bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Significant Others: Security and Suspicion in Chinese-Angolan Encounters
Authors: Schmitz Cheryl Mei-ting
Published: February 2019

The sense of mystery around Chinese presences in Angola impels researchers to understand not only the empirical details of economic transactions and diplomatic partnerships but also the various ways in which the actors involved make sense of a novel social, political, and economic configuration. By drawing several ethnographic portraits of the social practices and discursive strategies at play in Chinese–Angolan relations, I show how, in a context of mutual uncertainty and suspicion, appeals to “security” play a central role. Instead of viewing Chinese and Angolans as two separate groups with opposed interests and lack of communication between them, I explore how participation in a shared context generates common modes of explanation. Moreover, I propose a parallel analysis of state-level negotiations alongside everyday social encounters to consider how a political economic partnership between China and Angola is lived through the everyday negotiations of Chinese and Angolan residents in Luanda.
Chinese Employers and Their Ugandan Workers: Tensions, Frictions and Cooperation in an African City
Authors: Arsene Codrin
Published: February 2019

This paper analyses the context in which a group of African workers interact with their Chinese employers within a specific ethnographic space: Chinese-owned shops in Kampala, Uganda. By exploring enjawulo, the locally embedded cultural, social and economic notion of work and labour, I reveal how relations between Chinese employers and Ugandan employees are shaped by the former's knowledge and acceptance of this practice. This analytical lens contextualises the two groups’ divergent goals, opinions and aspirations, examines the interpersonal dimensions of their social relations, and also analyses employers’ and employees’ opinions on labour conflicts, cooperation and understanding. The goal of the paper is to explore and deconstruct the context in which Chinese store owners and their local employees interact, cohabit, and sometimes even find common ground, despite markedly different economic, social, cultural, racial and linguistic backgrounds.
The KMT-CCP Forum: Securing Consent for Cross-Strait Rapprochement
Authors: Beckershoff André
Published: February 2019

The recent rapprochement between China and Taiwan cannot be understood if our conceptual apparatus is unable to cope with the distinctive new quality of cross-Strait relations. A critical framework provides a transnational account of cross-Strait dynamics. An analysis of the KMT-CCP Forum through the lens of the neo-Gramscian notion of hegemony sheds light on the Forum's strategies, mechanisms, practices and instruments to secure consent for cross-Strait rapprochement. While this mode of governance has broadened the KMT's strategic options, it has also compromised Taiwanese democracy.
Changes in International Research Cooperation in China: Positive Perspectives
Authors: Mahoney Josef Gregory
Published: February 2019

This paper discusses how cooperation between Chinese researchers and their foreign counterparts has changed. The paper draws on current literature and the author's experience as a researcher in the US and in China, arguing that while cooperation has increased overall, it has done so in ways that have crowded out old forms of cooperation or made them passé. The paper focuses particularly on how changes at leading Chinese research institutions have impacted international cooperation, both positively and negatively, and suggests ways in which foreign scholars might effectively pursue new avenues for cooperation and exchange.
Religious Revival among the Zhuang People in China: Practising “Superstition” and Standardizing a Zhuang Religion
Authors: Kao Ya-ning
Published: February 2019

This paper examines two cases of Zhuang religious revival involving multiple actors. It shows how consideration of “superstition” ([Formula: see text], mixin) places some religious practice outside the institutional framework when discussing the modern concept of religion in China. In this paper, I particularly focus on two main dimensions of religious revival among the Zhuang people. The first is a grassroots dimension that involves the revival of a so-called “superstitious” cult in which Zhuang people along the Sino-Vietnamese border carry out shamanic rituals to make offerings to a powerful chief-turned-deity, Nong Zhigao, and his wife. The second dimension is a top-down dynamic and involves a series of projects conducted by Zhuang officials, scholars and business persons, which aim to standardize a Zhuang religion, known as Mo religion. These two cases of religious revival demonstrate the varied strategies utilized by different actors in response to government policies regarding religion in China.
Of Canons and Commodities: The Cultural Predicaments of Nuosu-Yi “Bimo Culture”
Authors: Kraef Olivia
Published: February 2019

The Nuosu are a subgroup of the so-called Yi ethnic group. Today around two million Nuosu live in Liangshan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province and translocal urban contexts, such as Chengdu and Beijing. For many centuries, the Nuosu have cultivated a belief system composed of a combination of animism and ancestor worship. Since the resurrection of religious activity across China that began in the early 1980s, this faith – represented by the three types of religious practitioners known as bimo, sunyi, and monyi – has reportedly been experiencing a comprehensive revival at folk level. For the bimo, this revival has been paralleled and increasingly overlaid by a scholarly reappraisal of Nuosu religion under premises other than religious. Bimo practice and identity have thus become subsumed under the illustrious concept of “bimo culture”. In this article, I trace the genealogy of the concept of “bimo culture” as part of a cultural canon of and for the Yi which is intended to promote development at the local level but which is also contributing to a weakening of the status of the bimo and Nuosu ritual life in Liangshan today.
Lessons of Defeat and Success: Taiwan's 2012 Elections in Comparative Perspective
Authors: Fell Dafydd , Chen Charles
Published: February 2019

In early 2011, the Kuomintang (KMT, Guomindang) government appeared to be in danger of losing power in the upcoming presidential elections. The DPP had recovered sufficiently from its disastrous electoral performance in 2008 to pose a real challenge to Ma Ying-jeou (Ma Yingjiu) and had matched the KMT's vote share in midterm local elections. Ma also faced the challenge of an independent presidential candidate, James Soong (Song Chuyu), who had come a close second in 2000 and now threatened to divide the pro KMT vote. Nevertheless, the KMT was able to win reduced majorities in both the presidential and legislative elections in January 2012. This article seeks to explain how the KMT was able to hold on to power by comparing the campaign with earlier national-level elections. We are interested in identifying the degree to which the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP, Minjindang) learnt from its electoral setbacks in 2008 and whether the KMT employed a similar campaign strategy to the one that had been so effective in returning it to power in 2008. Our analysis relies of an examination of campaign propaganda and campaign strategies as well as participant observation and survey data from 2012 and earlier contests.
Learning a Lesson from Taiwan? A Comparison of Changes and Continuity of Labour Policies in Taiwan and China
Authors: Lee Chun-Yi
Published: February 2019

This paper argues that the comparison of labour policies in Taiwan and China has an important bearing on the interaction between state and society. The fact that labour policies have changed over time illustrates a process of bargaining between the state and society. The core question of this paper is whether the development of labour policies in Taiwan can provide China a good example to learn from. In order to answer this question more systematically, the first part of this paper provides theoretical reviews of the state-society relationship, while the second part aims to verify whether those labour-favouring policies in Taiwan have changed under a different party's governance. The third part of the paper further investigates labour policy in China; this section mainly focuses on the historical background to the new labour contract law. Based on the preceding two sections’ literature review of the changing path of labour policies, the fourth section scrutinises fundamental issues reflected in the development of Taiwan's labour policies, then compares how those issues are reflected in the case of China. The conclusion of this paper is that although Taiwan, like China, formerly had a one-party system, the changes in Taiwan's labour policies are not completely comparable to China, though both societies had some similarities.
Successes and Failures of Corporate Social Responsibility Mechanisms in Chinese Extractive Industries
Authors: Tan-Mullins May
Published: February 2019

China's insatiable appetite for natural resources and energy to fuel its national growth is having an increasing impact on the domestic and global environment. Globally, China has turned to resource-rich regions in Africa and South America, at times engaging so-called “rogue states” to secure the resources it requires. Now is a critical juncture at which to encourage socially responsible behaviours in the Chinese extractive sectors, such as adopting the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). This analysis discusses the current corporate social responsibility (CSR) mechanisms in extractive industries and assesses the feasibility of socialising China towards adopting CSR global norms in the extractive industries. This article has three sections. The first discusses China's environmental governance trajectory and ecological footprint in the domestic and global extractive industry. The second section discusses the factors contributing to the success and failure of various CSR mechanisms, with a specific focus on the EITI, and the final section expounds on the emerging challenges and issues and concludes with policy recommendations.
Greening the Field? How NGOs Are Shaping Corporate Social Responsibility in China
Authors: Davis Susannah M. , Moosmayer Dirk C.
Published: February 2019

China's state-led model of corporate social responsibility (CSR) does not seem to present a promising environment for the participation of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Nevertheless, we observe recent examples of NGO involvement in CSR initiatives. Chinese NGOs are using the CSR platform to challenge the environmental practices of firms operating in China. We take a field-theoretical approach that focuses on the agency of actors. We show how an international NGO proposes a new standard and how Chinese NGOs use local environmental information disclosure laws to engage with firms in the textile supply chain. We find that NGOs leverage the power of brands to influence the practices of Chinese suppliers. However, we find differences in the framing and tactics employed by international NGOs versus their Chinese counterparts. Field analysis helps better understand the actors in the field of CSR, along with their motivations and their resources, and it offers a useful perspective on civil society development in China.
Bittersweet China: New Discourses of Hardship and Social Organisation
Authors: Griffiths Michael B. , Zeuthen Jesper
Published: February 2019

This paper argues that new interpretations of “eating bitterness” ([Formula: see text], chiku) have firmly entered the landscape of China's social organisation. Whereas the bitterness eaten by heroic types in China's revolutionary past was directed towards serving others, now the aim of eating bitterness is self-awareness. Furthermore, bitterness-eating, which once pertained to rural-urban migrant workers as opposed to discourses of urban “quality” ([Formula: see text], suzhi), has now also been taken up by the urban middle classes. A new cultural distinction, therefore, adds dignity to migrant workers while potentially marginalising a wide range of unproductive people, both urban and rural. This distinction ultimately mitigates risk to the Chinese regime because the regime makes sure to reward those who eat bitterness. This paper is based on ethnographic data gathered in Anshan, from the rural areas surrounding Chengdu, and our analysis of a TV show about a peasant boy who becomes a Special Forces soldier.
Driving the City: Taxi Drivers and the Tactics of Everyday Life in Beijing
Authors: Chong Gladys Pak Lei
Published: February 2019

This article examines the ways in which taxi driving and China's quest for global ascendency are interlinked and enmeshed. Inspired by de Certeau's The Practice of Everyday Life and his conceptual formulation of “strategy” and “tactic”, this article explores how taxi drivers, through their everyday practice of driving, found ways and moments to tactically challenge and appropriate so-called “civility campaigns” and a rising China. By demonstrating the numerous instances of tactics taxi drivers used, I argue that their socio-economic marginality did not, in fact, reduce them to a “powerless” position. I bring in Foucault's analytics of power and governmentality to add to de Certeau's work by helping to explain the intertwined relationship between government and governed to shed light on the complexity implicated in the dynamics of power relations and resistance. I examine the period around the 2008 Beijing Olympics as it involved large-scale attempts to showcase China through (urban) transformation.
In the Shadow of the States: The Informalities of Chinese Petty Entrepreneurship in Nigeria
Authors: Xiao Allen Hai
Published: February 2019

The burgeoning interstate relation between China and Nigeria is in fact hiding the vulnerable condition of transnational Chinese petty entrepreneurship. Small-scale Chinese entrepreneurs in Nigeria are faced with everyday corruption practised by both Nigerian authorities and ordinary Nigerian people, the dominance of self-interest over cohesion and mutual support among the Chinese compatriots, and variations in state policies due to dynamic and changing interstate relations. To overcome their position of weakness, small-scale Chinese entrepreneurs strategize their interactions with both Nigerian and Chinese nationals. Informality is a characteristic of such interactions. Economic informality is primarily embodied in the documentation service businesses that are indebted to those popular corrupt practices in Nigeria; while social informality takes place in cyberspace. Interaction via the Internet among Chinese involved in Chinese–Nigerian businesses helps small-scale Chinese entrepreneurs to cope with fluctuations in interstate links at the macro-level and to develop a sense of community.
Invisible Body and the Predicaments of Existence in an Urbanizing China
Authors: Wang Meiqin
Published: February 2019

This article contextualises the art practice of Beijing-based artist Liu Bolin and examines ways in which his artworks illuminate the sociopolitical conditions that regulate the everyday reality of underprivileged social groups amid China's spectacular urban transformation in the 2000s. The tension between individual existence and the force of urbanization underlays Liu's most important work, entitled Hiding in the City. This performance photographic series, in which Liu covered his body thoroughly with paint so that he “disappeared” into the background, was initiated as a response towards the demolition of an artist village in Beijing where the artist resided and worked. The series has since been developed into an ambitious and years-long project in which the artist surveys the disparate urban living environment of the city, bringing to the surface dominant forces that render the existence of the individuals “invisible”.
China's Responsiveness to Internet Opinion: A Double-Edged Sword
Authors: Hassid Jonathan
Published: February 2019

Despite its authoritarian bent, the Chinese government quickly and actively moves to respond to public pressure over misdeeds revealed and discussed on the internet. Netizens have reacted with dismay to news about natural and man-made disasters, official corruption, abuse of the legal system and other prominent issues. Yet in spite of the sensitivity of such topics and the persistence of China's censorship apparatus, Beijing usually acts to quickly address these problems rather than sweeping them under the rug. This paper discusses the implications of China's responsiveness to online opinion. While the advantages of a responsive government are clear, there are also potential dangers lurking in Beijing's quickness to be swayed by online mass opinion. First, online opinion makers are demographically skewed toward the relative “winners” in China's economic reforms, a process that creates short-term stability but potentially ensures that in the long run the concerns of less fortunate citizens are ignored. And, second, the increasing power of internet commentary risks warping the slow, fitful – but genuine – progress that China has made in recent years toward reforming its political and legal systems.
Manufacturing Consent in Cyberspace: China's “Fifty-Cent Army”
Authors: Han Rongbin
Published: February 2019

Studies on public expression in China tend to focus on how the state and internet users (netizens) struggle over the limits of online expression. Few have systematically traced discourse competition within state-imposed boundaries, particularly how the authoritarian state has adapted to manage, rather than censor, online expression. This paper explores and evaluates the state's attempts to manipulate online expression without resorting to censorship and coercion by examining the role of internet commentators, known as the “fifty-cent army”, in Chinese cyberspace. To cope with the challenge of online expression, the authoritarian state has mobilized its agents to engage anonymously in online discussions and produce apparently spontaneous pro-regime commentary. However, due to a lack of proper motivation and the persistence of old propaganda logic, this seemingly smart adaptation has proven ineffective or even counterproductive: It not only decreases netizens’ trust in the state but also, ironically, suppresses the voices of regime supporters.
“Unseeing” Chinese Students in Japan: Understanding Educationally Channelled Migrant Experiences
Authors: Coates Jamie
Published: February 2019

Chinese migrants are currently the largest group of non-Japanese nationals living in Japan. This growth is largely the result of educational migration, positioning many Chinese in Japan as student-migrants. Based on 20 months’ ethnographic fieldwork in Ikebukuro, Tokyo's unofficial Chinatown, this paper explores the ways in which the phenomenology of the city informs the desire for integration amongst young Chinese living in Japan. Discussions of migrant integration and representation often argue for greater recognition of marginalised groups. However, recognition can also intensify vulnerability for the marginalised. Chinese student-migrants’ relationship to Ikebukuro's streets shows how young mobile Chinese in Tokyo come to learn to want to be “unseen.” Largely a response to the visual dynamics of the city, constituted by economic inequality, spectacle, and surveillance, the experiences of young Chinese students complicate the ways we understand migrants’ desires for recognition and integration.
The Social Construction of Guangzhou as a Translocal Trading Place
Authors: Gilles Angelo
Published: February 2019

Guangzhou has become a key destination for sub-Saharan African traders. These traders have established multilocal forms of business organisation and, in so doing, have developed diverse practices to overcome geographical, political and cultural boundaries. This paper focuses on these practices, looking at the ways in which the movements, relations and interactions within these organisational formations are produced, transformed and lived. A close ethnographic examination was made of the livelihoods of 33 African traders from 13 sub-Saharan African countries. Through the concept of trans-locality, the organisational formations of these Africans are conceptualised as links between different places on a larger geographical scale; these links then meet on a local scale in the specific place of Guangzhou. Following a relational understanding of spatial constructions in social science, these links are conceptualised as one of the main drivers for the social construction and transformation of the city as a trans-local trading place.
African Logistics Agents and Middlemen as Cultural Brokers in Guangzhou
Authors: Mathews Gordon
Published: February 2019

This article begins by asking how African traders learn to adjust to the foreign world of Guangzhou, China, and suggests that African logistics agents and middlemen serve as cultural brokers for these traders. After defining “cultural broker” and discussing why these brokers are not usually Chinese, it explores this role as played by ten logistics agents/middlemen from Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As logistics agents, these people help their customers in practically adjusting to Chinese life, and as middlemen they serve to grease the wheels of commerce between African customers and Chinese suppliers. This is despite their own ambivalent views of China as a place to live. They play an essential role in enabling harmonious relations between Africans and Chinese in Guangzhou, even though they see themselves not as cultural brokers but simply as businessmen.
The Currency of Historicity in Hong Kong: Deconstructing Nostalgia through Soy Milk
Authors: Chan Catherine S.
Published: February 2019

In the 1980s, as the end of the millennium approached, the production of nostalgia exploded all around the world. For Hong Kong, nostalgia became a reminder of the golden age that had transformed the city into one of the “Four Asian Tigers” in the decades following the end of the Second World War. While yearning for the better days of the past, Hong Kong coincidentally experienced destabilisation. As the rest of the world, especially the “baby boomers,” mourned the end of a productive era, Hong Kong locals were disturbed by the affirmation of the handover to China in 1997. In the context of these events, a creative rush to nostalgia in cultural manufacturing swept across the city. In the hope of highlighting the uniqueness of nostalgic production in Hong Kong, this study analyses two sets of TV commercials produced by local beverage company Vitasoy. Through the deconstruction of selected historical events, Vitasoy successfully reinvented its brand and, in contrast to general criticism of the concept, generated a positive connotation for nostalgia on the path towards Hong Kong's search for an identity.
Testing the Spaces of Discretion: School Personnel as Implementers of Minority-Language Policy in China
Authors: Schnack Hans-Christian
Published: February 2019

Following international trends to reform school management, the Chinese government has proposed school-based decisionmaking as a measure to raise the “quality” of education, but at the same time it has imposed new institutions of accountability for teachers and school administrators. In order to understand how this interplay between accountability and discretion affects Chinese educational reforms, this paper analyses policy implementation through the lens of decision-making by principals and teachers as street-level bureaucrats. In the case of minority-language education in Xishuangbanna, a subject where institutions provide comparatively large spaces for discretionary decisions, I argue that the current institutions on accountability in minority-language education in China trigger processes by which implementers must interpret vague institutions in order to make decisions for their classroom. These purposefully wide spaces of “interpretational discretion” enable the party-state to make good on its promise to support local diversity, without threatening its own authority to prescribe educational goals.
The Paradox of Middle-Class Attitudes in China: Democracy, Social Stability, and Reform
Authors: Miao Ying
Published: February 2019

This article explores the seemingly paradoxical attitudes of the Chinese middle class towards democracy, social stability, and reform. Using fieldwork data from Ningbo, this article shows that a group of objective, middle-class individuals can concurrently display high levels of support for democratic principles and low levels of participation in real-life socio-political events. Being generally confident in China's social stability, these individuals have little to no desire for significant democratic reform, or indeed any reform that occurs outside the purview of the state, as it is considered destabilising. By highlighting the distinction between how these members of the middle class respond to generic democratic concepts, real-life sociopolitical affairs, and the idea of democratic reform, this article argues that the Chinese middle class are aware of what “should be,” what “could be,” and what “is,” which lends their socio-political attitudes a paradoxical appearance.
Hukou and Health Insurance Coverage for Migrant Workers
Authors: Müller Armin
Published: February 2019

Most migrant workers in mainland China are officially covered by the New Rural Cooperative Medical System (NRCMS), a rural health insurance system that operates in their home communities. The NRCMS and the system of household registration ([Formula: see text], hukou) are tightly linked and systemically interdependent institutions. Migrant workers have difficulties benefitting from this social protection because it remains spatially separated from them. Only a minority have access to urban health insurance systems. This paper sheds light on the institutional origins of the coverage problem of migrant workers and examines crucial policy initiatives that attempt to solve it. In the context of the ongoing hukou reforms, these policies aim to partially dissolve the systemic interdependence of hukou and health insurance. While the policies provide feasible, yet conflict-prone, solutions in short-distance and concentrated bilateral migration systems, covering migrants who cross provincial boundaries remains a challenge.
The Emergence of Informal Institutions among Internal Migrants in Urban China
Authors: Luo Rumin
Published: February 2019

China's dramatic economic development and urbanisation have led to an increase in its number of internal migrants. As of 2013, this group accounted for more than 20 per cent of the country's population, and approximately 70 per cent of people in this group are working in the informal economy. This paper pays special attention to migrant-traders in the informal sector and the strategies they use in Shanghai. Migrants are doubly marginalised by the hukou ([Formula: see text]) and danwei ([Formula: see text]) systems in the megacity and have only limited access to social welfare. It is argued that the informal strategies of these marginalised actors develop in related patterns of social relationships and institutional constraints. Such strategies create new forms of informal institutions that are justified and gain legitimacy when countering unequal and hierarchical formal institutions and social arrangements. This paper empirically explores how informal institutions can act in parallel with or diverge from formal institutions, and how they might influence formal institutions in the long term.
The Establishment of China's New Type Rural Social Insurance Pension: A Process Perspective
Authors: Stepan Matthias , Lu Quan
Published: February 2019

This study explores the processes and outcomes of the public policy reforms from 2002 to 2014, targeting income security among the elderly for a segment of the Chinese population that was increasingly marginalised throughout the 1990s: the rural population. The authors reconstruct the policy process from 2002 until 2014 that led to the establishment of the New Type Rural Social Insurance Pension and assess its impact on providing adequate and sustainable old-age income. One particular focus is the study of the influence of international actors. Yet, as key to the success of the initiative, the authors identify the decisive support of the central level leadership, which facilitated the process by announcing a new development model and providing earmarked transfers from the central government. Despite the improvements in the income security of elderly rural Chinese, questions remain about the Chinese pension system's long-term sustainability and the influence of the system's fragmentation on social mobility and equality.
Buddhism in Current China-India Diplomacy
Authors: Scott David
Published: February 2019

Buddhism is being emphasised strongly in both Chinese and Indian public diplomacy, as they both seek to increase their soft-power attractiveness. This article finds that while Buddhism has served to draw the two countries together in their bilateral relationship, their current invocation of Buddhism as a bridge is in many ways an ahistorical reconstruction. The article also finds that Buddhism operates as a tool of diplomacy in a competitive way, as China and India both seek influence among Buddhist countries elsewhere in Asia and among international Buddhist organisations. Finally, this article finds that whereas China's use of Buddhism is straightforwardly tactical and to a degree disingenuous, India is able to incorporate genuine spiritual elements into its use of Buddhism, albeit within a setting of Hindu reinterpretation of Buddhism. In the future, China could shift from a short-term tactical to a long-term normative use of Buddhism within international socialisation scenarios.
Training Responsible Journalists in China: Guiding Domestic Opinion, Gaining Foreign Audiences
Authors: Dombernowsky Laura
Published: February 2019

The teaching of international journalism in China serves a dual purpose: to train professionals who can strengthen the country's international media and to guide domestic opinion on international issues. This article follows one class of students at Tsinghua University in Beijing and investigates how they are taught to gain foreign audiences, stay loyal to the party line, protect national interests at home and abroad, and be critical of foreign media reports. On this basis, the article discusses how the concept of professionalism, within the specific context of international journalism, is contested by competing views on what it means to be a responsible journalist.
Cross-Strait Relations and Regional Integration: A Review of the Ma Ying-jeou Era (2008–2016)
Authors: Tsai Tung-chieh , Liu Tony Tai-ting
Published: February 2019

Despite the signing of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) between mainland China and Taiwan in 2010, Taiwan's future status in the field of Asian regional integration remains unclear. While Taiwan remains outside the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), China's rise and continued expansion in regional integration put increasing pressure on Taiwan to confront its political differences with China. This paper discusses the interconnection between regional integration and cross-Strait relations and seeks to address the implications such linkage entails. The authors note the exploitation of a two-pronged strategy by Beijing to pressure Taibei into confronting the political problem between China and Taiwan. In addition, the authors assess Taiwan's performance in terms of its progress in the establishment of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) from 2008 to 2016 under the Ma Ying-jeou (Ma Yingjiu) administration and identify the hurdles and prospects for Taiwan's future integration efforts. This paper concludes with a brief consideration of Taiwan's New Southward Policy.
Taiwan's Millennial Generation: Interests in Polity and Party Politics
Authors: Brading Ryan
Published: February 2019

The political strategies used to attract Taiwanese Millennials is a puzzling topic. This article analyses the strategies the two main political parties have implemented in recent years to do so. In the literature on youth attitudes in Western democracies, politics is described as “boring,” a “big turn-off,” and a “killjoy.” I examine to what degree these theoretical terms can help define the youth's perception of politics and I describe the youth-led demonstrations that have taken place. Using primary sources, this analysis unfolds the objectives, successes, and failures of the youth wings of two political parties founded in early 2006. The 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns are considered in relation to the theme of youth engagement. A key event in recent years was the March–April 2014 Sunflower Student Movement. The impact of this event and youth politics leading up to the 2016 presidential and legislative elections is discussed.
Tackling Chinese Upgrading through Experimentalism and Pragmatism: The Case of China's Wind Turbine Industry
Authors: Kirkegaard Julia Kirch
Published: February 2019

This paper examines the development of China's wind turbine industry, shedding light on the Chinese mode of disruptive industrial upgrading through policy pragmatism and fragmented, experimental governance. Based on a historical analysis of China's wind turbine industry, the paper highlights three distinct phases, which are all marked by their own inbuilt and potentially self-disruptive impasses and associated crises. In turn, these impasses have forced the Chinese government into radical and flexible interventions, which have spurred on Chinese companies to creatively find new ways to develop and upgrade. The paper illustrates the transformation of Sino–foreign relations by China's non-linear upgrading approach, particularly during the Chinese wind power industry's quality crisis, and its development model. It also discusses the implications this examination of China's approach has for the literatures on China, upgrading, and catch-up. Finally, the paper calls on future studies to enquire further into China's distinct mode of industrial upgrading and its embeddedness in China's institutional context.
An Unlikely Champion of Global Finance: Why is China Exceeding International Banking Standards?
Authors: Knaack Peter
Published: February 2019

As a G20 member, China has been engaged in financial reform since the end of the global financial crisis. A core piece of this reform is Basel III, the new prudential standard issued by the Basel Committee. Rather than being merely compliant, China's banking regulation is stricter than the global standard and being implemented ahead of the international timetable. Why is China voluntarily subjecting itself to tougher regulatory standards than the rest of the world? This article shows that low adjustment costs, factional politics, and, above all, an unusual alignment of domestic interests in the quest for international reputation are driving this phenomenon. The troubled institutional history of China's financial system motivates all relevant stakeholders to seek external validation in order to address a credibility gap abroad, albeit for different reasons. The article examines the power of reputation as a driver of regulatory positioning in the context of China's integration into international financial institutions.
Student-to-Student Diplomacy: Chinese International Students as a Soft-Power Tool
Authors: Bislev Ane
Published: February 2019

Chinese international students have become an increasingly visible presence around the globe, and interest in these students has consequently increased among universities, researchers, and policymakers, who often see international students as a source of increased soft power. This article questions the idea of Chinese international students as a soft-power tool. This is done through a critical discussion of the concept of soft power and the rather limited research on educational diplomacy, demonstrating that the analytical vagueness of the concept of soft power leads to an oversimplified understanding of the linkage between international students and soft power. In order to provide a more nuanced understanding of this linkage, the article examines the actual overseas experience of Chinese international students and argues that the linkage between international students and soft power is highly complicated and that these students do not necessarily constitute soft-power resources.
Constraints on the Soft Power Efforts of Authoritarian States: The Case of the 2015 Military Parade in Beijing
Authors: Sørensen Camilla T. N.
Published: February 2019

Is it possible for authoritarian states such as China, Russia, and Iran to combine the soft power narratives directed primarily towards an international audience with the narratives directed primarily towards a domestic audience that are aimed at maintaining regime security? To investigate this question, this article analyses the 2015 military parade in Beijing, using this case to highlight and discuss the constraints on Chinese leaders’ efforts to project soft power. The key finding is that soft power will continue to be the weak link in China's pursuit of a great power position and status as long as what continues to count as “Chinese” is defined in opposition to hostile “others” and the humiliation narrative continues to function as the central identity marker in the party-led construction of national identity (the “us”).
Chinese Human Rights Guidance on Minerals Sourcing: Building Soft Power
Authors: Buhmann Karin
Published: February 2019

China's economic engagement in Africa has been subject to criticism on social and environmental fronts. This analysis examines two sets of guidelines launched by the government-related China Chamber of Commerce of Metals, Minerals and Chemicals. Aiming to promote responsible investment in the minerals sector and due diligence to ensure socially responsible sourcing of minerals with a particular focus on human rights, the guidelines refer to international human rights standards and are designed to be consistent with guidance issued by the OECD. The article discusses the Chinese guidelines as responses to the international critique and concludes they are elements of China's soft-power efforts meant to enhance the country's reputation as a responsible actor on the global stage. The analysis comes from the perspective of China's deployment of state-driven corporate social responsibility (CSR), its complex relationship with international human rights, and its engagement with the international business and human rights (BHR) regime.
Religion and Globalization in Laos
Authors: Rehbein Boike
Published: February 2019

According to Eurocentric sociology, modernization is supposed to make religion secular, a functional system, or a private matter. A closer analysis of the impact of contemporary globalization on religion in Laos shows that these tendencies can only be observed in certain social groups and in certain realms of religion. Some social groups preserve or reinvent religious traditions, others construct a new identity, and some do tend towards secularism or differentiation. The paper investigates these tendencies, referring to an empirical case study. It proposes to explain them within a conceptual framework adapted to societies of the global South which focuses on the concepts of social structure, division of work, socioculture, and institution. On the basis of these concepts, the paper proposes to distinguish between different religious realms, namely, belief, performance, and knowledge. In each of these three realms, different tendencies and social distributions can be observed.
Preah Vihear Reloaded – the Thai-Cambodian Border Dispute
Authors: Meyer Sonja
Published: February 2019

This article investigates the recent Thai-Cambodian border clash over the Preah Vihear temple. The temple was registered as a World Heritage Site in July 2008. Cambodia made its application in 2007, causing nationalist resentments in Thailand. The paper highlights underlying and proximate causes of the military escalation in October 2008 and argues that both sides are likely to dig in their heels as the temple is an important symbol of national identity, territorial integrity, and sovereignty. As such, any concession would involve high political costs that neither side can afford given their current domestic political situation, especially Thailand. Further, both sides are using the conflict for their own benefit in that it creates social cohesion, strengthens national identity, and generates a sense of community. After decades of civil war, this is particularly important in Cambodia.
WTO Compatibility and Rules of Origin – Assessing Bilateral Trade Agreements between Latin America and East Asia
Authors: Loewen Howard
Published: February 2019

Some theorists and practitioners argue that the stability of the global trade system is endangered by trade distorting effects of regional Free Trade Agreements. Does this also hold true for interregional FTAs? Based on criteria, such as scope, rules of origin and WTO notification, it is argued here that interregional FTAs between East Asia and Latin America do not fully confirm the distortion thesis, as the positive effects of WTO-plus elements in the examined FTAs and their positive notification record to the WTO signify. Yet, overlaps between different rules of origin may lessen the multilateral effectiveness of interregional FTAs.
The “Everyday Politics” of IDP Protection in Karen State
Authors: Hull Stephen
Published: February 2019

While international humanitarian access in Burma has opened up over the past decade and a half, the ongoing debate regarding the appropriate relationship between politics and humanitarian assistance remains unresolved. This debate has become especially limiting in regards to protection measures for internally displaced persons (IDPs) which are increasingly seen to fall within the mandate of humanitarian agencies. Conventional IDP protection frameworks are biased towards a top-down model of politically-averse intervention which marginalises local initiatives to resist abuse and hinders local control over protection efforts. Yet such local resistance strategies remain the most effective IDP protection measures currently employed in Karen State and other parts of rural Burma. Addressing the protection needs and underlying humanitarian concerns of displaced and potentially displaced people is thus inseparable from engagement with the “everyday politics” of rural villagers. This article seeks to challenge conventional notions of IDP protection that prioritise a form of state-centric “neutrality” and marginalise the “everyday politics” through which local villagers continue to resist abuse and claim their rights.
Parliamentary Elections in Indonesia: President Susilo on the Rise
Authors: Ufen Andreas
Published: February 2019

The Indonesian parliamentary elections in April 2009 have been characterized as peaceful, free, and fair. All in all, the young democracy has been stabilized. The PD (Partai Demokrat, Democratic Party), the electoral vehicle of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, won with 20.8%. It is mostly secular parties, that is the PD, Golkar (Partai Golongan Karya, Party of Functional Groups) and the PDI-P (Partai Demokrasi Indonesia – Perjuangan, Indonesian Democratic Party – Struggle), which now dominate the party system. Support for the Islamic parties has dwindled; only the Islamist PKS (Partai Keadilan Sejahtera, Prosperous Justice Party) was able to gain slightly. The rapid rise of the PD and two smaller new parties is testimony to the fluidity of the party system. The results corroborate a trend of a weakening of socio-political “streams” ( aliran). This development is due to the increasing personalization and commercialization of politics and the impact of mass media. Moreover, electoral reforms (the introduction of an “open list”) seem to have strengthened local politicians vis-à-vis party headquarters in Jakarta.
Luck, Policy or Something Else Entirely? Vietnam's Economic Performance in 2009 and Prospects for 2010
Authors: Fforde Adam J.
Published: February 2019

Vietnam's economic performance in 2009 is seen by the Vietnamese government and representatives of the Western donor communities as good, with the effects of the global financial crisis relatively mild. The paper notes a lack of contestation of these mainstream views and locates them within an assessment of major trends in 2009, and medium-term issues. Particular focus is placed upon the policy implications of rural development and the need for a strong rationalisation of the state sector. Remarks upon the political economy of change then permit comments upon interactions between economic performance and gathering social and political concern with the political challenges of transition to so-called ‘middle income’ status, which in many countries has posed novel and tricky problems of adjustment, often requiring major social and political adjustments that have not always been successful. The paper concludes by suggesting that, as in the past, Vietnam's style of change finds some things easy and others hard, and that this has its reflection in economic policy and performance.
Alternative Education or Teaching Radicalism? New Literature on Islamic Education in Southeast Asia
Authors: Warnk Holger
Published: February 2019

This review article focuses on three recent publications on Islamic education in Southeast Asia. While two are monographs on South Thailand and Myanmar/ Burma, one is a collection of essays on Indonesia, Malaysia, South Thailand, Cambodia, and the Southern Philippines. All works highlight local, regional and international educational networks, as well as their connections to the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East. Based chiefly on first-hand fieldwork, the works deliver an up-to-date and detailed picture of current discussions and developments regarding Islamic education in Southeast Asia.
A Two-level-games Analysis of AFTA Agreements: What Caused ASEAN States to Move towards Economic Integration?
Authors: Chiou Yi-hung
Published: February 2019

The goal of this article is to investigate the conditions under which ASEAN states are more likely to pursue regional economic integration, namely, a series of ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) agreements/protocols. Adopting Putnam's two-level-games model, this article examines the influences of domestic politics, political elites’ preferences, economic performance, and external impacts. Through the construction of a set of hypotheses, this article investigates five AFTA agreements/ protocols and the conditions of ASEAN states during the 1992–2003 period. The findings indicate that political leaders’ preferences have played a pivotal role in the development of the AFTA. Economic performance and domestic support in individual states has also affected the AFTA. The close link between AFTA agreements and external impacts reveals that the AFTA's inherent nature is defensive.
Does AFTA Create More Trade for Thailand? An Investigation of Some Key Trade Indicators
Authors: Pholphirul Piriya
Published: February 2019

This paper examines whether the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (“AFTA”) creates trade for Thailand or actually diverts it away from the country. It does this by analyzing various trade indicators: the Export Similarity Index, the Intra-Industry Trade Index, and Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) rank correlation. By examining the patterns of trade between Thailand and other members of ASEAN, it reveals a high degree of similarity regarding the trade structure between Thailand and AFTA, which indicates that there will be fewer trade-creation benefits from AFTA and a greater likelihood of trade diversion once the AFTA scheme has been fully implemented. This similarity pattern explains the reasons for future collaboration among member countries and supportive arguments for the future extension of ASEAN (“ASEAN+”). Market-penetration and development strategies should be employed by Thai exporters when accessing the ASEAN market.