spatial scales. This close engagement with migrants' spatiality can then be used as a base from which to engage with a more complex view of migrants' spatial and social relatedness, as well as the development of their urban belonging and identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past several years, the creative reuse of brownfields has played a major role in Chinese cities to give their urban landscape a so-called second development. This paper analyses the governance of the brownfield restructuring in Guangzhou (Canton). The research is based on a study of the T.I.T Creative Industry Zone, a highly successful creative space currently in danger of demolition. This paper follows DiGaetano and Strom's () analytical governance framework. This approach allows for deciphering the complexities of decision-making through a well-structured set of interdependent categories. In Guangzhou, new policies and institutions have been promoting the restructuring and have contributed to the formalisation of public-private interactions. In general, this indicates a shift towards a more corporatist governance. However, the study of T.I.T reveals a rather intricate picture: the policymaking remains influenced by a top-down authoritative style - sometimes in an arbitrary manner - and to some extent also by particularistic exchanges. This indicates a complex mode of urban governance consisting of increasingly corporatist elements but still with managerial, and to a lesser extent, clientelistic elements. Finally, the coexistence of different governance modes seems to be a typical outcome of China's transition while still remaining more adaptive, experimental and flexible in nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims at discussing the rise of the green bonds in the context of the multilateral development banks, by problematizing their threats and potentialities to be an alternative to the existing financing system within the sustainable development agenda. It scrutinises the development rhetoric behind the emergence of multilateral development banks in the Global South, specifically in the Asian context, and attempts to foster alternatives to the Bretton Woods institutions. The two largest initiatives in that sense – the New Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank – started in Asia and also target countries in the region, giving the growing influence of China and the enhancement of interregional cooperation through the BRICS countries, currently led by China, India and Russia. The paper argues that there is limited scope for the promised innovations in both project assessment and the role of private capital, given the prioritisation of infrastructure as the premise to achieving the right to development among emerging and least‐developed economies. The research departed from the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the projects funded by the New Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, from their inception until 2018, considering the approach that such institutions have taken to the social and environmental standards from their normative framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of the individual is one of the most profound and significant evolutions of Chinese society that has accompanied economic reforms since the late 1970s. Existing research frequently uses a dual concept of 'individualist' versus 'collectivist' societies to approach the lives of urban Chinese. In the case of same‐sex attracted persons, as they often hide their sexual orientation in most of their social life and must respect social norms of filial piety and marriage, it is easy to conclude that today's urban China continues to be primarily a 'collectivist' society where the individual remains fragile. Using a long‐term ethnography of same‐sex attracted migrant men who gather in a public park to create a community of friends and invent some shared cultural and social traits, this paper proposes to deepen the analysis by borrowing the distinction between three different attitudes towards individualism developed by Michel Foucault. It will argue that these men actively construct specific spaces where they can live a private life, as well as experiment and explore their self. Therefore, these men display a more complex articulation between some aspects of a 'collectivist' ethos and the strengthening of individual traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper centres on analysing how return migrants' participation in online businesses impacts marital power dynamics in rural families alongside the rise of e‐commerce in rural China. During 2016 and 2017, I conducted an ethnographic study in a Chinese 'Taobao village' which I have termed 'Xinyi' whereby the majority of villagers make their livelihoods by selling furniture via the online marketplace Taobao. The boom of e‐commerce has attracted many migrants to return to the village and start their online businesses. Inquiring into whether and how rural women's increased access to online entrepreneurship challenges the gender norm that upholds male dominance in marriage, I delineate the power relations in 'Taobao families' within which rural women jointly operate online shops with their husbands. Drawing from my ethnographic data, I propose a conceptual framework incorporating the lenses of returnee entrepreneurship, flexible inner‐outer boundary and performance of gender to examine discrepancies between the gender norm that upholds gender hierarchy, and the practice regarding the husbands and wives' equal engagements in online merchandising. This framework is developed to shed a more positive light on the nuances of women's exercise of agency that entails nominal conformity to the gender norm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the intersection of state policies and local interests in allocating and managing resources in mountainous border areas of China and Thailand. These two states differ markedly in policies and approaches both to forests and to ethnic minorities on the periphery. The first section of the paper traces the history of policies in both countries for forested border areas and for forest-dependent ethnic minorities. The next section explores the evolution of property rights, land use, and the meaning of resources for one Akha village in China, and one in Thailand, in response to these dramatically different political economies. The final section considers some current outcomes for both the Akha and the local landscape as a result of these differing policy histories, and Akha strategies for claiming and using resources under these two regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the value-generating strategies used in some of New Zealand's primary activities in a rapidly changing trading context in which the countries of East Asia increasingly figure. These strategies range from scaling up volume, with a consequent conspicuous impact on rural landscapes, to innovative value-enhancing relationships linking producers, processors and consumers in processes which value landscapes for the contribution they make to provenance stories. Our argument is that higher-value strategies are necessarily more intensely collaborative and involve a pursuit of engaged relationships, especially between onshore producers and manufacturers and consumers at a distance. We term this collaborative form of strategising as 'the relationships economy'. We illustrate our argument using two case studies, dairying and merino. While there are great differences in scale between them, and dairying focuses significantly on volume-generating capacity, there are players in dairying who are adopting higher-value relationships-based approaches similar to those developed in the merino industry. The common thread connecting the case studies is that of intentional enactment, which echoes earlier periods in New Zealand's trading history when considerable work was undertaken by industry participants to create new markets for primary products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sudden events of crisis ('focusing events') trigger intense media reporting, which in turn can prompt political decision-makers to respond with an adjustment of existing policies. As such, focusing events can potentially lead to long-term policy change on a certain issue. This article explores the sudden and intense period of air pollution in Beijing in January 2013 as a focusing event. The episode, which international media referred to as 'Airpocalypse', triggered widespread discussion and policy adjustments that can be assumed to have accelerated the control of air pollution in China. The 'Airpocalypse' was not the first event of intense air pollution in Beijing, but the only one which seemingly caused lasting sociopolitical changes. The aim of this article is to explore the underlying situational factors that enabled the 'Airpocalypse' to be more relevant than other events of severe air pollution. This paper argues that a combination of historically high pollution, improved access to information, increasing government willingness to address the issue, and the ability of media to more openly discuss air pollution created a public pressure situation to which the government was prompted to respond in a stronger way than during previous events of heavy air pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving national average income and reducing regional income inequality often serve as dual goals of economic development in a country. After over twenty years of economic reforms, China has been fairly successful in achieving the first goal, but failed in the second. This paper uses recent data with a sharper resolution to examine the variation of average wages across Chinese cities 1989–1997. Widening wage inequalities across cities are observed during the period. This research also seeks to explain the variation of wages between cities by factors such as agglomeration (density and city size), location advantages (distances from central cities and from the coastline), educational attainment, industrial structure and administrative hierarchy. Many of the factors are found to be important in explaining wage differences in Western countries but are yet to be tested in China. Some factors such as distance from the coast, industrial structure and administrative hierarchy are considered because of China’s unique social and economic systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past three decades, we have seen a flourishing of scholarship which explores the emerging political spaces and variegated scales of governance in China. This research draws on political economic tradition to argue that the way in which cities and regions are governed is indeed infused with socio-political struggles which are proliferating at a range of spatial scales. Such theoretical interpretation is illuminating, but it has been subject to increasing criticism from the poststructuralist approach that views scale as an epistemological construct. This paper uses the Pearl River Delta Intercity Railway System (PRD-ICRS) as a case study to challenge the onesidedness of both the political economy tradition and the poststructuralist approach in reading scale. It employs the 'scale politics' thesis to argue that scale is more than a material existence (or institutionalised structure) that represents a particular arrangement of political power, being subject to perpetual transformation through regulatory projects and strategies. It is also a 'representation trope' deployed in political discourses to acquire persuasive power to frame and legitimise these projects and strategies. Scale is thus both material and discursive. Understanding the two moments of scale enables a fuller dissection of political transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's total floating population exceeded 245 million at the end of 2013 and is the largest mobile population in the world. This paper explores the spatial distribution pattern and change characteristics of the net floating population at county scale from 2000 to 2010 using census data. The results show the following: (1) the net floating population increased by 120 million over 10 years, and the mobility of the population had enhanced in this period; (2) the floating population migrated to the three economic zones and provincial capital cities, while the traditional agricultural regions with dense populations experienced continuous outflow of population (which altered spatial agglomeration patterns); (3) eastern China has a high level of natural environment suitability and was a major destination area, but more pressures were placed on the carrying capacity of big cities; and (4) western China, with a relatively weak carrying capacity for resources and environment, was a net outflow region in 2010 - although five provinces had small-scale net inflow because of western-style development strategies. This study is offered as a contribution to understanding the features of China's floating population and will be useful for those shaping policies that guide population migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the recent emergence of alternative food networks in China in the context of widespread food quality concerns. Drawing on interviews and public blog posts, we illustrate how participants in these networks are moving beyond instrumental market relations and developing the collective agency necessary to participate in shaping China's food system. We argue that the initiators and participants in these alternative food networks are not only individual shoppers who 'vote with their chopsticks', but are also nascent activists deploying grassroots community organising strategies. We reveal how these networks are using inclusive and reflexive processes to build diverse networks, how they are using internet communications to extend their reach, voice dissent and engage in nascent 'bottom up' policy formation, and how they are building influential connections and actively, but unofficially, expanding linkages to broader emancipatory spaces of global and social justice movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on extensive island examples with a view to offer 'creative' solutions to the ongoing dispute over the Diaoyu/Diaoyutai/ Senkaku Islands between China (and Taiwan) and Japan in the East China Sea. In spite of the rhetoric and apparent intractability of island conflicts, there are various examples from the past (and the present) that suggest how island disputes may be decided, and in 'win-win' ways, to the satisfaction of the different parties involved. The resolution of island territorial problems can benefit greatly from a critical appreciation of how other small islands, also contested, have had their situation resolved in non-zero-sum ways. In such cases, sovereignty has been shared, split/divided or expunged; in other cases, sovereignty disputes have been put aside in order to co-develop and co-exploit natural resources. There is also one example of a UNESCO World Heritage Site consisting of a string of small islands and surrounding waters whose management is shared between three countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Postdevelopment thinkers and writers have critiqued development discourse for its role in perpetuating inequality. In water, sanitation and hygiene ( WASH) literature and interventions, the discourse used perpetuates inequality through classing anything other than private toilets as 'without sanitation'. This implies that the people who use forms of hygiene and sanitation relying on collective toilets and alternative strategies are somehow unhygienic. Yet residents of Xining ( Qinghai Province, China) rely on hygiene assemblages that do not always include private toilets, but nonetheless still work to guard health for families with young children. In this paper, I develop a postdevelopment approach to hygiene and sanitation starting with the place-based hygiene realities already working to guard health in some way, then working to multiply possibilities for future discursive and material hygiene realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a recent research project into rural-urban labour migrants in Shanghai, China, who are members of ethnic minorities, inquiring into the role of ethnicity in national labour migration. It introduces some of the main features of the ethnic nationalities ( minzu) in China and considers some of the literature on rural-urban migration in China which may be considered as relevant to ethnicity. The case of a Miao minority family in Shanghai is described in detail to argue that what remains important to them in the city is not their formal ethnic affiliation ( minzu) so much as a sub-ethnic identity of connectedness and intimacy, importantly related to kinship and place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on a series of interviews with urban planners and government officials to examine the changing regional governance in the Yangtze River Delta. It finds that integration and collaboration are emerging and the growing economic benefits of intercity cooperation serves as a driver for local government to change from hostile competition to collaboration. Nevertheless, regional governance is far from established. Instead, regional transformations reflect the local politics of economic devolution and urban entrepreneurialism. Currently, there is no formal regional institution or coalition and the regional agenda is economic oriented and project based. Policies are formulated by individual cities rather than through multilateral negotiation between cities. The primary motive underlying the initiatives for cooperation is regional economic competitiveness rather than regional integration. Hence, the paper argues that emerging collaboration is far from being a substantial departure from inter-jurisdiction competition in the earlier phase of regional governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important contemporary driver of livelihood change in coastal Southeast Asia is the growing demand for luxury seafood in China. Based on fieldwork in the municipality of Balabac in Palawan province, western Philippines, this paper takes stock of this trend, and investigates the implications of the relationship between Chinese patterns of luxury seafood consumption and the intensification of coastal livelihoods in Southeast Asia. The paper focuses mostly on the trade in live reef fish, with reference also to sea cucumber and shark fin. In the light of recent discussions of social and environmental change in Southeast Asia, the paper addresses how the intensification of coastal livelihoods has manifested in important trends, including an increasing reliance on high-value commodity fisheries such as the trade in luxury seafood. Important consequences of this intensification of coastal livelihoods include environmental degradation, and social change due to the development of broader trading networks. The paper argues that the live reef fish for food trade is an important contemporary livelihood that highlights the ways in which Chinese consumption is having diverse social and environmental consequences for source countries in Southeast Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a long time, China has been focusing primarily on pursuing economic growth, with less concern about social and environmental development issues. This may make China's development unsustainable. In contrast to its current economic-oriented approach predominated by economic growth, this research note presents a newly proposed approach of 'major function-oriented zone' (MFOZ) that is designed by our research team and is largely accepted by the central government and incorporated into its 12th Five-Year Plan. This approach tries to rationalise China's regional development and insists that each region should have its unique functions to perform, determined by its own characteristics, conditions and requirements. With this approach, the central government is able to monitor and coordinate regional and local developments, and hence the 'Planning of MFOZ' is seen by the central government as a tool to steer spatial arrangements for the country's long-turn sustainable development. 摘要 长期以来，中国各地都着力于追求快速经济增长，较少关注社会发展和生态保护等问题，这种发展模式是不可持续的。本研究团队提出按照功能区进行国土空间组织，即不同地区应分别承担人口和工业化集聚、粮食安全保障、生态屏障建设等不同功能，实施差异化的发展模式。政策建议得到中央政府认可，主体功能区在'十二五'规划中上升为区域发展战略。本文在介绍主体功能区形成背景和研究框架基础上，对该团队在过去5年中所开展的研究工作进行阐释。包括发展类和保护类主体功能区分类、地域功能识别指标体系构成和内涵、采用单项指标评价和综合指标评价国土空间功能适宜性的缘由及结果、空间综合分析方法和主体功能区草案的研制等。最后简析主体功能区规划和战略实施的制度障碍，提出开展对主体功能区实施情况动态监测和评估的新研究命题。 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents an analysis of the economic relationship between the two most important economies in Asia. Over the last decades, the Chinese and Japanese economies have become more economically interdependent, a development which will, in the long run, impact the countries' political relationship. The paper seeks to answer the question: How can China and Japan gain from the current economic situation, further enhance their relationship and increase their synergies for regional economic development? Data on trade and Foreign Direct Investment are used in combination with primary data from interviews with Japanese and Chinese companies on how they perceive the current business situation and future potential. The result of the data analysis shows that the countries have much to gain from their economic interdependence. The firms see great potential in their respective markets but are concerned about political turbulence. Three possible scenarios for the future economic relationship are presented, including fierce competition on all markets and a leveraging of resources for mutual development between Chinese and Japanese companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper canvasses the port development of the Yangtze River Delta. Initially, we consider changes in container trade in the region since the 1990s. Competition between the ports of Ningbo and Shanghai are studied by measuring the overlapping hinterland of container distribution for Zhejiang province. We then analyse the strategies pursued by international carriers and terminal operators to secure success in this increasingly competitive environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the new urban poverty in China since the deepening of market-oriented reform in the 1990s and argues that the institutional process goes beyond recent market-oriented reforms. Poverty generation is driven by broad economic restructuring and transformation of welfare provision. De-industrialisation and decline in state-owned enterprises have generated a significant number of laid-off workers, forming the new urban poor who are simultaneously confronted with the transformation of welfare provision. The loss of workplace-based entitlement is a direct cause of their poverty or exacerbates their underprivileged conditions. For at least a significant proportion of new urban poor without the hope of returning to the mainstream labour market, the minimum living standard support programme in fact captures them at the edge of survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the emergence in China from the 1890s onwards of several distinct but interrelated interpretations of citizen and citizenship. It shows how these differing interpretations have drawn on a variety of political influences and traditions, some relating to the cultural and political worldview of late Qing and early Republican China, and some absorbed from Europe and Japan. It notes that they have acquired renewed potential during the last two decades or so, as elite groups in the Chinese People’s Republic attempt to construct new approaches to the state and society in the wake of the collapse of Maoist socialism and under the influence of market–orientated economic reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Owing to increased life expectancies and falling fertility, China will have not only the largest aged population but also the most rapid ageing process in the foreseeable future. The need to provide adequate and affordable support and care for the elderly has recently caused both scholars and policymakers concern. By analysing a 1992 sample of the aged in 12 provinces, this paper examines the support and care received by the elderly, focusing on living arrangements, economic security (income sources and levels), physical care, access to health services and emotional support. In the early 1990s old-age support in China was mainly provided by families, primarily through co-residence. The coverage of government-sponsored pension programmes was limited largely to city dwellers. Economically, physically and emotionally, most old people were well cared for, although the rural old and women were relatively disadvantaged. Rural elderly were more likely to still be engaged in productive activities, while old women were more likely than old men to be financially dependent on their children. Women played an important role as care-givers at home. However, the current familial system is under increasing pressure as the country's social and economic structure changes drastically. To meet the mounting challenge of the future, early and comprehensive strategies are needed to establish an old-age support system that brings into full play the state, local communities and individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Xishuangbanna, which is well known for its ethnic diversity, is located in the upper reaches of the Mekong River. Dai lowlanders make up one third of the total population, 13 other indigenous highland groups make up another third and the balance are Han Chinese. The research on which this paper is based was conducted in three villages, Dai, Hani and Jinuo communities and designed to explore the changing relationships between lowlanders and highlanders. It was found that over the past five decades two critical events triggered profound changes. One was liberation by the Chinese Communist Party in 1950, and the other the land and economic reform policies introduced at the beginning of the 1980s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the economic reforms launched at the end of the 1970s, China has experienced dramatic socioeconomic change which has led to the emergence of new and distinctive regions of economic interaction characterised by an extensive and intensive mix of agricultural and non-agricultural activities. This paper illustrates the nature and characteristics of these evolving Extended Metropolitan Regions (EMRs) by drawing on the experience of the Shenyang-Dalian urban corridor in Northeast China (Manchuria). The increased level of economic interaction between the cities and the countryside is characterised by accelerated labour and capital flows, rapidly expanding rural-urban commodity trade and subcontracting between urban and rural enterprises. The result is a rapid erosion of differences in the standard of living, economic function and life style between the city and the countryside. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is no consistent conclusion on the impact of improving the physical accessibility of medical facilities/resources on the utilisation of medical facilities and health outcomes, which may be due to neglecting the role of spatial cognition of physical facilities, which will be directly related to health behaviour and outcomes. This article uses China Migrants Dynamic Survey to examine the relationship between perceived accessibility of medical facilities and health and health behaviour. The results show that perceived accessibility is positively associated with health and related behaviour. The higher the perceived accessibility to the medical facilities, the better the subjective and objective health status of migrant residents. Similarly, the more positive the preventive and healthcare‐seeking behaviour is. This study suggests that public policymakers need to intervene in residents' spatial cognition of medical resources around their neighbourhoods to enhance the collective benefits of medical facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the interactions between subnational governments in influencing the Chinese national state in economic and spatial planning by focusing on two cases in south China, namely the pursuit of a new reform and development plan by Guangdong province in 2008 and Hong Kong's effort to position itself in China's 12th Five-Year Plan (FYP). The intergovernmental dynamics inside the Greater Pearl River Delta (PRD) can be interpreted as the policy advocacy and coordination of entrepreneurial local states in a fragmented, authoritarian polity. Guangdong province actively pursued central approval of the PRD's regional plan because central support is critical not only for approving specific projects but also for steering its development direction and providing a policy tool to impose coordination plans in order to achieve better regional coordination and resource allocation inside the Delta. The province has skilfully leveraged on Hong Kong to get central approval and delegation of power over pilot measures regarding Guangdong-Hong Kong economic cooperation. Similarly, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government's efforts to secure a privileged position for Hong Kong in the 12th FYP can be considered as a competitive positioning strategy in view of growing competition within the PRD and from other regions. 摘要 本文研究大珠三角地方政府间互动及中央政府在经济和空间规划的影响，并集中分析华南地区的两个案例--广东省政府于2008-2009年间提出改革和发展规划，以及香港争取中央政府在'国民经济和社会发展第十二个五年规划纲要'对其作出重要定位。大珠三角地方政府间的互动，可以被解读为在分割的权威体制下，具有企业型行为模式的地方政府对政策的推动和协调。广东省主动寻求中央政府批准珠三角发展和改革规划纲要，并非只为争取它对几个特定政策的支持。更重要的是，广东省政府旨在利用中央的支持推动本省所订立的政策和发展方向。中央支持更成为省政府的政策工具，使其能对珠三角内部的规划进行协调部署，从而实现更佳的区域合作与资源配置。广东省策略性地与香港联手争取中央支持，推动粤港经济合作的先行先试措施以及向省政府下放权力。同样地，香港特别行政区政府亦争取中央政府在第十二个五年规划中，对香港作出有利的定位。这可被视为香港在珠三角内外竞争不断加剧的环境中, 所采取的一种策略性行动。 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rise of cities as geographical units, intercity cooperation has been increasing worldwide. Benefits of regional city-to-city (C2C) cooperation can be seen in the political added value and added value of urban competitiveness. This paper focuses on the Jiangyin-Jingjiang Industrial Park in the Yangtze River Delta region as a case study to explore these benefits in regional C2C cooperation in China's local context. It is found that political added value is more effective and efficient in accelerating strategy formulation and partner selection within regional C2C cooperation. The added value of urban competitiveness is more crucial in regional C2C partnership maintenance serving as an internal driving force for sustainable C2C cooperation. In addition, intervention from the provincial government tends to consolidate the impact of urban competitiveness in regional C2C cooperation. The empirical study also sheds light on the dynamics of China's economic decentralisation, political centralisation and the market logic interwoven with state authority. 摘要 随着城市作为地理单元的崛起，城市间的合作正在全球范围内不断涌现。通过引入城市竞争力的视角，本文将区域城市间合作（Regional City-to-city cooperation）所带来的收益划分为政治附加值和城市竞争力附加值，并以长江三角洲地区江苏江阴-靖江工业园区为案例着重审视和探讨了中国本土语境下区域城市间合作的激励机制。本研究发现对于推动区域城市间合作战略的形成和伙伴城市的选择，政治附加值更加有效；而对于区域城市间合作关系的维系，城市竞争力附加值则更为关键。因此，城市竞争力附加值是可持续的城市间合作的内在推动力。本文的实证研究折射出转型期中国的经济分权与政治集中，以及市场逻辑与国家权利逻辑的相互交织。 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores two issues. First, it focuses on the question of what is the most appropriate theoretical framework for the study of the urbanisation process in China and Vietnam over the last 30 years? It is argued that Le Fefebvre's theory of the ‘production of urban space’ offers the most useful approach because the political economy it adopts helps identify the major driving forces in the urbanisation process in these formerly socialist societies. The second issue involves the investigation of the differences and similarities in the urbanisation process in the two countries that are engaged in similar processes of structural economic transformation. The conclusion suggests that despite historical and cultural differences between Vietnam and China, the urbanisation process in both countries is exhibiting converging features as both countries are adopting a form of ‘hybrid urbanisation’ that involves a combination of socialist and market economies that does not involve an inevitable move to ‘capitalism’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2002, China surpassed the USA to become the world's largest foreign investment destination. Many Chinese cities, especially those along the coast, have become hot spots for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). The urban development of these Chinese cities, as in most market societies, has increasingly depended upon their global connections. However, it is unclear to what degree the governments of these cities are able to influence the decisions of foreign investors. This paper uses Shenzhen city as a case study to examine how multi-nationals’ spatial and sectoral patterns have been changed over time and to what degree the local government has been able to influence multinationals’ locational and sectoral selection. It is concluded that Shenzhen has managed to create a strategy to maximise its ability to benefit from global economic forces and to attract multinational manufacturers in the locality, and particularly in increasing its target sector of technology-intensive industry. This case study demonstrates the importance of a strong city government in managing growth and reacting decisively to globalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the most populous country on earth with 10 per cent of its rare species of flora and fauna, China's environmental practice is of great importance. Already the country is one of the most polluted places in the world. At least seven out of the ten of the world's most polluted cities are located in China. It is the second largest producer of greenhouse gases after the United States, inflicting heavy, long-term casualties on its own public health and economic development as well as on those of its close neighbours in the Asia-Pacific region. How to strike a proper balance between environmental protection and fast economic growth will have an important impact on China's modernisation outcome and its international standing. The country began to pay serious attention to environment problems in the 1970s. Since the adoption of the reform and opening-up policy in the late 1970s, it has signed or ratified many international treaties dealing with environmental issues. By now, it has entered into most international environmental regimes. But how compliant is China with respect to commitments made to these regimes? How willing and capable is it in complying with international environmental norms and rules? What does sustainable development mean to China? How do red tape, fear, inexperience, and ignorance affect China's efforts to protect its environment? And how do inter-ministerial wrangling and the growth of green NGOs within China affect its compliance? This paper tries to answer these questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental and development discourses in China can be categorised into three narrative motifs framing human–nature relationships: peasant, indigenous, and community. Indigenous and community narratives have been widely adopted by environmental NGOs (eNGOs) in China in promoting community‐based natural resource management projects, but there has been very limited critical research on such phenomena. Analysis of socio‐economic change in two ethnic minority communities in Yunnan shows that neither narrative theme is fully internalised by the relevant communities. Instead narratives may be strategically modified or even rejected by local communities. This is due to different agendas being held by local communities and eNGOs, and two factors pertinent to rural China: the incompatibility of concepts of 'community' in Chinese and international contexts results in confusion, and a lack of recent territorial and cultural claims by rural communities since the collectivist era makes it difficult to construct the identity of a community. It remains challenging for eNGOs in China to advocate either community or indigenous narratives in contexts of rapid socio‐economic change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last decade has seen a marked rise in the phenomenon of the so-called stem cell tourism, whereby people travel from their home countries to access unproven stem cell treatments abroad. Despite increasing attempts on an international level from regulators, policy-makers and scientists to deter people from undergoing potentially harmful treatments, patient demand persists. Over the last decade, China has emerged as a leading destination for people seeking such treatments, where providers of treatments operate in varying 'shades of grey'. While Chinese government intervention has had some impact on the availability of treatments within China, top-down regulatory measures face limitations considering strong patient demand and the geographical flexibility demonstrated by both patients and providers. This article draws on interviews with Australian patients who have travelled to China for stem cell treatments, or considered it and decided against it, as well as representatives of stem cell clinics in China and other stakeholders. It argues that Australian patients and/or carers articulate a culturally situated moral imperative to act in the face of limited conventional biomedical options and that commercial clinics capitalise on this to attract new patients and sustain the demand - either 'underground' in China, or by moving to other jurisdictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study critically evaluates the relevance of the existing theory of technological innovation to the case of China's information and communications technology industry. Based on a large-scale questionnaire survey conducted in China's three most important city-regions, namely, Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, where the core of China's information and communications technology industry is located, this study reveals a significant regional variation in technological innovation in a political economy undergoing marketisation and globalisation. This research has found no significant relationship between the innovative performance of firms and the extent of production linkages; nor was there a significant knowledge exchange among firms. A further analysis has identified the significant role played by government purchases, research and development capital input and export propensity in the process of technological innovation. The findings of this research cast doubts over the prevailing theory of 'new economic geography' in which soft and unbounded relational assets have been overemphasised at the expense of some solid and bounded actors and agents that are pivotal to technological innovation in a developing economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although limited technology transfer among countries has occurred in the past 15 years or so, industrialised countries are unwilling to transfer their state-of-the-art technologies to less developed countries, for both political and economic reasons. As a result, China decided to speed research and development of its own high technologies and commercialise them by establishing in the late 1980s 52 High and New Technology Industry Development Zones. Through these zones achievements of scientific research could be transformed into competitive commodities and a new generation of entrepreneurs and competent managers could be bred. While China’s high technology development zones were modelled on the general concept of technopole, they are not exact duplicates of any of the three types of technopole that have been developed in the Western industrialised countries; they have distinct Chinese characteristics. This study also found that contrary to the popular belief, the high technology zones in coastal provinces as a whole do not perform much better than those in interior provinces. Instead, the majority of the zones that are located in provincial capital cities exhibited above-average performance. This suggests that capital cities in interior provinces can compete well with coastal cities in development of high-tech industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]