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1 – 10 of 14Ling Li, Fazhan Tao and Zhumu Fu
The flexible mode transitions, multiple power sources and system uncertainty lead to challenges for mode transition control of four-wheel-drive hybrid powertrain. Therefore, the…
Abstract
Purpose
The flexible mode transitions, multiple power sources and system uncertainty lead to challenges for mode transition control of four-wheel-drive hybrid powertrain. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to improve dynamic performance and fuel economy in mode transition process for four-wheel-drive hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), overcoming the influence of system uncertainty.
Design/methodology/approach
First, operation modes and transitions are analyzed and then dynamic models during mode transition process are established. Second, a robust mode transition controller based on radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) is proposed. RBFNN is designed as an uncertainty estimator to approximate lumped model uncertainty due to modeling error. Based on this estimator, a sliding mode controller (SMC) is proposed in clutch slipping phase to achieve clutch speed synchronization, despite disturbance of engine torque error, engine resistant torque and clutch torque. Finally, simulations are carried out on MATLAB/Cruise co-platform.
Findings
Compared with routine control and SMC, the proposed robust controller can achieve better performance in clutch slipping time, engine torque error, vehicle jerk and slipping work either in nominal system or perturbed system.
Originality/value
The mode transition control of four-wheel-drive HEVs is investigated, and a robust controller based on RBFNN estimation is proposed. Compared results show that the proposed controller can improve dynamic performance and fuel economy effectively in spite of the existence of uncertainty.
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John Chi‐kin Lee, Daoyong Ding and Huan Song
The purpose of this paper is to discuss recent developments in school developmental supervisory evaluation in the Pudong New Area of Shanghai in the Chinese Mainland.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss recent developments in school developmental supervisory evaluation in the Pudong New Area of Shanghai in the Chinese Mainland.
Design/methodology/approach
The main research approach is qualitative, using documentary analysis and interviews of an inspector, principals and teachers from two primary schools.
Findings
There were perceived positive and negative impacts of school supervision and evaluation.
Originality/value
The paper highlights the implications for fostering a shared school‐government community of school supervision and evaluation, promoting a dynamic approach for addressing contextual differences as well as achieving better coherence among educational reform, supervision and evaluation policies.
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Jie Meng and Fenghua Wu
As a crucial institutional form established since the Chinese economic reform, the system of competitive local governments has been shaping the characteristics of China's…
Abstract
Purpose
As a crucial institutional form established since the Chinese economic reform, the system of competitive local governments has been shaping the characteristics of China's socialist market economy to a considerable degree.
Design/methodology/approach
This study not only adopts the view of existing studies that attribute the economic motive of local governments to rent and consider land public finance as a means through which local governments carry out strategic investment but also attempts to further develop the view within a Marxist analytical framework.
Findings
As a result, the local governments have helped to maintain an incredibly high investment rate over a considerable period of time, facilitating the continuous, rapid growth of the Chinese economy.
Originality/value
This study concludes that China's local governments function as the productive allocator and user of rent in the strategic investment based on land public finance and thereby embed themselves in the relative surplus-value production initially arising from competition amongst enterprises, forming the dual structure of relative surplus-value production unique to China's economy.
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Francois Quesnay, known as the “Confucius of Europe”, was profoundly influenced by traditional Chinese culture to form his thoughts, which contained strong Chinese…
Abstract
Purpose
Francois Quesnay, known as the “Confucius of Europe”, was profoundly influenced by traditional Chinese culture to form his thoughts, which contained strong Chinese characteristics. This paper aims to examine economic thought of Francois Quesnay from the perspective of the construction of socialist political economics with Chinese characteristics.
Design/methodology/approach
Moreover, his thoughts also profoundly influenced subsequent economists, such as Adam Smith and Karl Marx. It can be said that Francois Quesnay was at the intersection of Chinese, Western and Marxist thought systems, so it is quite important to examine his thoughts critically and conduct source-tracing in China.
Findings
Hence, in the process of constructing and developing socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics, there is an urgent need to focus on exploring the value of excellent traditional Chinese culture at the theoretical level and combining the development and dissemination of the history of thoughts and the historical position of Chinese reality to realize the innovation and development of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics.
Originality/value
Meanwhile, while absorbing nutrition from excellent traditional Chinese culture, it is necessary to establish scientific coordinates rather than use the discourse systems and paradigms of Western economics to interpret ancient Chinese economic thoughts. It is necessary to adhere to, inherit and develop Marxist political economy and absorb nutrition from Chinese excellent traditional culture to construct socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics.
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Poverty alleviation has been a major theme of China's modernization process since the founding of New China. This paper points out that China's poverty alleviation process…
Abstract
Purpose
Poverty alleviation has been a major theme of China's modernization process since the founding of New China. This paper points out that China's poverty alleviation process presents three stylized facts: “Miraculous” achievements of poverty alleviation have been made on a global scale; the poverty alleviation achievements mainly occurred in the high growth stage after reform and opening up; the poverty alleviation process is accompanied by the structural transformation of the urban–rural dual economy.
Design/methodology/approach
Therefore, a logically consistent analytical framework should form among the structural transformation of the dual economy, economic growth and the achievements in poverty alleviation. In logical deduction, the structural transformation of the dual economy affects rural poverty alleviation through the effects of labor reallocation, agricultural productivity improvement, demographic change and fiscal resource allocation.
Findings
The first two refer to economic growth, and the latter two are alleviation policies. The combination of economic growth and poverty alleviation policies is the main cause for poverty alleviation performance. China's empirical evidence can support the four effects by which the structural transformation of the dual economy affects poverty alleviation.
Originality/value
China's socialist system and its economic system transformation after reform and opening up provide an institutional basis for the effects to come into play. After 2020, China's poverty alleviation strategies will enter the “second-half” phase, namely, the phase of solving the problems of relative poverty in urban and rural areas by adopting conventional methods and establishing long-term mechanisms. This requires the facilitation of the reconnection between poverty alleviation strategies and the structural transformation of the dual economy in terms of development ideas and policy directions.
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Purpose – Informed by Chinese mothers from four villages, the purpose of this chapter is to address the old issue of feminization of family survival, but situated within the…
Abstract
Purpose – Informed by Chinese mothers from four villages, the purpose of this chapter is to address the old issue of feminization of family survival, but situated within the landscape of neoliberalism. This study investigates the interplay between Chinese patriarchal values and neoliberal ideas that have shaped the Happiness Project – Action to Aid Impoverished Mothers – an official population control program that has been combined with poverty reduction “Action.”
Methodology – This research began in 2001 in Sichuan Province, Southwest China. Over a period of three years I interviewed 48 women who were participants in the Happiness Project.
Findings – The goal of the Happiness Project is to bring “happiness” to poor mothers through the introduction of microcredit, literacy programs, and the improvement of reproductive health. Three maternal aspects of the Happiness Project, as the study indicates, coincide with three particular patriarchal values. These include an official construction of a good mother image, targeting women's bodies as objects of the state's population control, and reinforcing gender stereotypes through market activity. The findings of this research suggest that feminization of family survival coincided with achieving the goal of the Project. Mothers thus have carried a double burden on behalf of the Chinese state and their families: the goals of declining fertility and increasing family prosperity.
Social implications – Based on this outcome, the study not only calls for reevaluating this “women-only” economic development model, but also calls into question whether bringing Chinese women into public production/market activity is a path to women's emancipation under neoliberalism.
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The purpose of this paper is to review the major systemic educational reforms that China has undertaken over the past three decades and analyze the reasons behind their different…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review the major systemic educational reforms that China has undertaken over the past three decades and analyze the reasons behind their different degrees of success.
Design/methodology/approach
Two running themes are identified among various reforms on the Chinese educational system: decentralization and marketization. The authors explore the driving forces behind these reforms and discuss whether the reforms were successful or not.
Findings
In conclusion, the authors highlight four takeaway lessons of Chinese educational reforms.
Originality/value
This is an original discussion of educational reforms in China in the contexts of decentralization and marketization.
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Alistair R. Anderson and Xiuxiang Zhang
The paper aims to review the emergence and nature of entrepreneurship education in China. This paper considers the variability of developments in practices despite policy. In…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to review the emergence and nature of entrepreneurship education in China. This paper considers the variability of developments in practices despite policy. In turn, this allows one to consider the implications of this uneven distribution of expertise and resources.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is primarily empirically descriptive, but it draws upon different literatures to examine entrepreneurship education in the uniqueness of its Chinese context. The authors offer two comparative cases to illustrate the arguments.
Findings
Substantial differences were found by region and by the status of the institution. The region aspect is paradoxical because the largest number of new businesses exists in those regions with the best provision of enterprise education. The channelling of resources to elite resources compounds the problem. Less prestigious universities make do with what they have, and this may be detrimental for the quality and effectiveness of enterprise education.
Research limitations/implications
There may be some regional differences that have been overlooked, but the thrust is clear. Different resource allocations have shaped entrepreneurship education in the regions.
Practical implications
Applied policy may have detrimental effects on less well-endowed universities and thus neglect less entrepreneurial places.
Social implications
If entrepreneurship is to deliver its promise of opportunity, innovation and job creation, it needs to be taught by experienced and informed faculty. The uneven distribution of entrepreneurship pedagogy and expertise indicates that this may be more difficult to deliver in some places.
Originality/value
Although entrepreneurship education in China is now pervasive, little work has been done in comparing policies with practices.
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The purpose of this paper is to describe how China’s approach to a nuclear North Korea has changed and find key variables that explain the changes.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe how China’s approach to a nuclear North Korea has changed and find key variables that explain the changes.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper adopts the traditional qualitative method, referring to different types of reliable and authoritative Chinese and English scholars, books and articles.
Findings
Although China has accumulated distrust of North Korea and reprimanded the regime for its nuclear program, it has never ignored the strategic value or balance – especially vis-à-vis the USA – the neighboring country provides for it. And for that matter, it has been keen to prevent North Korea from bypassing it and getting closer to the USA. With this strategic calculation in mind, China has mostly made gestures in implementing the UN sanctions against North Korea, though not always.
Originality/value
This paper proves that China’s strategic calculation has been a constant key variable that explains its approach toward a nuclear North Korea since the inception of the issue in the early 1990s.
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