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With its large population and increasingly open approach to foreign business dealings, China has been heralded as a land of opportunity for Western business. “What are the keys to business success?” Addresses this issue by Investigating key success factors for trade with China. Presents results from a survey of New Zealand organisations trading with China. Top‐ranking issues reveal a micro‐business focus (e.g. negotiation strategy, business etiquette). Low‐ranking issues include the need to understand advertising in China, and to have an intensive knowledge of the Chinese language. Correlations between importance and knowledge scores suggest that cultural issues are perceived as less important by those with a high degree of knowledge concerning trade relation intermediaries. Larger firms are also found to rate an understanding of negotiation strategy as more important than small firms.

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.

Southeast Asia’s position between the continents of Asia and Oceania gave the region a distinctive identity. Over the years, Southeast Asia has witnessed several important political changes and the emergence of new security threats. Historical mistrust, enduring territorial disputes and competition for maritime claims and resources have combined to weaken the regional security structure. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether China’s growing assertive position in the region bring some fresh air in the region following Beijing’s collaborative initiatives.

Seas are a central concern for Southeast Asian countries, so it is hardly surprising that the countries in the region are strongly nationalistic in asserting and protecting their claims. Maritime policy analyst, Mark Valencia, comments, “Indeed, when countries in Asia think maritime, they think first and foremost about boundary disputes, not the protection of the deteriorating marine environment or management of dwindling fisheries […] [it] is these perceptions that must change.” This paper will explore whether China’s growing assertive position in the name of diplomatic cooperation will mellow down and bring some fresh air into the South China Sea (SCS) region following Beijing’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiatives.

The world is still unsure when it comes to SCS! It often feels like “Pengci” or the art of staging drama to get the desired outcome? Beijing has to address the increasing global fears and uncertainty about her motives and talk more about its dracoplomacy. At one point, Beijing followed Xiaoping’s famous guideline: “hide our capacities and bide our time.” But now, things have changed. China is no longer actively avoiding international limelight. The motto has become “going international.” This change was not all talk either rather it was accompanied by significant, short-term action. Since becoming president, Xi has already visited more than 40 countries with his OBOR dream! It is important for Beijing to emphasize the purpose of her massive infrastructure push. That is, to achieve economic development, rather than to satisfy her growing political ambitions on the global stage. The creation of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and other major geo-economic projects are signs that Beijing is using her coercive diplomacy in a subtler way. Therefore, this paper checks whether Beijing’s Silk Road spirit will be successful enough to maintain its agility and grace in the future.

This is an original piece of work, and it adds value to the special issue titled “China’s Rise and Power Shifts in Asia: Geopolitical, Socio-Economic and Historical Perspectives.”

Since the start of the twenty‐first century China has stepped into a new stage of harmonious urban‐rural development. Based on the brief review of policy changes since the new century, the purpose of this paper is to figure out the comprehensive policy framework, and analyze its background and reasons.

First, this paper offers a brief review of China's rural reform with focus on the policy framework and changes since the reform of rural tax and fee system in 2000. Next, the paper focuses on food security to discuss grain price increase and China's grain imports, then the current problems facing China's agricultural and rural development are discussed and countermeasures provided.

The paper finds that several policies have been implemented toward the coordination between urban and rural areas and toward the integration of urban and rural development. However, China's grain production is still facing big challenges, both from the increasing demand and the resource constraint. Therefore, food security should be given priority in future. China's current rural reform and development is also facing the problems such as slow growth of farmer's income, the impacts of migrant rural labourer on economy and society and the outflow of rural resources.

This paper reviews systematically major policies of China's agriculture and rural development, and analyzes the characteristics of and reasons for China's grain price increase. Meanwhile, the constraint of resources, especially land and water, is also studied in detail. The paper's analysis can provide important advice for future policy making.

Prior research demonstrated that China's Outward FDI (OFDI) is aimed at sustaining long-term economic growth by promoting industrialization and technological upgrading in the country. However, empirical evidence on the effectiveness of this strategy remains scarce. This study intends to fill this gap by exploiting endogenous changes in industrial productivity stemming from OFDI to examine if China's new strategy to spur OFDI is economically beneficial for the industries involved.

The authors employed the two-step system-GMM and pooled mean group approaches on a panel dataset of 18 Chinese industries over the 2004–2017 period. The industrial sectors are further classified into the state dominated and non-state dominated ones to evaluate whether the productivity growth impact of OFDI varies by the level of ownership structure. Besides, the dataset is further decomposed into the ex ante and ex-post BRI era to test if this initiative has altered the underlying relationship.

The results provide robust evidence that China's OFDI through reverse spillover effects promotes productivity growth in the domestic industries, and such productivity gains are greater for the non-state dominated industries, and the OFDI in the BRI era. The findings suggest that OFDI can act as a catch-up strategy to release excess capacity and acquire technology and smart business practices.

This study is the first attempt to highlight the reverse productivity spillovers associated with OFDI at the industrial level. The study's findings guide the government officials and the practitioners of foreign investment to better understand the implications of their investment projects in terms of technology improvements and to optimize market opportunities.

There have been regular policy enactment and dynamism to ensure progress and sustainability in the development of higher education (HE) in China after the Cultural Revolution. This study was purposed to reveal the processes of the Chinese higher education (CHE) development through series of policy implementations from the epoch of economic reformation and opening-up policy.

The authors employed document analysis, and selected and critically analyzed documents that include published articles and books, the official website of the Chinese Ministry of Education, and historical documentaries of the Chinese Cultural Revolution and their HE aftermath. Again, a semi-structured interview was utilized with a sample size of 20 academics vested in the CHE history. Five academics from four universities in China were interviewed to analyze the historical events of the CHE transformation and current policies about the CHE development.

The authors established that enrollment in the CHE has increased since the economic reformation; there has been the enhancement of the CHE internationalization in recent decades and the emergence of world-class universities and programs in the CHE as a result of the world class policies and projects. For consistency of the innovative programs toward HE development, the authors have posited some challenges, future goals and the global impacts of the CHE development and its sustainability.

The utilization of document analysis cements the claims by the interviewees, which enriches the value of the results. This study would provide literature guidance to international researchers to critically concoct theoretical assumptions from the findings to critically investigate the developmental policy pattern of HE institutions.

The purpose of this study is to explore how the development of digital trade can provide new development prospects to China's foreign trade under the background of the gradual expansion of China's digital economy and the further release of policy dividends.

Using the methods of literature collection and induction, combined with traditional trade theory, this paper analyzes the characteristics and challenges of digital trade under the background of the digital economy.

The findings reveal that China's digital trade development still faces some risks, such as the containment of China's core technology, digital security and unbalanced development among regions. Considering these risks, China should break through core technical problem, participate in the formulation of international rules to ensure data security, give priority to the development of service trade and improve the unbalanced development of digital trade.

By analyzing the development status and characteristics of the digital economy and digital trade, this paper summarizes the challenges and comparative advantages faced by China's digital trade, and puts forward corresponding suggestions. These suggestions will allow China to take advantage of its rapid digital economy development and occupy a leading position in global digital trade.

This paper creatively expounds on the new development direction of digital trade from the perspective of comparative advantage and risks, and provides some suggestions to expedite China's digital trade development.