Considering the importance of technology for industrial structure upgrading, especially under the impetus of the fourth industrial revolution, the paper examines the impact of technology importation on industrial structure upgrading in 31 Chinese provinces from 2002 to 2020. It also emphasises the moderating role of institutional environment based on two dimensions of industrial upgrading. The findings indicate that technology importation has a positive effect on industrial advancement; however, its impact on industrial rationalisation is not significant. A higher-quality institutional environment can indirectly contribute to the impact of technology importation on industrial upgrading. Finally, the effects of technology importation and institutional environment on industrial upgrading vary with regions, and there are also differences in the moderating effects of different aspects of institutional quality. Therefore, the article suggests that technology should be introduced according to the institutional environment of different regions, and the government should develop personalised industrial upgrading strategies.
This paper distinguishes between different forms of government intervention in a micro economy, including a firm’s tax burden, regulatory stringency, state shares and collective shares. The author offers a first attempt to explore how these types of government intervention affect a firm’s financial access. With evidence from China, he uses the 2005 World Bank Investor Climate survey data to confirm that a firm’s financial access is promoted by its tax burden and regulatory stringency but constrained by its state shares and collective shares. His estimates are robust to the potential endogeneity issue, the different measures of financial access and different samples. Given that most governments explicitly or implicitly dictate financial resources, this paper offers general applications for government policies or corporate finance.
Beginning with an overview of the interconnection between literature and philosophy in modern Chinese literature, this paper analyses the novel Fortress Besieged (1947) written by Qian Zhongshu, a polyglot Chinese scholar of East-West comparative literature and philosophy. It compares the novel’s overarching allegory, i. e. a fortress besieged, in juxtaposition with the philosophical allegories about the mutability and limitations of human life. It concludes with a reflection on the seminal influence of this novel in contemporary Chinese society where “fortress besieged” has become an everyday word referring to one’s existential crisis.
The theme of the paper is to reveal how well-prepared pre-service teachers think they are. It aims at reviewing the 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 cohorts studying for a BA in TEFL at a university by examining the impact and the effectiveness of four-year pre-service English education in a Chinese university context, and what needs to be improved and maintained from the perspective of trainees. Questionnaires were used, followed by semi-structured interviews. The questionnaires were completed by 300 participants, 200 of whom were then randomly chosen as interviewees. Despite finding some inconsistency in the four-year BA TEFL program, the result obtained from investigation of the cohort of student teachers is still satisfying.
The Caspian region for centuries was the arena of geopolitical rivalry for Russia, Turkey, Iran, Britain and France to establish control and influence in the area. The emergence of independent states in Central Asia followed by disintegration of the USSR, has brought new reality in terms of politics and economy in the region and created opportunities for western energy companies to access sources of energy alternative to Gulf countries. Currently, the “new great game” in Central Asia – competition for strategic influence and take control over transportation routes for oil and natural gas an from the Caspian Basin, is focusing regional and global interests of great powers, both in terms of security and economic aspects related with prospects of energy resources exploration. Among the EU -27 member states, there is a serious split in the approach to energy security issue, dictated by interests diversity. Shaping a common EU energy policy requires the full commitment of the European Commission and EU Member States. The creation of a coherent EU energy policy towards the Caspian region means to define a common energy interests of member states. But this depends on political willingness to overcome particularistic interests of the largest states when they are in collision with strategic goals of the Community.
The present economy requires the formation of pro-innovative behaviours, which themselves create conditions required for the effective generation and initiation of one’s own achievements in the scientific-technical realm. The role of the state in the economy and its influence on economic processes undergoes a number of changes in reference to the range and form of influence, and also in the intensity of the influence of public powers on the economy. Realisation of this work requires the ability to use accessible legal and economic instruments in patent policies, which stimulate the development of a country’s creativity and inventiveness. This article strives to analyse how changes in Chinese patent law have influenced patent activity during a period that has seen “three great reforms to patent law in China”. The first part presents the role of patents as the basis for qualifying the mechanisms of influence on innovations and the outline of legislative changes in China. The second part offers an analysis of the profile and range of patent activity there. The conclusions of the article discuss the positive relationship between changes in patent protection and the observed rate of innovations in China, of which an essential element is the observed “patent boom”.
China is planning to develop a green energy sector. Their activities plan to change the energy balance mainly dependant on coal. During the next five years Beijing would like to promote the use of clean energy and an increase in the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption. The future modernization of the state economy should consider more alternative sources of energy. It is necessary to achieve sustainable development and to increase the state of economy competitiveness.
The teleology of transition to capitalism in general and China's turn to capitalism in particular prescribe for observers of China an academic agenda preoccupied with the conditions of establishing capitalism. Studies of transition in China have up to this point lacked bottom-up, past-oriented, and inside-out perspectives that would allow the formation of discourse for the masses, presumably driven by the force of transition to respond from their indigenous positions. To find what possible stories there could be if such perspectives that are not intellectually intelligible from the transition point of view are to be translated into transition narratives is the purpose of this paper. Epistemologically interpreting the case at hand as an anomaly could be a useful methodology to ameliorate the deterministic and teleological proclivity in the current literature on transition. In this way, agents of transition are more than agents. They acquire insights into micro-perspectives on transition that are not allowed in the teleology toward liberalism. Agents of transition could participate in transition research by articulating, consciously as well as subconsciously, how they have strategically practiced transition, making researchers of macro-transition equal partners in transition.
The article aims at presenting Bertolt Brecht's theatrical concepts and their influence on the contemporary Chinese theatre. His plays began to reappear on Chinese stages in the late 1970s and were performed by experimental and professional theatre groups in Hong Kong and Taiwan, particularly in the 1980s. However, a narrow group of Chinese artists got acquainted with the aesthetics of Brechtian theatre, propagated by Huang Zuolin, in the 1950s. Brecht was then seen as an inspiring source of theatrical quest by Gao Xingijan in the 1960s. The article analyzes the concept of actor and models of acting developed by Gao Xingijan and Bertolt Brecht. The emphasis placed by the Chinese theatre on the actor and acting techniques turns out to be fully compliant with what Brecht was searching for.
The author's aim was to present the East-Asian aspect of economic globalization. The article was based on studies concerning globalization and the recent history of Asia. After the World War II the greatest Asian powers, India and China, decided that the only way which would allow them to change their peripheral position and transform their economic dependency into interdependency was to overcome the asymmetric relations with the world economy and to focus on development of the domestic market. Nowadays, an economic progress in India and China is observed. The final effect of the Indian and Chinese state economic endeavors has proved compatible with the globalization process. It also constitutes a driving force behind the economic globalization. India and China have overcome their peripheral position and joined the world economy. The Asian economy has grown to the rank of a new economic center.
The article aims at presenting the meaning of Confucianism in the contemporary countries of East Asia. China has been developing very fast and it is not only a prognosis for the 21st century, but already a fact. The traditional Confucianism is being discovered once again in China nowadays, which seems to be important in the times of globalization. Since 1980s it has been described as the 'new Confucianism', and the Confucian tradition has been modernized. The article analyses the role of the Chinese culture in the process of globalization, presents the debate concerning Asian values, and describes the continuity of tradition in the modern China. It shows that the 'new' Confucianism can be an alternative to the western modernization for China.
In China there are different categories of enterprises, like state-owned companies, private and modern globalizing organizations. Regardless of the character of the company, their functioning and human resources management are strongly influenced by the Chinese culture. Confucianism is the inherent part and a great symbol of Chinese culture and it has had a strong impact on Chinese way of thinking, living, working and developing. Confucianism as a moral and ethical system, promotes human virtues like: Filial piety, Loyalty and Relationships. All Confucian virtues are important to understand how people and organizations function today. There is a great question about the modern vitality of Confucianism. The arrival of Western culture in the nineteenth century, however, essentially rejected the self-change or self-adjustment preferred by Confucians. Arguably, there is a need for a new moral foundation for political rule in China, as well as a new philosophy that can provide moral guidance in everyday life. The relationship between Confucianism and Western liberalism is one of the most important unsettled questions in modern China. The key issue connecting Confucianism with modern and future reality includes the position of the organization leader, which is characterized by huge distance between him and his employees. Workers are organized in more and more modern structures, however the high position, respect and aloofness existing between leader and workers is still very strong. That is why the structure and management of workers has become the key issue to the high-positioned leader or manager.
Having drawn a history of the use of Confucianism in modern times in selected Asian countries (Acta Asiatica Varsoviensia No. 23), the author focuses on the question of evaluation of contemporary adaptations of Confucianism. The article quotes the opinions of the Chinese luminaries of philosophy from 1958 (New Confucian Manifesto), the earlier opinions of traditional thinkers (Chen Xujing (1933), Wang Xinming (1935), and of contemporary Taiwanese (Yi-yuan Li (1967), Chun-chieh Huang (2009)) concerning the usefulness of Confucianism in our contemporary time. This is followed by a critical discussion of the views of Zhu Rukai (2006) and Jiang Qing (2009), and the two Confucian concepts of the “harmonious society” (hexie shehui), “soft power”, and “moral government” (dezhi) enjoying top-down promotion. Further, in a fictionalised form, it presents a vision of living in a contemporary Confucian society. Finally, in the postscript, it reminds of the existence of another option, represented by the former participants of “the cultural revolution”.
The starting point is the assumption that civic transformations and China cannot be understood and analysed only on the grounds of the Western, normative understanding of the individual and the society. It is emphasised that as a rule Western analysis of the development of China - beginning with Western experience and notions describing the process of development - cannot be a useful universal benchmark for defining social changes in the Chinese process of modernisation. The study reaches a conclusion that despite great changes of civic and social, economic, and political nature, the human is still not treated as an individual making independent decisions, but as a creature that is evaluated in relationship to the community and to the whole. This does not mean that there are no individual orientations or civic groups originating within the existing limits. It is emphasised that despite all the occurring changes, the existing identity may still be defined as cultural and state identity, yet increasingly opening to other civilisations.
While policy reaction functions of most major central banks are routinely approximated by fitting Taylor (type) rules to their policy rate, there is no such consensus for the People’s Bank of China (PBoC). What makes it hard to get a clear impression of the “true” reaction function is that most papers in the extensive literature focus on a single aspect of the reaction function typically mostly comparing it to one (or a few) widely used baseline models. Contrarily, we assess a broad range of questions regarding the reaction function in a unified approach, estimating several hundred reaction functions. While we find that no single policy measure fully captures all aspects of the PBoC’s policy, our paper provides clear evidence for asymmetric behaviour, support for an important role of monetary aggregates. There is robust evidence that the PBoC includes objectives beyond price and business cycle stabilization; more specifically, there is robust evidence that it responds to financial stability, considers its own macro-prudential policy by flanking it with cushioning monetary policies, and stabilizes the exchange rate.
Jianzhen (688-763), a Chinese monk, scholar and an expert in medicine, accepted an invitation by a group of Japanese emissaries to lecture in their home country. He set on a perilous journey and after a total of six attempts, he managed to reach the shores of Kyushu. The odds he and his disciples faced during the journey included unfavourable weather conditions, numerous government interventions and, finally, an eye infection that made him blind. Jianzhen's journey was documented years after his arrival in Japan by a court official, Omi no Mifune (722-785). This biography, although based on the information provided by Jianzhen's disciples who survived the journey and settled in Japan, contains elements that are clearly mythological and the characters appearing throughout the text are often seen through stereotypes rooted in the mind of ancient Japanese aristocracy members.
The topical processes of modern identity-making within Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) on the one hand, and China on the other, are fundamentally results of different forms of cultural and economic transformation, conflict and harmonious social adjustment. The aim of the present article is to show the need to appreciate the role of culture not only as a background to, but also as a constitutive part of, economic dynamics. Thus, it assumes that any comparative analysis of the rise of transitional societies must deal with questions connected to respective value systems, i.e. issues of moral education, political authority, social solidarity, and religious beliefs. It is not coincidental that the rapid recent development of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) owes much to such crucial traditional virtues as social hierarchy, self-discipline, social harmony, strong families and a respect for education. In this context, the present article examines the revival of the Confucian tradition in China. According to previous research results, traditional East European values were in many aspects closer to such virtues then traditional Western values that have been mainly focused upon the idea of individual autonomy. Hence, this study examines the hypothesis that the Central and Eastern European area could function as a cultural and axiological bridge between China and Europe.
The purpose of this study was to provide a better understanding of the link between perfectionism and depression by examining the role of self-efficacy as a moderator in the relationship. Using a convenient sampling method, a sample of 570 university students completed Almost Perfect Scale-Revised (APS-R), General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE) and The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Correlation analyses indicated that maladaptive perfectionism was positively correlated with depression, and negatively correlated with self-efficacy. In contrast, adaptive perfectionism was positively correlated with self-efficacy, and was not correlated with depression. Moreover, the present study confirms the moderating effect of self-efficacy between maladaptive perfectionism and depression in Chinese university students. The results support the notion that adaptive perfectionism is distinct from maladaptive perfectionism. Some practical implications of the present findings are discussed.
Since the second decade of the 21st century, the Chinese economy has reached a qualitatively higher stage of development. In literature, this development stage is referred to as the “new normal” and is characterized by the balancing of disproportions in the Chinese economy. The present paper deals with the qualitative changes in Chinese foreign trade from the end of the global financial crisis to the present “new normal” era. The main aim of the paper is to examine the qualitative changes in the commodity structure of China’s exports and imports during the “new normal” in the second decade of the 21st century. We conclude that during this period, the Chinese economy was transformed into an economy with a high GDP share of innovative secondary and tertiary sectors with a change in the commodity structure of foreign trade in favour of high valued products. We conclude that China’s position in the world economy is changing from a “world factory” to an innovative economy.
This article identifies developmental trajectory of changes which were undergone by the China economy during its transformation. Particular attention is paid to the impact of inflows and outflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) since their importance during this process was essential. It presents the views of leading experts on the economic direction of the country and points out the influence of the expansion of China on the international positions of other countries. Based on the theory of Flying Geese Pattern, presents a philosophy of strategic government actions aimed at strengthening the international position of Chinese economy as well as its ability to successfully adapt to external and internal consequences, including of undervalued domestic currency (CNY), resulting from the long-term financial crisis. The result of a rapid growth will deepen the general dependence of world economy on China. In a basal manner it will determine strategic intentions and development space of all world centres which will have to adapt to the new situation.
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