Governing climate change in Hong Kong: Prospects for market mechanisms in the context of emissions trading in China

Hong Kong continues to struggle over which environmental governance approach is in its best interest while fulfilling its environmental obligations. With regard to climate change, Hong Kong's approach is characterised by a passive form of governance that is highly dependent on China's national policy directions. This is reflected, for example, in Hong Kong having not set its own mitigation targets. Market mechanisms have received little attention in developing a city‐wide climate change strategy. A transformative impulse, China's national emissions trading scheme, may provide momentum to a market‐based approach. However, the necessary conditions for such a market mechanism to be successfully implemented in China remain relatively undeveloped. This raises question about early participation by Hong Kong. Direct benefits are likely to be limited, due to Hong Kong's economic structure and weak demand for emissions reduction. Besides, there are regulatory barriers to enforcing emissions targets and/or recognising emissions allowances and credits from China. We therefore argue that nationwide emissions trading may, at this time, present more challenges than opportunities for Hong Kong to leverage its efforts on climate change mitigation. An alternative is to promote voluntary emissions trading that will require active involvement and leadership by businesses.     

Cross‐border ‘Traffic’: Stories of dangerous victims,pure whores and HIV/AIDS in the experiences of mainland female sex workers in Hong Kong

Abstract: In recent years, dramatically increasing numbers of mainland Chinese women have entered Hong Kong to engage in sexual labour. Public discourses on the threat of HIV/AIDS increasingly locate these women's bodies as sites of danger, colluding with pre‐existing imaginations of mainland rural women as ignorant, desperate and deceptive in representing these women's penetration of Hong Kong's border as a primary means of infection of the Hong Kong body. Drawing on state, media and popular representations, and the narratives of female sex workers themselves, this paper examines the interwoven bio‐medical, gendered, sexual and cross‐border relationships that intersect in the experiences of mainland Chinese sex workers in Hong Kong. I argue that while images of disease and danger have been used to regulate these women's bodies, mainland female sex workers challenge these images by drawing on other popular stereotypes of mainland women as pure, feminine and traditional. Although images of the related but still ‘other’ figure of the mainland Chinese woman are powerful mechanisms for the regulation of these women's bodies, mainland female sex workers skilfully use inherent tensions in those images in resisting that control and in struggling to achieve their own personal and economic goals.     

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 Changing Geography of Domestic Financial City Network in China, 1995–2015

Based on longitudinal office distribution data on top domestic financial enterprises, this study explores the evolution of China's financial city network in the last two decades by means of a social network analysis. The position of each city in financial city network is evaluated from two aspects which are external financial resources attraction and headquarters financial development based, respectively, on urban weighted indegree and urban weighted outdegree. Taking these two aspects together, the top echelons of the financial city network can be regarded as potential national or regional financial centers. Furthermore, by means of a panel data regression analysis, determining factors of financial city network evolution are explored from perspectives of location, institution, and social‐economy. We find that most cities have witnessed significant changes in city position, especially in terms of external financial resources attraction, and the influencing factors of financial development vary by region due to the disparities in regional financial development environments.     

Hong Kong and the globalisation of the Chinese diaspora: a geographical perspective

This study examines the processes of spatial restructuring in the Hong Kong–South China region. The paper analyses urban‐rural interaction in a historical and transnational context. Based on detailed census data collected in 1961 and 1996, this study traces the origins of the Hongkongers and maps out their spatial distribution according to their native place identities. The heightened population movement between the rural hinterland in the South China region and the Hong Kong metropolis is inseparable from territorial organisation on the Chinese mainland. The great spatial mobility demonstrated by the Hongkongers, or, their ‘refugee mentality’ as it is known, is found to be deeply rooted in their marginal sub‐ethnic identity in the nation. A systematic analysis of spatial data reveals that the diasporic landscape developed in Hong Kong has been polarised by the élite English and Shanghainese speakers on the one end and the Kejia people on the other end. Despite the processes of globalisation, the great spatial mobility of the Hong Kong sojourners and the diasporic landscape they have created have been effectively shaped by their place‐based ethno‐linguistic identities. If the transnational movement of people is considered an important component of globalisation, then this study reinforces the importance of locality and contests the fashionable notion of globalisation as a ‘placeless’ phenomenon. The seemingly displaced empire of Chinese diaspora capitalism, in which Hong Kong has played a crucial part, has remained grounded by pre‐existing place‐specific conditions.     

Creativity and Inequality: The Dual Path of China's Urban Economy?

Utilizing Chinese data for the years of 1998, 2000, 2005, and 2008, this research traces the growth of the creative economy and the enlarging income inequality in China's urban economy. While the creative sector now makes up close to 30 percent of China's urban private employment, industry‐based earnings disparity has also increased substantively. Provinces with larger creative economy also tend to have higher level of wage inequality among workers of the creative sector, the working sector, and the service sector. Several other factors, especially internal migration flow, size of manufacturing, and ownership structure in local economy, are found to be significantly linked to inequality as well.     

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.     

Refocusing on China: The Case of Hong Kong’s Hutchison Whampoa

We know little about the location decisions of large Chinese conglomerates and how this relates to their restructuring in a dynamic Asia­Pacific environment. This case study of one of Hong Kong’s latest conglomerates, Hutchison Whampoa, begins with the company’s decision to remain in Hong Kong after 1997. Restructuring has been carried out primarily by acquiring new enterprises in its existing specialised areas of retail, manufacturing, telecommunications, media and services and reducing interests in property, energy, finance and investment. This has been accompanied by its expansion into southern China where it has focused on infrastructure development, steps which have built on its Chinese credentials — clan origins and personal connections.     

China’s transport and communications firms: transforming national champions into global players

China’s entry into the World Trade Organisation (WTO) exposes its state‐owned maritime, aviation and telecommunications operators to unprecedented competition. This development raises a series of critical issues about China’s transition from a state‐planned regime towards a real market economy. How will China’s leading state‐owned firms in deep‐sea container shipping, air passenger transport and telecommunications respond to the dilemma posed by the World Trade Organisation and to what extent has Hong Kong been involved in China’s transport and communications restructuring process? These broad issues are addressed by examining progress on the Chinese Government’s post‐1993 plans to restructure each of the key state enterprises in sea‐land transport, air transport and telecommunications. Specifically we are concerned with the degree to which China’s national champions in these transport and communications arenas have been remade into global players. Particular attention is paid to the role of Hong Kong in this transformation since its return to China in 1997. Our studies show that China has transformed its national champions into a global players in container shipping. The process may be beginning to happen in air transport but has yet to get underway in telecommunications.     

Place,identity and immigrant communities: The organisation of the Yulan Festival in post‐war Hong Kong

Abstract: In the process of migration, some traditions persist while others do not. The Yulan Festival, also known as the Ghost Festival, continues to be observed by different subethnic Chinese migrant groups in Hong Kong for a variety of reasons. Although the festival organisation accentuates subethnic distinctions, paradoxically it also enables different groups to integrate into the larger community. The activities articulate various meanings of ‘place’– as ‘ancestral place’ on the mainland where
the rituals are believed to originate, as the specific locality/neighbourhood in Hong Kong where the festival is held, and Hong Kong as a whole. This article, based on interviews with Chiu Chow and Hoklo participants, shows how they think of the different meanings of ‘place’, which in turn reflects the way they make sense of the process of migration.     

Bank Restructuring and Access to Financial Services: The Spanish Case

The Spanish bank sector has restructured extensively since the crisis erupted in 2008 in an attempt to correct the imbalances accumulated during the preceding boom years. Thanks to this restructuring effort, Spain's branch network has been pared back by 32 percent, prompting questions about potential ramifications for the population's access to financial services. Against this backdrop, this paper quantifies, at the municipal level, the segment of the population without access to a bank branch in their home town between 2008 and 2015, paving the way for analysis of the impact of the restructuring effort. It also analyses the role played by the three kinds of deposit institutions in Spain in providing access to financial services via their branch networks. The results show that although the percentage of the Spanish population without access to a branch in their home town has risen, the increase has been small, albeit marked by significant differences from one province to the next. The savings banks (including the former cajas that have converted to banks) are still the most important financial institutions in terms of facilitating branch access to financial services.     

State Policies,Enterprise Dynamism,and Innovation System in Shanghai,China

ABSTRACT Today rapidly growing economies depend more on the creation, acquisition, distribution, and use of knowledge. As such, strategies for enhancing research and innovation capabilities have come to occupy a more important position in many developing nations, including China. Already the leading production center, and often seen as China's economic locomotive, Shanghai is striving aggressively to retain its national preeminence and has launched concerted efforts to increase local innovative output. The primary purpose of this paper is to understand how state‐led efforts have fared in promoting technology innovation. By situating the city in the national and global context, the paper shows that Shanghai has gained a substantial lead in developing an innovation environment with extensive global linkages and leading research institutions. Recent efforts in building up the research and innovation capacity of the enterprise sector have begun to show progress. Although firms are enthusiastic about its future as an innovation center, Shanghai continues to face challenges of inadequate protection of intellectual property, lack of venture capital investment, and the tightening supply of highly qualified knowledge workers.     

Evolution of spatial structure patterns of city networks in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from the perspective of corporate pledge linkage

The pledge of stock rights is a method for measuring the external horizontal connections of enterprises, which is more suitable to represent the city network compared with the vertical connections of enterprises. Meanwhile, it is greatly significant to express the relationships of regional spaces. The paper characterizes and explores the evolution of urban spatial structure with complex network research methods to enrich the relevant works on city networks in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2011 to 2017. The results are as follows: First, from 2011 to 2017, the pledge of stock rights among cities was enhanced significantly, and the trend of the city networks' characteristics become strengthened and more complicated. Second, cities in the Yangtze River Delta have relatively high connection values, however, cities in the western area are holding peripheral positions within the city network. Third, due to the advantages of economic agglomeration and radiation, the provincial capital have become the core nodes in the city network. Fourth, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Nanjing have dominant positions within city networks in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Particularly, Shanghai, as one of the leading financial centers in China, has a growing influence on other cities and gradually evolved into a regional growth pole city and the first core city.     

基于GRNN算法的潜在产出与产出缺口估算模型

基于神经网络学习性、非参数估计的优势,建立估算经济潜在产出和产出缺口的广义回归神经网络（GRNN）模型,对中国产出缺口和潜在产出增速的1978—2015年数据进行估算、2016—2020年数据进行多步预测,实证分析较好地克服了生产函数法中由于事先假设确定的函数形式及选择不同函数结果不同的问题,并且所估算的潜在产出增速与经济增速具有较高的契合度。模型分析得出：中国经济增长速度大致维持在潜在产出增长率水平附近,便可实现通货膨胀率维持在合理水平,且较好地实现总体供需平衡的目的。     

Flexibility and Adjustment: The Hong Kong Watch Industry and Global Change

A case study of the Hong Kong watch industry demonstrates the adaptive flexibility of labor-intensive industrial clusters. The study describes the evolution of industry in Hong Kong, and highlights the unique attributes of the country's economic history which have influenced the structure of production systems in the country. Focusing on the role of global competition, the case study identifies the constraints posed by a labor-intensive flexible production system in the face of continuous technological change in the industry.     

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.     

Emerging geography of technological innovation in China's ICT industry: Region,inter‐firm linkages and innovative performance in a transitional economy

This study critically evaluates the relevance of the existing theory of technological innovation to the case of China's information and communications technology industry. Based on a large‐scale questionnaire survey conducted in China's three most important city‐regions, namely, Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, where the core of China's information and communications technology industry is located, this study reveals a significant regional variation in technological innovation in a political economy undergoing marketisation and globalisation. This research has found no significant relationship between the innovative performance of firms and the extent of production linkages; nor was there a significant knowledge exchange among firms. A further analysis has identified the significant role played by government purchases, research and development capital input and export propensity in the process of technological innovation. The findings of this research cast doubts over the prevailing theory of ‘new economic geography’ in which soft and unbounded relational assets have been overemphasised at the expense of some solid and bounded actors and agents that are pivotal to technological innovation in a developing economy.     

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。