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Xuan paper is one of the most famous handmade papers in China and is an important paper for conservation. However, the evenness of Xuan paper has not yet received much attention. In this study, the distribution of the in-plane grammage and mechanical properties of Xuan paper are measured. It is found that the distribution of the in-plane grammage and mechanical properties of Xuan paper is uneven. In the handmade direction, the grammage and mechanical properties of Xuan paper are overall largest in the lower area, followed by the upper and middle areas. The sheet forming process of Xuan paper has an important effect on the distribution of in-plane grammage, mechanical properties, and fiber orientation of Xuan paper. The folded state has a negative effect on the mechanical properties of the folded area of Xuan paper. This study will help raise awareness of the unevenness in physical properties of Xuan paper, which is important in both conservation and research applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The not-so-bygone worlds of music and colonialism in the twentieth century have yielded a wealth of scholarly 'paper knowledge' in the twenty-first of which to build off new archival-musicological work. This article takes a particular archiving direction by turning to paper itself – and pivots the postcolonial pen around the texts and textures of re-engaging colonial history in postcolonial music scholarship. I explore these writing stakes through my adopted narrative of 'the post/colonial music archive', as shaped by paper and paper's sounding elements of tone and voice. Crisscrossing between the colonial moment and the postcolonial pen, I straddle this developing narrative of the archive, and the registers and inflections of extant source narration for what they can jointly vocalize about the music making of the Municipal Brass Band in 1930s treaty port Shanghai, and the Sino-British Club in postwar colonial Hong Kong – two ostensible musical worlds of 'Britain in China' in the twentieth century, here thrown into disarray by the post/colonial archive's own inchoate, counter-tales. Ultimately, in this process, postcolonial music scholarship gains further traction and meaning as a multi-articulating inquiry – and a turn of mind that does not let colonial history and its persistent challenges for writing go askew. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study is aimed toward examining the attention received by research papers through social and electronic media in business research. In recent years, altmetrics has emerged as a complementary measure of the impact of research works besides citation analysis and bibliometrics. Using the altmetric attention score (AAS) the paper is the first research of its kind to shed light on the characteristics of 100 papers receiving the highest online attention. Various predictors of online engagement with articles in business research journals having an impact factor greater than 6 are discussed. Data was collected from the Dimensions.ai database and analyzed using R statistical software. It is found that the Journal of Business Ethics contributed maximum papers with the highest AAS followed by the Journal of Business Research. Using the Kruskal-Wallis rank-sum test it was determined that AAS in business research is dependent upon article type, topics, and journal of publication. Most of the papers in high impact factor business journals have been contributed by the authors of USA, UK and China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to clarify which types of research is more conducive to improving innovation performance, we use the panel data of key universities in China from 2009 to 2017 for empirical research. The results show that basic research intensity is significantly positive correlated with innovation performance, while paper influence, patent novelty plus the interaction between paper influence and patent novelty are all playing a mediating role between basic research intensity and innovation performance. Furthermore, we use applied research intensity, experimental development intensity and provincial panel data for variables substitution and sample subdivision to carry out robustness test, clarifying the functional mechanism and the heterogeneity of boundary conditions between different types of research intensity and innovation performance. Relevant conclusions are of great theoretical and practical value for optimising the allocation of S&T resources and enriching the theoretical system of innovation research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article collected papers published by Chinese archaeologists in Chinese and World core journals (CCJs and WCJs for short) in the past century. Based on bibliometric analysis, the general characteristics and trends of Chinese archaeology were summarized. In a macroscopic perspective, historiography-rooted archaeology focusing on historical periods and central areas of China and preferring traditional archaeological methods (mainly a culture-historical paradigm) will continue to occupy a leading position in China. Simultaneously, interdisciplinary research and internationalisation will likely continue to develop and diversify Chinese archaeology, though the speed is unknown due to the impact of the pandemic. In comparison, more attention needs to be paid to theoretical research and to publishing more results of historical archaeology in WCJs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is the largest importer of waste paper in the world and is highly dependent on the international market. Thus, the relationship between Chinese and international waste paper markets affects the supply of fiber materials in China's paper industry. This study examined the dynamic relationship between the two markets and the impact of newly implemented policies on both markets. We used unit root tests, cointegration test, vector error correction model (VECM) and frequency-domain Granger causality test to investigate the integration between Chinese and international waste paper markets and identify which of the two markets is the price leader. The results revealed that the two markets were integrated after controlling for structural breaks, and the Chinese market acted as the price leader. Since the supply of waste paper and wood pulp is insufficient in China to meet the fiber demand of the paper industry, waste paper import restrictions have significantly affected the supply of fiber materials in China's paper industry. Therefore, the Chinese government should fully consider the benefit of market integration and make full use of international waste paper resources to satisfy the large domestic demand for paper products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the newly published autobiography of Yang Yi, a renowned English-to-Chinese translator in modern China. The autobiography provides insights into social life in China and presents a left-elite historical narrative of the Republic of China. Yang's autobiography covers her family background, education, interactions with famous writers, and her experiences during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The article highlights the importance of Yang's autobiography as a primary source for understanding the history of modern China, particularly in relation to the elite society and the history of sexuality. [Extracted from the article]

To determine the occurrence of mineral oil hydrocarbons (MOH) in food contact papers in China, and to investigate the potential sources of MOH contamination, a total of 159 food contact papers and raw materials were analysed by off-line solid-phase extraction-gas chromatography flame ionisation detection (SPE-GC-FID) and a GC-MS method. The migration of MOH from food contact papers into Tenax, olive oil or 50% ethanol under the worst foreseeable conditions of use was determined. The results indicated that the occurrence of MOH in China is of a potential health risk concerning the migration of mineral oil saturated hydrocarbons (MOSH) and mineral oil aromatic hydrocarbons (MOAH) which were detected in 82.6% and 50.4% of samples, respectively. Migration of MOSH from 47.9% of samples was higher than 2 mg/kg and migration of MOAH from 32.2% samples exceeded 0.5 mg/kg in case of the worst foreseeable condition of use. The highest mean migration of MOSH and MOAH were found in packaging papers for long-term storage (more than 6 months), with mean migration of 91.2 mg/kg and 1.4 mg/kg, respectively. Migration of MOH from printed paper was considerably higher than that of unprinted paper, validating previous findings that the printing ink is the predominant source of MOH contamination in food contact papers. Migration of MOH from paper bowls used for packing instant noodles was relatively low, suggesting the internal hollow layer may be acting as a functional barrier that could block the transfer of MOH (up to C28) through the gas phrase, even though the outer layer was made from recycled paper. High concentrations of MOSH and MOAH were also detected in de-foamers, adhesives and rosin sizing agents, indicating that the MOH contamination caused by the use of raw materials and additives should also be taken into consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research calculated the waste paper recovery rate, and analyzed the main factors influencing waste paper recovery rate in China with time series data from 1970 to 2012. The consequent recovery rate and utilization rate of waste paper show that the recovery of paper products has been experiencing a rapid growth in China, but it cannot meet the domestic need. The empirical analysis proves that demand is the main driver to stimulate the increase of waste paper recovery rate in China; the increased average GDP per capita and proportion of waste paper pulp are two other important factors; the increased urbanization rate does not exert significant influence. In the circumstance of insufficient timber supply, the policy of eliminating straw pulp capacities for paper-making indusrty improves the recovery rate of waste paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Xu Lanjun's book, "Ertong yu zhanzheng: Guozu, Jiaoyu ji dazhong wenhua" (Chinese Children and War: Nation, Education and Mass Culture), explores the reinvention of childhood in modern Chinese literature and culture during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The book examines how war propaganda and political ideologies shaped the conceptualization of childhood and the integration of children into the war experience. Xu analyzes various child-oriented literature and media, highlighting the blurred boundaries between children and adults and the role of children in nation-building. The book also discusses the connection between Chinese children's culture and war discourses during the Cold War and in Sinophone society. While the book could benefit from further exploration of age awareness, it offers valuable insights into the cultural construction of childhood in wartime China. [Extracted from the article]

China is highly concerned about its global image and is thus increasingly active in promoting itself globally. The most prominent and most controversial tool of China’s global image management is the Confucius Institute (CI). Launched in 2004 to introduce Chinese language and culture globally, CIs are normally joint ventures between Chinese and international universities, and are partially funded by the Chinese government. These close links with official China have raised concerns about their aims and have triggered heated debates about their intentions. While proponents describe CIs as a benign instrument of cultural exchange, critics define them as the propaganda arm of the Chinese Communist Party. This paper provides empirical evidence related to these debates as it critically engages with the actual content CIs present to their audiences by analysing internal work reports from 50 CIs in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. The paper outlines the specific narratives CIs present to global audiences and finds a clear agenda to present an apolitical version of China by emphasising elements of traditional Chinese culture and mostly avoiding controversial political topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PurposeMethodology/approachFindingsResearch implicationsPractical implicationsOriginality/value/contribution of the paperThere is no doubt that technology impacts organizational processes and key performance. However, the success of an organization is influenced by the openness and willingness of staff to accept a specific technology. This study focuses on B2B marketing employees and aims to determine employee readiness and acceptance of new technology based on the impact of technology characteristics on employee perceptions with an ensuing effect on technology readiness and technology acceptance.This study employed the Stimulus-Organism-Response theory, and made use of views pertaining to Technology Readiness Index (TRI), Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), and Task-Technology Fit (TTF). Thus, the study investigated the impact of functionality, reliability, compatibility, and innovative features on perceived technological usefulness, task-technology fit, and trust in technology, and, further, their influence on technology readiness and technology acceptance. An online questionnaire was employed to collect data from B2B marketing employees in China working in companies that introduced at least one new technology for work purposes in the last 24 months. Based on a convenience sampling method, 450 valid questionnaires were collected. PLS-SEM was used to analyze the data.Functionality, reliability, compatibility, and innovative features had significant positive effects on perceived technological usefulness and task-technology fit. Functionality, reliability, and compatibility had significant positive effects on trust in technology. Among the four technology characteristics, the strongest influence was recorded in the case of compatibility on task-technology fit, while innovative features represented the only variable that displayed a non-significant relationship with an employee perception and trust in technology. Task-technology fit had significant positive impacts on perceived technological usefulness, trust in technology, technology readiness, and technology acceptance. Perceived technological usefulness and trust in technology displayed significant positive effects on technology readiness and technology acceptance. Among the three B2B marketing employee perceptions, the strongest relationship was the one between task-technology fit and trust in technology. Technology readiness had a significant positive influence on technology acceptance. Mediating effects were also computed, with indirect effects complementing the direct ones. Task-technology fit partially mediated the effects of functionality, reliability, compatibility, and innovative features on trust in technology. Trust in technology partially mediated the effects of task-technology fit on technology readiness and technology acceptance. Technology readiness partially mediated the effects of perceived technological usefulness and trust in technology on technology readiness. Innovative features, displaying a non-significant effect on trust in technology, had an indirect effect on it through task-technology fit.This study proposes a new research vein on B2B marketing employee technology adoption by investigating technology readiness and technology acceptance as dependent variables, as well as the impact of the former on the latter. Moreover, this research defined B2B marketing employee perceptions as perceived technological usefulness, task-technology fit, and trust in technology by combining two theories, TAM and TTF and arguing the importance of trust in technology in explaining employee behavior regarding technology usage. Trust in technology could compensate for lack of technology and build positive expectations about the effects of technology use, thus, acting as a trigger to adopt technology. Additionally, the selection of the characteristics of technology had as roots user perceptions, thus, integrating the two research streams on the impact of technology found in the literature, the user-centered and the technology-centered.B2B marketing managers can make use of the research findings by making sure that an implemented technology renders benefits connected to functionality, reliability, compatibility, and innovative features, as all of them were perceived by B2B marketing employees to be useful, supportive in meeting job requirements and being prerequisites of trust in technology. Managers should emphasize the matching between job requirements and technology features as compatibility, task-technology fit, and trust in technology showed the strongest connections. If employees understand that technology helps them in doing their jobs, they will build trust in technology and will be open to engage with technology and adopt it.The paper proposes a new avenue of exploring technology usage behavior. To this aim, the paper presents a model built on SOR, adding to the literature a different perspective. The stimuli (S) were technology characteristics built from the literature to match the four independent variables of TRI, namely optimism, innovativeness, discomfort, and insecurity. The organism variables (O) were drawn from TAM, adapting perceived usefulness from the model perceived, from TTF making use of task-technology fit, and adding trust in technology to these two in order to form employee perceptions on new technology. TAM and TTF were combined to document the appropriateness to use task-technology fit over perceived ease of use, moving the focus from the effort entailed to use the technology onto the matching between a job requirement and the technology. As responses (R), technology readiness and technology acceptance were used, combining dependent variables used in TRI and TAM. It is probably for the first time that these two variables are investigated so comprehensively in the same model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inclusive education is a key global agenda that is primarily driven by concern for children's rights. In China, the term is a translated, introduced, foreign concept. The localised practice of inclusion is encapsulated in the policy of Learning in Regular Classrooms, which not only adopts the narrow sense of inclusion for children with disabilities, but it is also dominated by the medical model of disability. An explicit rights-based philosophical foundation for inclusion that is widely accepted and internalised by local Chinese teachers and schools appears largely absent. This paper explores how Confucianism as a moral philosophy may be compatible with the rights discourse and may provide the necessary moral strengths and philosophical base to support inclusion in Chinese schools. The conclusion highlights the needs to pay attention to how teachers' deeper values, motivation, and drives can facilitate inclusive efforts, and also calls for a more explicit human rights discourse to develop in China in the long term. This paper explores the possibility of using the moral philosophy of Confucianism, rather than relying on the explicit language of human rights, to offer theoretical advocacy for inclusion in China. The rich legacy of Confucianism may offer the necessary moral strengths and philosophical convictions for Chinese teachers and schools to become inspired and empowered to take more inclusive initiatives in a bottom-up approach. Confucianism as a moral philosophy is compatible with the international human rights discourse. While a more explicit human rights discourse in China needs time to develop, Confucian principles such as datong (great harmony), ren (benevolence), as well as its educational believes and human rights ideas, may offer readily-available and more accessible inspiration and support for the inclusive education for children with disabilities in line with the social and human rights models. Re-examining traditional cultural values may shed light on modern effective teaching practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current triad competition between the US, the EU, and China, globalization-relevant infrastructures serve both as the means and ends of conflicts. This paper asks how this historical constellation of geoeconomic competition has changed the infrastructure policy of its centers. Its political-economic perspective discusses infrastructures not just in terms of their strategic instrumentalization, but also of their role in global production and geoeconomic competition. It underlines how infrastructures serve as fixes that counteract internal crisis dynamics and allow for an expansion of productive activity. The paper undertakes an empirical comparison of the triad centers' central infrastructural measures and flagship projects. The results highlight a shared reorientation towards infrastructure policy that is driven by internal crisis dynamics and external competition over contested markets. Yet, it also reveals the varieties of infrastructural approaches as regards political objectives, modes of policy-making, and the role of national businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines disabled people's digital political engagement in China, which is a largely overlooked issue. Current studies about disability politics often focus on manifest political behaviours in western democratic societies, while the literature on technologies and China lacks the examination of everyday politics of specific identity groups, such as disabled people. This paper attempts to fill the gaps with a broader framework of political engagement. Based on long-term ethnographic observation and in-depth interviews, the paper presents a variety of political activities in China's cyberspace, including everyday presence, campaigning for policy changes, networking for disability constituencies, and organised online activism. These suggest both latent and manifest forms of political engagement, which are equally 'worthy' in understanding disability politics in China. The forms also interact with each other to build Chinese disability politics in the digital world. New information and communication technologies, such as the internet, have changed the ways we engage in politics. However, how the technologies have been used by Chinese disabled people for politics is a missing topic. The paper uses a broader framework to examine disabled people's online political engagement. The findings suggest a variety of activities that have explicit or implicit relations to disability politics. The study found Chinese disabled people use the internet to document their everyday life, and, to interact with others and create disability groups. These activities suggest no obvious political targets. The study also found actions with clear political purposes, for example personal or group activities to aim to change discriminative policies. The paper argues all these forms of engagement are meaningful. They interact with each other and contribute to the building of disability politics in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many regions or countries seek to transition to a low-carbon economy, but there is ambiguity about how carbon emissions change with economic growth. This paper captures characteristics of carbon emissions in China using the Tapio Method. To detect driving factors of carbon emissions in economic growth, we adopt the Log-Mean Divisia Index decomposition method. The results of the paper are as follows: (1) Economic growth in most regions of China has outpaced the growth rate of carbon emissions, showing the characteristics of decoupling. (2) Metropolitan cities have a greater impact on the level of decoupling in neighboring provinces and municipalities. (3) The decoupling of carbon emissions from economic growth is caused by declining energy intensity in China. (4) The energy mix and industrial structure have little impact on the growth rate of carbon emissions. In addition, some policy implications are summarized according to the findings of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we evaluate the role of the high speed railway (HSR) project, one of the largest transportation infrastructure projects in the world, in poverty alleviation in China. This study combines county-level data from the China County Statistical Yearbooks with HSR data from the China Railway Yearbooks. The method of difference-in-differences is applied to examine the HSR connection effect on government expenditure in poverty alleviation across Chinese poverty counties over the period of 2010-2018. The results show that the HSR connection has a significantly positive impact on reducing government expenditure in poverty alleviation. Our results, which are based on alternative measurement of poverty alleviation and possible bias arising from endogeneity issue, are robust. This paper highlights that HSR can help achieve accessibility of rural area and poverty alleviation simultaneously. An understanding of the effect is critical for policymakers to promote intra-regional development, balancing efficiency and regional equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More and more Chinese enterprises have participated in the Belt and Road initiative (BRI) since its launch in 2013. However, have they all actually benefited? Which companies otherwise have benefited most from the plan? To answer these questions, this paper analyzes the impact of the BRI on Chinese enterprises. Among several findings, it reveals that the performance of companies remained low even though the initiative policy initially stimulated performance, the performance of enterprises depends on the geographical location of enterprises and that the returns of China's outward foreign direct investment in various industries became more volatile with only the mining industry enjoying better returns. Thus, the paper shows that the BRI offers Chinese enterprises opportunities but also brings challenges for companies to optimize the allocation of their resources and improve the performance of their investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Income inequality had been one of the important manifestations of social inequality, which can affect the health level by affecting savings, health care and living standards. Existing researches about the relationship between income inequality and health ignored the comprehensive characteristic of health concept, and did not consider the intrinsic relationship between health and income inequality. This paper attempts to re-shed light on the relationship. Firstly, this paper constructs a new health level evaluation system from three aspects: health basis, health environment and behavior, and health security. By means of the combination evaluation method, the health levels can be obtained. Then, considering the interaction between health and income inequality, a simultaneous equation group model is constructed to empirically test the relationship between income inequality and health levels in China. The results reveal that health level is negatively correlated with income inequality. Reducing income inequality plays an important role in improving health levels in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an overview of the trade in artists' materials in Canton between 1750 and 1842. Through an investigation of China's foreign trade archives and records, this study gives a picture of international trade in artists' materials, particularly pigments, during this period in Canton. Furthermore, it reveals a close trade in Western modern pigments between the West and China. The results of this research may be helpful to conservators and conservation scientists conducting treatments or technical studies on Chinese export paintings of this period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the ideology of pro-work conservatism prevails in East Asia, scholars have largely overlooked its discursive construction in media communication from a linguistic perspective. This paper examines the discursive construction of pro-work conservatism in 3,000 Weibo posts with the most "likes" in response to China's implementation of the three-child policy. Using the sociosemantic approach as an analytic framework, the paper finds that three dominant themes underpin the discourse of pro-work conservatism: women's sacrifice in the labour market, the high cost of raising children, and gender-essentialist norms. This discourse is articulated in the posts via a number of discursive strategies, including authorization, morality, and rationalisation. This paper sheds light on the influence of the one-child policy and the awakening of feminist consciousness in the new era and highlights the implications of language use in shaping gender-role ideologies to influence public perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past years, human computer interaction (HCI) research and innovation have developed substantially, leading to a number of fruitful research topics. In this paper, we surveyed the HCI research and innovation in China from a 10-year perspective. We analyzed the popular research methodology and topics among Chinese researchers, including human modeling, user interface techniques, context awareness, user acceptance and performance, user experience design, human-AI interaction, HCI applications and social influences. We also conducted a bibliography analysis on the published papers in top-tier conferences and journals, which revealed a significant rising trend, and a generally broad distribution of research types. Moreover, we described typical applications and the industry influence of the research outcomes. We concluded with implications and reflections for HCI researchers across the world and shared the future research trends envisioned by Chinese researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as an innovative technology with the potential to revolutionize various industries including libraries and information science. Academic libraries are increasingly adopting artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance services, improve efficiency, and enhance user experience. This study utilizes a bibliometric approach to comprehensively analyze current research on AI in academic libraries (AI in ALs). This study employed bibliometric indicators to identify key trends, patterns, and research gaps in the existing literature. A comprehensive dataset of 373 research papers on AI in ALs published between 2002 and 2022 was collected and analyzed using the Scopus database. Various bibliometric tools, such as Biblioshiny, VOSviewer, and BibExcel, have enhanced this analysis. The findings of this study provide important insights. By 2022, there were 64 publications, constituting 17.16% of the total corpus, accompanied by 65 citations. In contrast, 2019 witnessed only 33 publications yet accumulated a substantial number of citations, amounting to 294, representing 8.85% of the overall citations. Conference papers exhibited the highest frequency among different publication types, with 165 publications, whereas journal articles had the highest citation count, accumulating 217 citations. Geographically, China emerged as the leading contributor with 119 publications, and Wuhan University stood out as the most prominent affiliation. Notably, the "Lecture Notes in Computer Science" series emerged as the most prolific source title, publishing 15 articles, of which eight were cited. The authors Wang J., Wang C., and Wang X. from China demonstrated significant contributions, consistently publishing four papers annually from 2010 to 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the application of intergenerational theory as its analytical framework, this paper seeks to provide new insights into the social construction of sugar-sweetened food and food practices in the context of contemporary urban China, drawing on 16 months' in-depth qualitative research in the city of Chongqing. From an intergenerational perspective, it argues that although adults and children both typically construct sugar-sweetened food as "bad" for health based on the logic of its biological meaning, there are more generational differences in the understandings of sociocultural meanings associated with these foods, which are the main reasons may lead to intergenerational conflict. Caregivers tend to regard their control of children's sugar-sweetened food intake as a means to discipline their children's bodies and develop food moralities. However, children themselves are likely to perform sugar-sweetened food practices as a way of socializing and sometimes resisting the control of caregivers. Based on this, this paper further shows that these diverse views are rooted in the tension between caregivers' anxiety about the transmission of food moralities through intensive parenting practices and children's agency in food consumption in contemporary urban China. These findings enhance intergenerational-theoretical research and highlight the need to move beyond the analytical framework of "behaviour change" in related food and health studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sales performance is one of the critical roles in boosting firm performance, making motivating salespeople a concern for many managers. However, few existing studies on sales performance improvement from the holistic perspective exist. Based on triadic reciprocal determinism, this paper explores the combinations of the factors that may influence sales performance. Based on matching questionnaires from 154 salespeople and their supervisors, this paper employs fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to delve into the inherent complexity of factors influencing sales performance. The results revealed that a combination of personal (family motivation, challenge stress and hindrance stress), behavioral (adaptive selling behavior) and environmental factors (organizational innovation climate and business environment) determine sales performance. Specifically, three paths lead to high sales performance, and one path leads to non-high sales performance. Significantly, the path with an organizational innovation climate can explain high sales performance more effectively than other paths. This paper makes a valuable contribution to the literature on B2B sales literature by exploring triadic reciprocal determinism. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first fsQCA attempt to address sales performance based on Chinese samples. This paper offers an essential basis for sales managers to plan sales strategies. The sales managers could refer to the three paths leading to high sales performance to achieve sales targets. Further, the one path leading to non-high sales performance should be avoided in strategy decision-making. The paper examines different approaches to achieving high and non-high sales performance using the fsQCA method, which offers a unique and relevant perspective on B2B sales literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is the largest paper producer and consumer in the world. However, China's paper industry is inefficient in its consumption of natural resources. Whereas the proportion of wood pulp used by the paper industry in developed countries is up to 63%, the corresponding figure for China is only 23%, leading to high energy and water consumption and severe environmental pollution. This article presents a systematic risk analysis using life cycle assessment and carbon footprint calculation associated with China's straw-pulp and wood-pulp paper industries. Risk prevention measures are proposed based on the results of this analysis. The study has important ramifications for the sustainable development of China's paper industry. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper constructs a unique dataset of clean energy and collects firm-level green innovation data that matches it with provinces and cities. Then, this paper executes quasi-natural experiments on green innovation to examine the effects of China's emission trading policy on green innovation. Further, this paper introduces the interactive terms of the pilot time and pilot area dummy variables into the spatial Durbin model (SDM) and spatial dynamic panel model (SDPM) to construct quasi-natural experiments to examine the spatial effect. The findings confirm a negative association between the 'policy treatment effect' and green innovation. The results also indicate a significant negative association between the emissions trading policy and clean energy. Besides, the empirical results reveal a positive correlation between clean energy and green innovation; clean energy promotes green innovation in the region and the surrounding areas. This paper complements existing research and provides empirical evidence and policy implications for developing clean energy, promoting green innovation, and improving the emission trading policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore what the travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic reveal about the changing geographies of mobilities and the making of homo sacer, the latter constituted through differentiated control of mobilities. Implemented to protect U.S. public health, travel restrictions imposed on travelers from Mainland China during the early days of the pandemic exemplify how sovereign power that declares a state of emergency and creates bare life can be readily applied to groups of people who previously had privileged access to global mobility. In this sense, bare life does not refer to fixed and disadvantaged social categories but is rather contingently and contextually constituted, through the works of hybrid sovereign regimes. At the same time, however, these travelers are not reduced to a state of zero-agency but reside within a liminal space between soft and hard cosmopolitanisms, as they can still deploy agency and cosmopolitan capital to achieve certain degrees of mobility. By examining how Chinese travelers navigated various travel restrictions and the constantly changing policies to travel to the U.S., this paper explores new spaces of exception and forms of bare life, and argues that homo sacer is dynamically, relationally and recursively constructed, both through apparatus of control and the agency of travelers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While enjoying the respect and prestige in some countries, in others, despite being a significant educational sector, vocational education continues to suffer from low status and negative societal sentiments. Vocational education in China has been positioned at the bottom of the educational hierarchy, absorbing the 'left-over' students with 'less good' academic records. Addressing the research gap concerning the limited philosophical discourses about the academic/vocational divide from non-Western traditions, this paper seeks to explore the philosophical and historical heritage of the academic/vocational divide and how Confucianism may contribute to this divide and shaped the hierarchy of work in China. The Confucian literati, as 'the privileged other', determined the social rank of 'those who labour with their strength' and 'those who labour with their minds' through the Imperial Examination System. By using institutional logics theory, the paper explores how the legacy of these views may have negatively impacted on the standing of occupations and vocational education in contemporary Chinese society and argues that an alternative philosophical orientation is needed to counter the long-standing consequences for vocational education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the Chinese party-state's production of visual racism towards Uyghurs as a discursive foundation for its ethnic policy, as globally reproduced and disseminated by non-state actors. The paper draws from theoretical literature on the relationship between visual politics and affect, stressing the need for visual literacy to reflect on how images emotionally affect audiences' identities and insecurities. It focuses this analysis on education texts in China's post-2012 'de-extremification' and 're-education' campaigns, specifically on how images tell stories about life-or-death security issues that define Chinese identity. Chinese education about Uyghurs tends to frame Uyghur identities as racialised, culturally external existential threats to be defeated by state violence or teaching them to be Chinese. However, Uyghurs' own visibility strategies in global advocacy counter the party-state's imagery by centring their lives and experiences. The article shows how these strategies can be used as resources for teaching about Chinese politics and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper integrates trade policy and foreign direct investment into a unified analytical framework, and investigates the effects of input trade liberalization on the entry of foreign firms. To identify the causal effects, we utilize China's accession to the WTO in 2001 as a quasi-natural experiment, and perform difference-in-difference estimation. The results show that input trade liberalization significantly increases foreign entry. We also find that input trade liberalization not only promotes the entry of new foreign firms, but also restrains the exit of existing foreign firms, thereby contributing to the net growth of the number of foreign firms. The mechanism tests show that increasing variety as well as quality of intermediate input and reduction in marginal cost are the potential channels through which input trade liberalization promotes foreign entry. This paper further demonstrates that institutional environment strengths the positive effect of input trade liberalization on foreign entry, and the promotive effect of input trade liberalization on foreign entry increases with industry import intensity, additionally, input trade liberalization is also conducive to improving the quality of foreign investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the legal policy of nuclear damage compensation laws. As a specialised sector of nuclear law, the legal regimes on nuclear civil liability aim to provide timely and effective compensation to third parties, while also addressing the special policy concern of ensuring the sustainable development of the global or national nuclear industry. The paper examines the international methods of establishing major principles of liability with the corresponding rules and regimes to balance the interests of the parties involved. Comparatively, there is great uncertainty surrounding Chinese rules and principles of nuclear liability. Therefore, this paper suggests accelerating the enactment of a Chinese law specifically addressing nuclear damage compensation, aligning it with the national strategy and prospects of civil nuclear energy in China. Additionally, issues closely related to nuclear damage compensation, such as nuclear insurance policies, operation and supervision of national public funds and the use of alternative dispute resolution to settle nuclear disputes, are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper contributes to the growing debate about how China drives change in institutions and norms of global governance. It analyses the case study of China's approach to transnational voluntary sustainability standards as concrete tools of Western-sponsored green value chain initiatives, between integration and contestation. Engaging international political economy scholarship, the paper shows that China participates in such initiatives by reshaping their focus away from contested market-based approaches to more internationally consensual state-led ones. This stance indicates that China's reshaping of international norms and institutions conveys claims made by Global South alliances. These alliances are increasingly important for China, not only politically and militarily but also economically and for the success of key initiatives, like the Belt and Road Initiative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a conceptual and analytical framework of states' legitimacy-seeking to comprehensively investigate the motivation behind China's climate and environment policy. While previous research has largely overlooked political factors that underlie China's climate policy, this paper argues that these factors are crucial in understanding China's policy changes, which are evident at both domestic and international levels. By examining sources such as government documents, leaders' speeches and authoritative literature, this study contends that China's climate change initiatives are part of a broader effort to enhance domestic and international legitimacy. The issue of climate change has become highly politicised in China under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, and it serves as a crucial test of the ruling party and the state's capacity to govern effectively. As such, legitimacy-seeking is the key driver that links China's domestic measures and international commitments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the impact of internet use on entrepreneurship activities. This is based on 2014 survey data from China Family Panel Studies (CFPS). The results show that internet use promotes the entrepreneurial tendency of Chinese entrepreneurs and affects their income levels. Moreover, such influences are moderated by the location of individuals; the impact is higher for the entrepreneurial tendency and income levels of rural residents than that of urban ones. In addition, this paper also finds that internet use stimulates entrepreneurship by promoting social networks. Furthermore, social networks bring more salient impacts to rural residents as compared to those of urban ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines Philippine foreign policy under the Duterte government (2016–2022). During this period, Philippine foreign policy is widely acknowledged to have undergone dramatic shifts, with the government making friendly overtures towards China at the cost of its traditional alliance with the US. From a foreign policy analysis perspective, this paper explicitly focuses on the role of political leadership in guiding national foreign policy. This paper argues that the Duterte government made strategic use of political marketing in promoting its populist foreign policy. Thus, political marketing is used as an analytical lens with which to examine much of the rhetoric and behaviour of the Duterte government, particularly in regard to its response to the US–China rivalry. By engaging in this supposedly diplomatic game, the Duterte government tried to sell its foreign policy promises and outcomes as products even when its rhetoric was at times disconnected from its actual performance. Overall, this paper develops an alternative perspective from which to add to our understanding of the role of populist foreign policy initiatives in a fragile democratic setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 'China threat' has been identified as an important driver of Japan's security agenda and discourse. The threat posed by China has been discussed either as a given factor determining the trajectory of Tokyo's security approach, as a product of identity construction, or as an expression of securitizing processes that facilitate institutional and policy change. This paper contributes to this debate by offering an alternative explanation of the process through which the Abe government constructed China as a threat. Building on securitization theory, the paper examines the modes and strategies employed by the Abe Administration to successfully securitize China. The paper argues that, while Beijing was labeled a 'concern' rather than an 'existential threat,' it was still securitized through a process of securitization that involves an association with those domains in which China engages assertively, namely the maritime commons. The paper suggests calling this type of securitizing pattern 'transversal securitization' and explores how this indirect strategy allowed the Abe government to pragmatically pursue its objectives both domestically and at the international level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This conceptual paper takes a dynamic view of culture to re-examine the tradeoffs between positive and negative aspects of guanxi in China. Because of cross-border collaboration and the wide use of the internet, Chinese employees are now exposed to more diverse values. Considering this cultural shift, the current paper discusses how the widely publicized negative aspect of guanxi relations in Chinese organizations can be mitigated. We suggest that employees are likely to withdraw from peer-to-peer guanxi relations that involve ethical concerns, and the likelihood and speed of this relation change would vary in part on the focal party's heritage of Confucian cultural values. This paper contributes to the literature by offering a dynamic approach to reconcile the controversy about peer-to-peer guanxi's role in Chinese organizations. This dynamic examination can invite further research on the complicated evolution of guanxi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Covid-19 dramatically changed the way businesses operates. The focus of this paper is virtual trade fairs organized by trade fair organizers in China whose service delivery model was transformed to meet the new needs of customers. Using one well-grounded case and several rounds of interview data in three stages, the paper aims to explore the impact Covid-19 has generated on the event services sector and how SERVQUAL could be applied in an emerging virtual setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existing prediction methods have complex model application, high requirements for data parameters, and are limited to the prediction of a single observation point. To address this problem, this paper proposes a deep learning-based surface subsidence prediction method. Taking Hefei City of China as the research area, the time-series surface deformation results of this area are obtained by using SBAS-InSAR, and then the SFLA intelligent algorithm and Elman neural network model are combined to predict the surface deformation of key urban areas, and the prediction results are compared and analyzed.The experimental results show that the prediction model proposed in this paper can not only accurately predict a single deformation point, but also predict regional land subsidence, and can be used for auxiliary decision-making of urban spatial planning, early warning of geological hazards and hazard mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coupling of human, management, mechanical, and environmental risk factors increases the probability of accident occurrence at metro construction sites. The degree of coupling risks at metro construction sites is the degree of interdependence among the risks in subsystems during metro construction projects. This paper uses the coupling relationship between the human and environmental risks to predict the progression in overall risk-level of construction process at Rongjiazhai station of Xi'an Metro Line 5 in China. The coupling model and system dynamics simulation are applied in four steps: develop the coupling model, estimate the weight index for metro construction risk factors, calculate the risk levels, and estimate the degrees of coupling risks. This paper identifies that the change of coupling coefficients of human-environmental factors has a significant influence on the risk-level at metro construction sites. The "psychological and physiological quality," "natural and working environment," and "physiological discomfort and working environment" are the most influential factors of the coupling level of human-environmental risks. The simulation results demonstrate that the coupling effects of risk factors should be emphasized in engineering practice. To reduce the risk-level of construction system, the human, mechanical, and environmental risks should be identified, coupled, and monitored in real time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recycling of municipal household solid waste (MHSW) is important for the environmental preservation and wellbeing of the society. In recent decades, continuous efforts in research, policy-making and municipal administration have led to improvements toward more sustainable MHSW recycling. However, MHSW recycling remains a major challenge for China. This paper analyzes the current value and potential value of MHSW recycling in order to guide residents to recycle MHSW effectively and to reduce the amount of recycle-worthy materials missing recycling. A multivariate probit model is developed to ascertain the current value and potential value of MHSW recycling. Results from a case study of Shanghai reveal that waste glass has low current value and low potential value, and waste plastics has low current value but high potential value. The results also indicate that the waste metal has high current value and high potential value, whereas waste paper has high current value but low potential value. These findings provide policymakers with useful information and rationale for directing efforts to achieve a better or optimal MHSW recycling practice. Implications: Be a multivariate probit model is developed to calculate the current value and potential value of MHSW recycling in order to guide residents to recycle MHSW and reduce an amount of miss-recycling materials. Our results have shown that waste glass has a low current value and a low potential value, waste plastics have a low current value and a high potential value. Regarding the waste metal, they have a high current value and a high potential value. For waste papers, the result indicates that it has a high current value and a low potential value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sino-Australia relations have experienced a rapid deterioration in the past half-decade. From genial ties centred around trade and exchange, the relationship has descended into mutual hostility, prompting the editor of China's Global Times to notoriously liken Australia to a blob of gum on the bottom of a shoe. To explain the deteriorating relationship, scholars have proposed numerous ideas, pointing to factors as wide-ranging as 'Chinese influence', poor diplomacy efforts, and ontological (in)security touched off by neoliberal governmentality. The current paper examines these ideas in a literature review, then synthesises such ideas to provide its own explanation of why things 'went wrong'. It also addresses corollary questions such as why Australia adopted a uniquely assertive China policy, and why this occurred specifically around 2017. We argue that the breakdown in relations can be attributed to the rise of nationalist, sovereignty-oriented movements in the West, and the spillover effect this had on Australian leadership; the profound uncertainty attending the election of Trump and his isolationist tendencies; and the shift to a more rigid, authoritarian approach to foreign affairs under Xi. This perspective adds to the literature by identifying failings on both sides while underscoring significant yet underappreciated global trends, such as nationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores how to recognize and understand the education power, what indicators to characterize and monitor the education power, what ways to build education power. Based on the theory of evidence-based education research, this study uses the comprehensive integration method to carry out a systematic analysis. A strong country in education is an education that is based on local education practices and of international standards. It provides comprehensive support for national construction and human development, exerts an all-round influence on education around the world, and plays a leading role in global education. This paper constructs the ontology index, value index, and identity index from the perspectives of ontology, value theory and identity theory of the world, and forms the key index system of education power. To build a powerful country in education, we must deal with several relations, including the mutual promotion relations between education and politics, education and society, education and economy, education, and human beings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One specific phenomenon in the Spring Festival travel rush in China is that purchasing a train ticket becomes tough as the train tickets could be sold out extremely soon. Therefore, the current paper presents an analysis of college students' trip ticket purchasing strategies for homecoming trips during Chinese Spring Festival using a sequential stated adaptation experiment, based on which three different choice models were applied and the results show that 1) college students would keep purchasing the ticket of planned train trip and this willingness would decrease with the increasing of the times they fail to get the ticket; 2) if college students decide to give up the conventional train trip they have planned, they have a tendency to choose other conventional train trips, but it is not the case regarding high-speed train trips; 3) air itinerary trips are attractive alternatives to trains trips, especially to high-speed train trips. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2012, sales tax was replaced in China with value-added tax (VAT). This study evaluates the effect of this change on service exports. VAT reform was introduced across provinces and service sectors at different times. Hence, our paper identifies the impacts of VAT reform on firms' export behavior by utilizing a difference-in-difference (DID) estimation methodology and finds that VAT reform significantly increases service exports in intensive and extensive margins. The export-enhancing effects are larger for non-state-owned enterprises and firms of larger scale and higher productivity levels. VAT reform alleviates tax magnification and double taxation and effectively promotes the competitiveness of China's service exports. With the complete implementation of VAT reform, alongside the full refund of VAT on exported products, China's service exports would increase by approximately two-and-a-half times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study calls for greater scholarly engagement with the generational experiences of the socialist working class in China. Through an analysis of collective actions in response to the reform of state-owned enterprises at the turn of the century, the paper divides the Chinese socialist working class into the Revolution Generation and the Transition Generation. Amid the restructuring of the state sector, workers from the Revolution Generation exhibited a proclivity for civic activism and petitions, while the Transition Generation, though grappling with unemployment, largely refrained from public dissent, instead expressing sentiments of bewilderment and resignation. The study illustrates how the differing lived experiences of two working-class generations played a pivotal role in shaping their interpretation of grievances and contention repertoire. The article underscores the significance of generational perspectives in gaining insight into the destiny of the Chinese working class, advocating for the integration of such perspectives into the broader fields of deindustrialization and labor studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore the functional mechanism of interest similarity in collaboration efficiency, this paper focuses on the process of technological collaboration from time and space dimensions. Specifically, I established a two-dimension model, from which the collaboration process was divided into initial and mature stages, considering time angle and was divided into intra-regional and trans-regional collaborations, considering the spatial angle. Collecting data from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the results indicate that when technicians are in the same region, the more similar their interests, the higher their collaboration efficiency. When technicians carry out trans-regional collaboration, interest similarity has a U-shaped effect on collaboration efficiency in the initial stage of collaboration. Collaboration efficiency decreases due to the distrust of similar content distribution, and with the continuous consolidation of collaboration relationships, collaboration efficiency improves. In the mature stage, interest similarity affects collaboration efficiency positively. The findings provide suggestions for technicians to choose appropriate partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the background of the rapid development of innovation economy promoted by education science and technology, this paper uses the DEA Malmquist index model to build an evaluation index system based on the research object of the Education Science and technology industry of 31 provinces in China from 2010 to 2019. It makes a static analysis of its input–output efficiency from the aspects of comprehensive efficiency, pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency. Also, the Malmquist index method is used to analyse the changes of comprehensive efficiency, technical efficiency and technological progress. It is found that the development of the educational science and technology industry in different regions of China has its own characteristics. The efficiency of educational science and technology in some regions is good, but the growth rate slows down, and some efficiency lags behind, so there is a lot of space for improvement. On the whole, technological progress is an important factor affecting the change in total input–output efficiency. It is suggested that regional cooperation should be strengthened to optimise the allocation of educational science and technology resources. It should accelerate the deployment of next-generation technology to promote overall high-quality development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]