Search results

Analyses the evolution of China’s telephone and cable systems, in terms of the public interest, discussing current bureaucratic conflicts and policy debates over convergence, and construction of an independent broadband cable network. Looks in depth at China’s problems and the different problems for its citizens with regard to poverty levels and access to the Web.

Investigating the characteristics of the transformation of China's agricultural growth and the institutional reforms during the whole transition period in the 1980s will help to understand China's economic and agricultural reform and offer some successful experiences to other developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to answer the following questions: Has China's agricultural output experienced a structural break toward a more stable state? When did the break point happen? What factors did play key roles during the transformation?

This study applies the nonlinear structural break regime switching analysis which includes two different models: one with the structural break only in the variance and one with the structural break in both shift parameters and the variance.

The empirical results showed that it took five years for agricultural development in China to finish the reform that began in 1980. The agricultural growth had become more stable after the break point which was around 1985‐1986. Both the primary industry and agricultural sector had transformed from a “low growth rate, high volatility” state to a “high growth rate, low volatility” state. Among the different driving factors, the Household Responsibility System (HRS) and preferential policies for agricultural products played the most important roles in the early stage of the economic reform.

The authors first study the structural break of China's agricultural output by the regime switching model. From the empirical results, the structural break point was determined to be around 1985‐1986, after which China's agricultural output had become more stable.

This chapter develops a growth model of a country under a Hobbesian environment with international conflicts in which national defense is the only way to prevent external predation. The long run growth path is determined by the equilibrium of a dynamic game with three players: the external predator, the government, and the family. The equilibrium growth path has three phases: submissive equilibrium, tolerant equilibrium, and full-protected equilibrium. Different defense strategies result in different growth prospects, and sustainable growth will endogenously induce adjustment of defense strategies.

Despite an intensified anti-corruption campaign, China's economic growth and social transition continue to breed loopholes and opportunities for big corruption, leading to a money-oriented mentality and the collapse of ethical standards, and exposing the communist regime to greater risk of losing moral credibility and political trust. In Hong Kong, the setting up of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) in 1974 marked the advent of a new comprehensive strategy to eradicate corruption and to rebuild trust in government. The ICAC was not just an anti-corruption enforcement agency per se, but an institution spearheading and representing integrity and governance transformation. This chapter considers how mainland China can learn from Hong Kong's experience and use the fight against corruption as a major political strategy to win the hearts and minds of the population and reform governance in the absence of more fundamental constitutional reforms, in a situation similar to Hong Kong's colonial administration of the 1970s–1980s deploying administrative means to minimize a political crisis.

The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence of the emerging consensus about the need to tackle environmental issues alongside economic and business issues, in an integrated way that can achieve breakthrough improvements in both productivity and environmental impact. It also seeks to present a framework model for addressing such issues coherently and systematically.

The paper's approach is to describe the development of thinking around “green productivity” and to extrapolate to a generic analysis and improvement framework.

The former lone voices urging a concern for the environment while improving business performance are now coalescing into a “movement”. New thinking and new ways of approaching old problems show that it is perfectly possible to address these issues together – but this is most effective when planned as part of a total review of the life‐cycle of products and their manufacturing and delivery processes.

This should have implications at the organisational level where firms that are trying to take seriously their corporate social responsibility should be able to find new ways of improving business performance while conforming with increasingly tough environmental legislation and codes of practice. It should also have implications at the policy level where governments are trying to impose tougher environmental impact regulation but wish to do this without unduly harming business activity and performance.

The paper gives a “potted history” of the green productivity movement but also takes it on a stage with a generic improvement framework informed by current thinking.

This article focuses on and provides an updated version of our analysis of labour‐market policies in Greater China over the last decade, specifically in Shanghai and the Hong Kong SAR. The role of the “one country, two systems” model is re‐evaluated vis‐à‐vis both their labour‐market policies. We present a statistical comparison of employment and unemployment in the two settings using the latest data at hand in 2002. Then, we suggest a labour‐market schema to take into account likenesses and dissimilarities. Taking into account the divergent histories, the distinct role of the state as well as the evolving economic structures, we may hypothesize that although there will be different labour markets emerging in the two city contexts, a degree of relative convergence may now be envisaged.

The evaluation of both tourism and tourist resources in China remains problematic. On the macro‐level, only the positive contributions of tourism have been evaluated, ignoring the aspects of disparities between the east coast and the inland area, inbound tourism and domestic tourism, nature‐based and city‐based tourism, positive and negative effects from tourism and so on. On the micro‐ and site‐ specific level, tourist resources characterised by non‐marketable and non‐use values are not properly evaluated, exposing these fragile resources to the plight of exploitation. Commercialisation of tourist resources, including natural environment and ethnic cultures, threatens further development of tourism in China. The limited applicability of the travel cost and the contingent valuation method in measuring the value of recreation sites in China is discussed.

This paper summarizes the severity of global warming, collaboration and endeavor within international government and the trend of international development for “energy-saving and emission reduction.” The Chinese government is enduring high pressure under the environment of “global warming” and “energy-saving and emission reduction” and it has made a policy for “energy-saving and emission reduction.” Based on this, we analyzed the possibility and feasibility for our logistics to “energy-saving and emission reduction,” then propose some solutions for our logistics industry to development and “energy-saving and emission reduction.”

In the context of globalization, the concept of national identity becomes much richer and the governments’ policy‐makings have been largely monitored by the markets. If some countries have been more successful than others in responding to the same challenges posed by incorporation by the world economy, then the reason for these different answers is to be found in their national choices. In recent years, few developing countries have enjoyed benefits from interaction with outside world as much as China has. As a late‐comer of globalization, China has been confronted with a clash between the dissolution of a traditional society and the construction of a modern one. Taking into consideration China’s history, population, size, potential and geo‐political influence, this article reviews her unique pathway in quest for a new identity in the era of globalization and tries to find some enlightenments equally useful for other developing countries.