Beyond as bridges: The role of the Chinese voluntary associations in Chinese outward foreign direct investment in Southeast Asia

With the implementation of the ‘Go Global’ strategy and the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese enterprises have gradually grown into the main force of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) around the world. Overseas and domestic Chinese voluntary associations (CVAs) have actively promoted inward foreign direct investment in China, while their role in helping Chinese enterprises invest abroad has not been fully revealed. To address this lacuna, we explore the role of CVAs in the foreign direct investment of Chinese enterprises in Southeast Asia and the heterogeneity of their roles based on different types of associations. Our main argument is that CVAs play an intermediary role in shaping Chinese OFDI by facilitating bilateral information exchange and resource matching to enable enterprises' global–local interactions. This research contributes to verifying the impact of CVAs on Chinese enterprises' OFDI and providing implications for both host countries to attract investment and multinational enterprises from China and other developing countries to achieve internationalisation.     

Moving beyond survivalism? Youth perspectives on non-Mandarin Chinese languages in the study of Chinese voluntary associations in Singapore and Vancouver

The contributions of Chinese voluntary associations (CVAs) have often been viewed through a survivalist lens. As a process by which the activities of such organisations are interpreted through a rigid sense of what a Chinese community association is and should be, survivalist tendencies in academic scholarship must be re-thought to fully assess the functions of several types of CVAs, including amid the cultural rise of the People's Republic of China. In light of Sara Ahmed's notion of ‘orientation’, we offer a vantage point from which to rethink the roles of such associations. We do so by illuminating the contributions of key organisations involved in efforts to revitalise Chinese languages other than Mandarin in two locales outside of China, namely the Siong Leng Musical Association and Viriya Community Services in Singapore, and Wongs' Benevolent Association and Youth Collaborative for Chinatown in Vancouver. By focusing on these four voluntary associations in Singapore and Vancouver and, more specifically, on the perspectives of their youth members, we show the similar dialectical nature of their activities, which are caught in the dynamic interplays between local and global cultural forces and between intergenerational perspectives on language use.     

Dual-facing bridges and brokers: Diaspora politics and Chinese voluntary associations

This commentary introduces the term ‘dual facing’ to describe the way that Chinese voluntary associations orientate themselves as collectives situated between the ancestral land (China) and their countries of settlement. The commentary uses examples of Chinese voluntary associations in Singapore and Myanmar to reflect on China's longstanding presence and expanding reach in Southeast Asia, including through its diaspora engagement with the Chinese abroad. It argues that such associations are embedded not only in the nation-building efforts of their countries of settlement, but also the ancestral land. However, this dual-facing orientation also means that they can become embroiled in conflictual domestic and foreign politics at both ends, potentially jeopardising how they are otherwise seen as bridges and brokers by China and in the countries where have settled.     

Between positionality and nudging: A rising China and Chinese voluntary associations in Southeast Asia

Drawing upon cases studies from Southeast Asia, especially Singapore and Malaysia, this article addresses the following questions pertaining to the rise of China and its impact upon Chinese voluntary associations (CVAs) in the region over the past two decades. By employing theoretical insights of positionality, nudging and de-territorialisation and by focusing on various strategies pursued respectively by CVAs and the state, we conclude: (i) the growing economic ties between China and Southeast Asia serve as the platform through which the reconstruction of the CVAs take place; (ii) the reconstitution of the CVAs has been significantly driven by their own initiatives to compete in a new economy, in which knowledge of and connection with a rising China as an expanding market and a culture has advantages; (iii) the states in both China and Southeast Asia have played a part in the reconfiguration of the CVAs, motivated by their respective political and economic agendas; and (iv) it is imperative to go beyond the conventional approaches in understanding CVAs (internal structure and external connections) that have dominated much of the existing literature; and we argue that it is in the interactions and intersections between the internal dynamics and external political economy that a new type of CVAs has emerged.     

What do newspapers make of China in the South Pacific?

The purpose of this research note is to provide an empirical indication of how China's increasing role in the South Pacific has been presented in their own and other nations' media over the last 20 years. What is the tone of coverage? Which issues are salient? How does this vary by nation? What changes are there over time? This research note reports information derived from over 1000 articles published in Australasian, Asian and Pacific newspapers in the last 20 years. The findings demonstrate that nations dealing with ‘China's rise’ in the South Pacific are faced with a range of complex issues, which can produce ambivalent and mixed reactions. For instance, although the tone of Australian and New Zealand newspaper coverage of China's entry into their ‘special patch’ is, overall, more negative than positive, negativity is largely driven by coverage of China's diplomatic efforts in the region and geopolitical considerations. Other aspects of China's expanding role (e.g. economic and cultural aspects) are treated much more positively. Similarly, although the major focus of Pacific newspapers is on Chinese aid and economic impact, which are treated very positively, coverage of other issues can be negative.     

Negotiating China's rise: The dynamics of Chinese business associations and the Belt and Road Initiative in Brunei Darussalam

With an increasingly assertive China and the intensifying influence of the Sinocentre, Chinese overseas who have access to Chineseness can exercise their agentic power in using their cultural capital for economic gains. Beijing has recognised the potential for diasporic Chinese entrepreneurs to contribute to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) given their influence in Southeast Asia's economy. Correspondingly, these entrepreneurs hail the BRI as a strategic opportunity for them to turn their cultural capital into fiscal capital. Considering the increased global connectivity and new Chinese migration geographies led by the BRI, this article examines the case of Chinese business associations in Brunei Darussalam. The heterogenous responses of these ethnic Chinese and their associations to China and the BRI attest to the multiplicity and contestations of Chineseness based on different migration histories and sentiments to their ancestral land. We focus on the dynamics between the old Chinese Bruneian business elites and the more recent Chinese business migrants from Malaysia and China. An investigation of the cultural and economic politics within the Chinese Bruneian business community will provide insights into the modality of Chineseness as an economic asset that can be tactically used by diasporic Chinese entrepreneurs to maintain their social position and to respond to China's economic rise.     

Decoding Australia's China threat narrative during 2016–2021

Australia–China relations began to sour in 2016, and the China threat narrative began to dominate since then. Unlike previous studies which either use a qualitative approach or cross-sectional dataset for empirical analysis, this study creatively creates high-frequency weekly and monthly time series datasets using the Google Trends search results during January 2016–February 2021. Based on a series of time series modellings, this study examines the roles of various actors, including China's own policies, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and Clive Hamilton, various factors, including Chinese purchase of Australian housing, Chinese investment in Australia, Chinese students in Australia and China's rise and various media outlets, including the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australian Financial Review, Sydney Morning Herald, Daily Telegraph and Herald Sun, in contributing to Australia's China threat narrative. This study makes significant contributions to academia in methods by bringing a new quantitative approach to international relations studies and to policy-makers as well by quantifying the roles of various actors, factors and media outlets in Australia's China policy debate.     

人民币汇率升值对中国粮食安全影响的一般均衡金融模型分析

通过构建一般均衡金融模型,分析了汇率变化对中国粮食安全的影响。模拟结果显示,现有中国经济增长条件下,人民币升值5%、10%、20%,对中国经济增长产生了较为持久的负面影响。与工业部门一样,人民币升值对农业部门也产生了产出、就业、投资及产出价格下降的严重影响,这种影响关系到农产品生产和供给,与中国的粮食安全息息相关,自2005年以来,人民币实际升值22%,过去的几年中,除粮食生产外,中国农产品生产遭受诸多价格风险,理论上,隐藏在农产品价格风险背后的因素,人民币升值有一定的作用。所以,人民币升值进程中,必须密切关注中国的农产品生产特别是粮食生产的安全。     

The rise of Chinese foreign direct investment in the United States: Disentangling investment strategies of state-owned and private enterprises

Over the last two decades, China's outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) has expanded rapidly. The country is now the world's second-largest source of OFDI. China is often viewed as a monolithic investor, however, without sufficient attention to the differences between investments by state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and private enterprises (PEs). To shed light on the internal complexity and heterogeneity of Chinese OFDI, we construct a panel dataset of investments in the U.S. across the 50 states and Washington, D.C. from 2005 to 2017, which we analyze using a spatial autoregressive model. We find clear evidence that the ownership structure of Chinese firms affects investment strategy and entry mode. Statistical analysis indicates that SOEs are more likely to pursue greenfield investment motivated by market-seeking and resource-seeking objectives, while PEs pursue mergers and acquisitions in order to obtain strategic assets. We also detect a positive and significant relationship between the presence of Chinese overseas communities and OFDI, with the strength of the correlation depending on ownership structure. Finally, we find that Chinese OFDI is spatially dependent, meaning that investments flow to states where they are already concentrated nearby.     

China's compliance in global environmental affairs

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

Shenzhen in China's Financial Center Networks

Shenzhen, China, aspires to be an international financial center; however, its financial sector occupies an anomalous position in China's networks. The sector is tightly integrated into mainland networks, and Shenzhen's local banks provide access to Hong Kong's networks. Nonetheless, the city's proximity to Hong Kong, the Asia‐Pacific center of financial networks, confers few incremental benefits compared to those received by other mainland centers. The proposed Qianhai financial district, which is to be a laboratory for opening China's capital accounts, does not differentially boost Shenzhen because other financial centers will be allowed to experiment. A network theory of financial centers provides the explanatory framework for interpreting Shenzhen in China's financial center networks. Empirical analyses focus on Shenzhen's network ties with the Mainland and with Hong Kong. Shenzhen's future rests on the capacity of its financial firms to participate in the networks of South China, as well as to operate across the Mainland.     

Whether polycentric spatial structure is conducive to regional coordinated development: A study on urban agglomerations in China

With the aggravation of congestion, pollution, and other negative externalities generated by continued urbanization, polycentric strategies have gradually become one of the main urban and regional spatial strategies. It remains unclear, however, whether the polycentric structure is conducive to regional coordinated development. This study examines these issues using China's urban agglomerations (UAs) as a sample. The Prolonged Artificial Nighttime-light Dataset of China (PANDA) was used to measure the polycentric structure. The results of the nonparametric identification of sub-centers show that almost all of China's UAs exhibit multiple (sub)centers, and the number of (sub)centers in most UAs has increased from 1992 to 2020. Empirical analysis shows that a polycentric structure is beneficial for narrowing regional disparities within the UA, and the narrowing effect of the polycentric structure on regional disparities increases as the distance between centers increases. Furthermore, a polycentric spatial structure is more conducive to the economic growth of small cities in UA, thereby promoting the coordinated development of regions within UA.     

Performing ‘Chinese‐ness’ in Singkawang: Diasporic moorings,festivals and tourism

Through an examination of two festivals – Qing Ming and Cap Go Meh – in the town of Singkawang in Indonesian Borneo (Kalimantan), we show how Singkawang‐bound Chinese Indonesian tourists and their Singkawang‐based relatives produce a diasporic heritage network through ‘moorings’ generated by both transnational and internal migration. Instead of returning to a singular ‘homeland’ in distant China, these tourists return to Chinese‐majority Singkawang as a result of their personal genealogical roots and of their broader cultural allegiance with a kind of Chinese‐ness that Singkawang has come to represent within a post‐Suharto Indonesia. Through these two festivals, we demonstrate how personal heritage practices like ‘roots tourism’ and visiting friends and relatives are intimately bound up with identity and developmental politics at local, national and international scales. In so doing, we identify a range of ways in which migratory and tourism flows by Chinese Indonesian internal migrants shape relations to their ancestral hometowns and cultural ‘homelands’ in Indonesia within the context of membership to and participation in a broader transnational diaspora.     

中国与泰国农产品贸易竞争性和互补性研究

泰国是中国的友好邻邦,农产品贸易合作不断深化。2016年,泰国农业和合作部推动大面积种植计划,大幅度提高粮食产量,势必对农产品进出口产生影响。在新形势下对中国与泰国农产品贸易特征进行研究,可以为农业部门对外贸易决策提供依据。研究结果表明：2006年至2015年,中国与泰国农产品贸易额不断扩大,蔬菜、水果、水产品、棉花、谷物、糖类的贸易量较大;中国农产品的RCA指数全部小于1,泰国农产品的RCA指数全部大于1;中国农产品出口对泰国农产品进口的TCI指数均小于1,2008年至2015年泰国农产品出口对中国农产品进口的TCI指数均大于1。     

食物安全的内涵、指标与评价方法综述

食物安全问题一直是国内外研究的热点。目前,全球食物安全面临严重挑战,前景并不乐观。作为世界上人口和食物消费最大的国家,中国的食物安全面临更大挑战,但对其认识学术界还存在争论。为了准确把握食物安全的内涵,科学评价中国食物安全的状况,首先分析了食物安全概念的演变,然后总结了评价食物安全状况的供需平衡指标、消费指标、营养指标、综合指标,以及评价粮食安全状况的常用指标。随着人民生活水平的提高,中国的食物结构发生了根本的改变,因此,今后食物安全的研究应由单纯的粮食安全转向包括所有食物种类的食物安全,内容应更注重食物综合保障能力及营养安全。     

Export trade and smog pollution: Empirical evidence from China

This paper examines the impact of China's export trade on smog pollution. Based on provincial panel data from 2006 to 2016 in China, we use spatial econometric methods to empirically investigate the smog pollution effects of China's export trade from two dimensions, export scale and export structure. It has been found that smog pollution in various regions of China has obvious spatial correlation; China's export trade has a significant positive impact on smog pollution, whether in terms of export scale or export structure. After establishing different forms of spatial weight matrices and considering alternative indicators of smog pollution, the results of this paper are still robust.     

Chinese Indonesians in a rapidly changing nation: Pressures of ethnicity and identity

Abstract: Throughout periods of political instability and economic adversity – from Dutch colonial rule, through President Suharto's period in office, to more recent times – ethnic Chinese in Indonesia have been recurrent scapegoats for violence. Suharto, especially, manipulated local perceptions of the Chinese in the economic and political arenas, to suit the needs of his government. Yet, circumstances have changed since the 1998 riots in Indonesia and Suharto's departure. Subsequent presidents have introduced legislation aimed at reducing legal restrictions on Chinese Indonesians and they, in turn, are beginning to have greater public voice through a diversity of outlets. These include the growth of numerous new print and television media; a flourishing literature sphere; the rise of a variety of political parties, both ethnicity‐based and more wide‐ranging; and the development of non‐political organisations, some tackling discrimination and others focusing upon Chinese sociocultural needs. These channels are facilitating the appearance of new and re‐emerging ethnic Chinese identities, some surfacing from over 30 years of imposed dormancy. This paper is a preliminary investigation of manifestations of these identities among ethnic Chinese in Indonesia's contemporary public realm.     

基于熵权法的中国玉米产业系统安全度的模糊估算与分析

为了对中国玉米产业安全进行动态评价与变化趋势分析,采用基于熵权法和模糊综合评价法建立玉米产业系统安全综合评价模型,利用历史及预测数据对1999—2017 年玉米系统安全度进行估算,据此对中国玉米产业系统安全状态进行总体评价。结果表明：近年来中国玉米产业安全形势不容乐观,2007—2017 年中国玉米产业的安全状态波动加剧,玉米及其副产品进口量大幅增加,进口依赖性增强,国际资本对中国玉米产业股权控制加强则是影响玉米安全的主要因素。据此提出积极应对玉米产业外资进入、降低玉米进口国别依存度、努力掌握玉米贸易定价权等对策。