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With China's economic rise and influence, financial statecraft has increasingly been deployed to serve the country's national interest. The growth of China's financial statecraft in the region has drawn greater media and academic attention. Notwithstanding the abundant literature on China's financial statecraft in Southeast Asia, the previous studies lack a detailed analysis of various financial statecraft instruments deployed by China. To get a better understanding of China's deployment of financial statecraft over the years under Xi Jinping's administration, this article fills the gap in the existing literature by delving into various factors that influenced various financial statecraft instruments with respect to the objectives, trends or patterns and agencies involved in the region. Given Xi's successful bid for continued political rule by eliminating a term limit on the presidency as well as the escalating China-US strategic rivalry, it is important to examine how the interaction of domestic and international forces has shaped the evolution of financial statecraft in Southeast Asia. Due to the changes in domestic politics and shifts in the geopolitics and geoeconomics, an important question that deserves our attention is how these changes has influenced China's deployment of various financial statecraft instruments in different Southeast Asian countries. The paper focuses on two middle-income countries (i.e., Malaysia and Thailand) and two low-income countries (i.e. Cambodia and Laos) in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For Japan's former prime minister Abe Shinzō, security cooperation with Southeast Asia was central to preventing the South China Sea from turning into a "Lake Beijing" - completely under Chinese control. This paper explains why Abe's security engagement in the region focused mainly on providing Capacity Building Assistance (CBA) to Southeast Asian coast guards agencies to counter China's maritime assertiveness. Answers are provided by looking at not only international but also domestic factors. Based on key variables of post-Cold War Japan's foreign policy, namely the US-Japan alliance, the dominance of economic tools, and normative and institutional constraints on the use of force, the analysis concludes that CBA was an ideal response to the complex demands and restrictions of Japan's security policy. In particular, the economic benefits of providing CBA are an important finding of the analysis and one that has not yet received much scholarly focus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rice–crayfish co-culture system, a representative of Agri-aqua food systems, has emerged worldwide as an effective strategy for enhancing agricultural land use efficiency and boosting sustainability, particularly in China and Southeast Asia. Despite its widespread adoption in China's Jianghan Plain, the exact spatiotemporal dynamics and factors influencing this practice in this region are yet to be clarified. Therefore, understanding the spatiotemporal dynamics and influencing factors of the rice–crayfish fields (RCFs) is crucial for promoting the rice–crayfish co-culture system, and optimizing land use policies. In this study, we identified the spatial distribution of RCF using Sentinel-2 images and land use spatiotemporal data to analyze its spatiotemporal dynamics during the period of 2016–2020. Additionally, we used the Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression model to explore the key factors influencing RCF's spatiotemporal changes. Our findings reveal that (1). the RCF area in Jianghan Plain expanded from 1216.04 km2 to 2429.76 km2 between 2016 and 2020, marking a 99.81% increase. (2). RCF in Jianghan Plain evolved toward a more contiguous and clustered spatial pattern, suggesting a clear industrial agglomeration in this area. (3). The expansion of the RCFs was majorly influenced by its landscape and local agricultural conditions. Significantly, the Aggregation and Landscape Shape Indexes positively impacted this expansion, whereas proximity to rural areas and towns had a negative impact. This study provides a solid foundation for promoting the rice–crayfish co-culture system and sustainably developing related industries. To ensure the sustainable development of rice–crayfish co-culture industries in Jianghan Plain, we recommend that local governments optimize the spatial layout of rural settlements, improve transportation infrastructure, and enhance regional agricultural water sources and irrigation system construction, all in line with the national strategy of rural revitalization and village planning. Additionally, promoting the concentration and contiguity of RCF through land consolidation can achieve efficient development of these industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taxonomic notes on the Talaus species from China are provided. Two new species, T. yuyang Yao & Liu, sp. nov. and T. zhangjiangkou Yao & Liu, sp. nov. are described and illustrated, and a further three species are redescribed based on their genitalic characters: T. dulongjiang Tang, Yin, Ubick & Peng, 2008, T. niger Tang, Yin, Ubick & Peng, 2008, and T. sulcus Tang & Li, 2010. The species T. xiphosus Zhu & Ono, 2007 is considered a junior synonym of T. triangulifer Simon, 1886 based on an examination of many recently collected female and male specimens from Guangxi Province, China. Diagnoses, detailed illustrations and a map of distributional records of the six treated species of Talaus in China are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]