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This paper aims to explore the psychological mechanism in the relationship between paternalistic leadership (PL) and employee well-being (EWB) in cross-cultural nonprofit organizations. It also aims to further promote the integration of research on PL and self-concept by examining the relationship between PL and collective self-concept (CSC).

Data were collected on 72 supervisors and 233 expatriate Chinese teachers from 42 Confucius Institutes and 15 Confucius classrooms in Canada and the USA.

PL has a significant effect on EWB. Benevolent and moral leadership are positively related to CSC, while authoritarian leadership is negatively related to CSC. CSC mediates the relationship between PL and EWB. Furthermore, employees’ cross-cultural adaptability positively moderates the relationship between CSC and EWB; the indirect effect between PL and EWB via CSC is stronger for employees with stronger cross-cultural adaptability.

This is the first study that has examined the psychological mechanism under which PL affects EWB in cross-cultural nonprofit organizations. It contributes to the integration of research on PL and CSC by examining its relationship for the first time. It provides important implications for improving the well-being of expatriate employees in cross-cultural organizations.

This chapter reflects on our recent research into China’s soft power in international education, using Confucius Institutes as a case study. It first reveals how we have framed our research in the related field and the methodological issues concerned. It will then analyze the theories and concepts that have been taken as the lenses through which China’s soft power ideas and strategies were compared and contrasted with the theories and/or practices prevalent in the West, while highlighting their implication for the fear of the “China threat.” Finally, we will conclude with the potential areas of further research in the related area of study in the years to come. It is hoped that this chapter will contribute to the development of research in international and comparative education that helps readers to explore in-depth the causality, implication and complication of the “China threat” in the global arena.

China's Confucius Institutes (CIs) have been under increasing scrutiny in the West while their development in Africa has been steady and strong. This article aims to examine the establishment, operation and effects of this institute in Africa, and discuss its role in a wider context of education, development and China's foreign policy towards Africa.

This empirical research is a case study of China's Confucius Institutes in Africa. Fieldwork data was collected in China and seven CIs in four African countries.

This research found that the CIs were not just Chinese language and culture promotion organisations in Africa. Rather, they played a deeper and more profound role in training local individuals, involving them in different forms of Chinese presence in Africa and linking their own personal development with the rise of China. In that sense, this article argues that the CI plays a positive role in promoting China's soft power and national interest in Africa. This article also highlights the problems of the institute's operational mode, and casts doubt on some aspects of its future development.

This research systematically examines the establishment, operation and effects of the CIs in Africa, in an attempt to understand the real role of this institute in China's foreign policy towards Africa and demonstrate the uniqueness of the situation of the CIs in Africa.

This study aims to investigate the influence of the Confucius Institute (CI) on outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) by China and its potential interaction with cultural difference and institutional quality in host countries.

In the empirical study, the gravity model is adopted as the benchmark to investigate the effects of CI on China's OFDI using the ordinary least squares or Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood estimators. Panel data on China's OFDI from 2004 to 2015 are used. Cultural difference and institutional quality are included explicitly as control variables to examine the effects of CI on China's OFDI.

CI has a significant positive effect on China’s OFDI, and this effect depends on the cultural difference and institutional quality of the host country. The impact of CI on China’s OFDI is more prominent in host countries with a smaller cultural difference or lower institutional quality.

CI is a comprehensive platform for foreign cultural exchange and signifies the rebirth of Confucianism in China. The present study shows that CI can stimulate the growth of China’s OFDI, with implications for other Asian countries influenced by Confucianism. Based on the results of the study, strategies for “Going Global” and encouraging economic growth based on cultural exchange and the recognition of host country heterogeneities are proposed.

This study examines a new type of corruption that has not previously been studied but that significantly affects the world. Traditionally, corruption has referred to individuals or organizations that bribe state officials. The author examines a phenomenon in which the briber is actually the government of a country that bribes the rest of the world in order to gain influence and propose a framework to explain it.

A multi-case qualitative method is used to compile and analyze evidences and develop my arguments. Specifically, the author compiles information on and analyzes the Confucius Institutes, the training of future foreign leaders, influencing the influencers, the Thousand Talents Plan, the Belt and Road Initiative and foreign aid.

The findings reveal the existence of state-sponsored bribery of the world.

State-sponsored bribery is a threat to the world. Recognizing it is the first step to curb it. Reducing the bribery by China's state will benefit the world and China.

State-sponsored bribery is originally defined and documented. A framework about the motivations and capabilities of state-sponsored bribery is proposed, the effects of and responses to such a bribery are reviewed, and policies to curb it are suggested.

This paper aims to provide data on the self-perceived state of sustainability consciousness of first-year Hong Kong students.

Within a mixed-method research design framework, the authors conducted 787 questionnaires and collected 989 reflective narratives of first-year students of a university in Hong Kong, who were enrolled in the General Education course.

Attributed to students’ immersion in compulsory sustainability education modules within liberal studies programs in secondary through higher education (HE), the quantitative results revealed an increase in the self-perceived knowledge and behavioral aspects of sustainability consciousness of Hong Kong students and their low engagement in sustainability-related civic, campus or action groups. However, qualitative results revealed three aspects of the students’ sustainability consciousness: intentionality to make a difference; engagement with complex questions about identity, society and nature; and eschatological perspectives, which included imaginative, future-oriented and action-oriented approaches to critical reflection, supported by the rhetoric of hope, promises and commitment for better future.

The study provides insights into the challenge of implementation of the United Nations-based sustainable development model in the Hong Kong educational system through the formal liberal studies curriculum. It advances the field by constructing a momentum for conceptual changes in sustainability education research toward design of the non-linear and culturally sensitive frameworks for sustainability implementation in HE. This allows to utilize universities’ unique capacities for fostering students’ sustainability consciousness in a continuous and systemic way.

The purpose of this paper is to examine China-Africa educational cooperation under the framework of Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) while illustrating the modalities of Sino-Africa educational cooperation.

Based on empirical and documentary analysis, the paper describes and explores the unique features of China-Africa educational cooperation.

In the past decades, China's expanding engagement with Africa in the field of international development assistance has attracted great attention and given rise to mixed reactions and arguments at the international level. China's cooperation with Africa has a long and notable history, dating back to the 1950s. China's cooperation with other developing countries is known as South-South development cooperation, based on principles of equality, mutual benefit, solidarity and no conditionality. With a thorough and critical analysis of the decision-making mechanism and the practices of China's educational cooperation with Africa, this paper puts forward some important issues regarding the perspective of sustainability and effectiveness in Chinese cooperative arrangements.

The paper tries to explain the dynamic and the practices of China's education engagement with Africa and puts forward key challenges regarding its effectiveness toward new strategic partnerships. However, the answers to these questions require some innovative measures in the future practices of China-Africa educational cooperation.

The China-Africa education partnership is not a stand-alone sector, which can be better understood in the context of the historical development of China-Africa cooperation and under the framework of the FOCAC.

This chapter aims to investigate and interpret China’s educational aid by analyzing its history, philosophies, and practices in Africa. The study is based on review and analysis of governmental documents, reports, academic papers, and news by Chinese and foreign scholars on China’s aid, particularly educational aid to Africa. The analysis unveils three transformations of China’s aid “from pro-ideology to de-ideology,” “from single area to multiple areas,” and “from pragmatic economy driven to sustainable and humane economy focused” in Africa. Meanwhile, it indicates a continuity of the philosophy of solidarity, morality, and reciprocity in China’s South-South cooperation with African educational development.

The analysis also shows China’s educational aid does not match well with the framework of the Western donors. China, under the FOCAC framework, is devoted to higher education cooperation, human resources training program, scholarship, and Chinese language education with African partners. With the growth of its economic and political influence, China will play multiple roles as the biggest developing country and as an active promoter and provider for South-South cooperation in the negotiation and construction of the post-2015 agenda. Nevertheless, we assume China will keep a pragmatic higher education cooperation with its developing country partners to inclusively link it with business, technology transfer, and people-to-people exchange.

This study delivers a comprehensive review and analysis of paradigm shift, philosophy, mechanism, and practice of China’s educational aid to Africa to fill up the literature gap in this field. It also timely presents China’s stance toward discussion on the post-2015 agenda.