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The purpose of this paper is to study key economic strategies in Asia laid out by the Chinese Government since Xi Jinping became the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

The paper is composed of six parts. The first part analyzes China’s Asian trade strategy with a focus on the free-trade agreement. The second part elaborates the Asian finance and currency strategy with the core being the regionalization of RMB. The third part introduces China’s newly proposed Belt and Road Initiative (B&R). The fourth part deals with the China–USA economic relationship with a view to China’s economic strategy in Asia. The fifth part explains China’s domestic economic policy which forms the basis of the Asian Economic Strategy.

A marked change has taken place in China’s economic strategy in Asia, namely, giving more consideration to how to offer more public goods to the region. This is natural as China’s economic power is developed to a certain level and it is highly related to China’s attempt to growing its economic influence in this region. China believes that the B&R Initiative and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank are both public goods China has provided to Asia. China’s economic strategy in Asia demonstrates that China, as a rising power, though faced with domination of established power and the original regional economic rule system, still promotes the cooperation, integration, participation and development of this region. In general, China’s economic strategy in Asia offers an alternative for countries in this region so that Asian countries can better safeguard their rights amid China–America competition, and a new Asian economic order can be better built.

The paper contributes to the researched area of China’s economic strategy in Asia by comprehensively elaborating its trade, money, B&R Initiative and so on. This paper also shows the major challenges of China’s economic strategy in Asia and therefore is helpful to fully understand China’s economic statecraft.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between education and competencies from a comparative view, while controlling for background characteristics (e.g. parental education), home features (e.g. income) and country fixed effect.

This paper utilises an international data sets of 12 Belt and Road (B&R) countries participating in the PIAAC survey. Data are examined using regression models with “REPSET” Stata code. The focus on B&R countries is interesting as this recent economic and strategic development alliance might transform the contemporary global balance of power. Therefore, examining its educational development is important.

Findings reveal the higher the level of education, the higher the competency level in numeracy and literacy. Age was found to be negatively related to competencies, and gender was found to be dually significant. Among the examined B&R countries, Slovenia, Russia and Israel contribute the most to the numeracy, literacy and problem solving competencies (respectively) compared with other countries. The findings might contribute to the design of education for development policies aimed at increasing the level of state competitiveness while accounting for social cohesiveness.

The paper provides a comparative study into educational development of the B&R alliance, and therefore offers an insight of the developmental cooperation as it emerges. The focus on the B&R initiative is important as it is a strategic development alliance which might transform the contemporary global balance of power. Therefore, the examination of the above-mentioned relationships with the focus on B&R countries might advance the strategic design of this cooperation.

This study aims to decrypt the efforts made by Chinese people's courts nationwide to protect the rights of Chinese posted workers in the Belt & Road (B&R) countries by investigating labour litigation cases with an extraterritorial application of Chinese labour law (under the “doctrine of overriding mandatory labour rules”).

This study collected all labour litigation from 2014 to 2018 brought forward by Chinese posted workers in Chinese courts against Chinese enterprises regarding the performance of employment contracts in the B&R countries where Chinese labour laws were mandatorily applied under the doctrine of overriding mandatory labour rules. The study adopted a qualitive research approach to analyse the compiled cases to explore their characteristics and effects.

This study found that the volume of labour disputes in the B&R countries had a somewhat positive correlation to the amount of investment from China. However, this correlation was rather superficial when compared with the correlation to the type of industrial sector (e.g. the construction sector) and to the claim category (e.g. remuneration claims). Moreover, labour disputes in both the B&R countries and China shared a great deal of similarity with regard to their concentration in certain sectors and in certain types of claims. Therefore, mandatorily applying Chinese labour law could be convenient for Chinese workers returning from abroad who seek remedies and could allow Chinese judges to issue affirmative decisions regardless of the territory in which the worker was posted.

The cases collected by this study were limited to those filed in China by Chinese workers who were hired by Chinese enterprises and sent to work in the B&R countries and did not include those filed in the B&R countries by Chinese posted workers. Future research should therefore attempt to gather a broader range of labour disputes to further clarify the issues and need for labour protection for Chinese posted workers in the B&R countries.

This study argues that the doctrine of overriding mandatory labour rules is not entirely unproblematic because it might arbitrarily rule out the standards set by foreign labour legislation that could be more favourable to workers or offer them greater protection. Therefore, giving judges a certain degree of discretion is imperative to allow them to apply foreign labour standards when they have been proven to benefit workers.

Apart from a handful of reports on individual cases, there have been very few empirical studies regarding the general picture of labour protection for Chinese posted workers in the B&R countries. This study has adopted a novel approach to collect information on labour disputes in the B&R countries and to facilitate a qualitative analysis to test the practical implications of the doctrine of overriding mandatory labour rules.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze maritime logistics connectivity of ports and shipping networks in the East Sea Economic Rim (ESER) to promote international trade in the context of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), considering centrality, primary flow and clustering interaction.

The paper applies a complex network model, using a big data system consisting of an automated identification system, electronic data interchange and distributive and complex data. Three perspectives, including connectivity in trading ports and regions, centralities in the realm of complex network and potential marketing and regional impacts, and sixteen criteria are considered for this analysis. A visual approach has been also applied to highlight port connectivity and ship flows for the reader’s convenience.

The paper shows that port connectivity and maritime logistics are enablers to promote Korean international trade in Northeast China through the ESER, and 25 major ports are well connected to promote international trade in the region with visual data of ship flows by ship type and by flag.

Owing to the lack of port management information systems among the countries in the ESER except Korea and Japan, this paper could not capture cargo types and amounts on board. Port connectivity analysis shows links of the ports in the ESER to major ports in southeast Asia along the Twenty-first Century Maritime Silk Road (MSR). These results contribute to drawing policy implications to promote the ESER and provide suggestions for promoting Korean international trade by enhancing maritime logistics connectivity.

Unlike the existing literature showing descriptive and policy-oriented research related to ESER, this paper applied a vigorous method with a big amount of data to analyze port connectivity and ship flows in the ESER, considering China’s BRI affecting the global supply chain system, maritime transportation, and logistics. In addition, the paper shows how the seaports in the ESER are connected along the MSR.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

This research paper concentrates on the focus and inherent challenges of China’s efforts to unite the Asian region for mutual economic benefit. Chinese Government-led free trade agreements with other Asian countries, a promotion of China’s RMB currency, and the Belt and Road infrastructure initiative are all being pursued as ways of networking Asia into firm competitor to western countries like the USA on the world trade stage.

The briefing saves busy executives, strategists, and researchers’ hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

This study examines the stakeholder perception of the sustainability risks, challenges and benefits arising from managing these risks in the Singapore construction industry.

A questionnaire consisting of 89 risk factors, challenges and benefits, was administered, with 216 responses received from various stakeholders. Regression analyses were used to estimate the relationships between sustainability and business risk factors, challenges and benefits associated with business sustainability practices.

Stakeholders recognise the importance of the emerging sustainability risk factors, and indeed rank these almost on a par with conventional business risk factors. The inherent business risks determine the nature of sustainability risk factors for construction firms, which in turn can affect their business risks and the performance and value creation of firms. However, most stakeholders, while acknowledging that business sustainability practices can provide benefits as well as posing challenges, do not believe that they can derive net benefits from such practices.

Through this perception study, there is an urgent need to turn the existing awareness of the importance of business sustainability (BS) practices into more consistent and solid actions among construction firms in Singapore.

This study’s results imply construction firms to incorporate BS practices more systematically into their business strategies and operations, and to include sustainability risk factors alongside conventional business risks in their risk registers and risk management frameworks.

This study consolidates various variables and constructs of BS matters in the literature and practice into a meaningful framework for the management of BS in the construction industry.

This study explores the relationships among sustainability implementation barriers (resource, managerial and regulatory barriers), sustainability practices (sustainable construction materials, sustainable construction design, modern construction methods and environmental provisions and reporting) and sustainability performance (environmental, economic and social) in hill road construction (HRC).

Primary data were collected from the 313 HRC practitioners with the help of a questionnaire, and research hypotheses were tested employing structural equation modeling.

The findings reveal a mixed effect of sustainability implementation barriers. Resource (managerial) barriers are negatively related to all practices except environmental provisions and reporting (sustainable construction materials), while regulatory barriers only negatively impact modern construction methods. On the other hand, all sustainability practices positively impact environmental performance, whereas economic (social) performance is positively influenced by all practices, except environmental provisions and reporting (modern construction methods), and positively affects economic performance.

In order to transform HRC toward sustainability, the barriers to sustainability implementation, sustainability practices and performance need to be understood by practitioners; however, the relationships have not previously been empirically assessed in extant literature. Besides, past research appears to be predominantly focused on the environmental aspect, thereby neglecting economic and social aspects. This study is a modest attempt to bridge these research gaps.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the formation mechanism of the host country people's coping behavior regarding the construction of transnational railways to help engineering managers and decision makers improve their risk management and lead to sustainable transnational railway construction projects.

This paper adopted the grounded theory methodology to analyze the news stories reported by “Belt and Road Portal” and “The New York Times” about eight transnational railways. They were China–Kyrgyzstan–Uzbekistan (Central Asia), Mecca-to-Medina (West Asia), Hungarian–Serbia (Europe), China–Nepal (South Asia), Bi-Oceanic (South America), Mombasa–Nairobi (Africa), China–Laos (Southeast Asia) and Panama railways (North America). The keywords for news search were the names of each railway. After eliminating the problem sentences with semantic repetition and ambiguity, 2,631 effective sentences were formed to screen the information and code. The process included open, axial and selective coding.

It was concluded that the core structure of the formation mechanism was “situation,” “influence factor,” “cognition” and “coping behavior.” The country-of-origin image has served as an adjustment function in the analysis for the host country people. Governance strategies were suggested focusing on risk prevention, risk mitigation and risk response according to social risk management.

The rise of transnational railway construction is encouraged by the process of globalization. But during the long construction period, the host country people's coping behavior would develop into social conflicts and mass incidents, becoming a significant obstacle to construction objectives. Thus, studying the formation mechanism of public coping behaviors can better take measures to prevent social risks.

The contributions of this research are three aspects: first, a formation mechanism of the host country people's coping behavior based on grounded theory is presented. Second, the country-of-origin image is found to be a factor that cannot be ignored in a transnational context. The formation mechanism of public coping behaviors is improved compared to risk management in the domestic situation. Finally, the host country people pay more attention to the motivations of country-of-origin's controlling interests and their own emotions compared with internal stakeholders.

This paper explores the potential opportunities and challenges that Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) may bring for resilient supply chains.

This study employs multiple case study methodology by considering five south Asian countries. Overall, 36 semi-structured interviews with supply chain managers from three supplying firms, two transportation centers and four buying firms are undertaken. Three supplying firms were based in Pakistan, providing cement and steel products. Simultaneously, two transportation centers were located in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, mainly engaged in cargo and freight handling. Finally, the buying firms were located in Mainland China and India, mainly constructing road and rail networks.

Our findings reveal both challenges and opportunities for supply chain resilience within the context of BRI. In particular, findings suggest that BRI can improve quality infrastructure, greater connectivity for logistics firms and enhance consumer markets. Conversely, BRI also poses challenges to supply chain resilience in managing large-scale logistics infrastructure and the potential conflicts between countries participating in BRI.

As this study attempts to build a theory, its result should not be generalized to a broader population. Second, this study only explores BRI's implications for resilient supply chains within five South Asian countries.

Firms can use our study results to understand BRI’s implications for resilient supply chains. Particularly, it presents firms with the potential opportunities and challenges that BRI brings for resilient supply chains.

BRI has been the subject of much research in domains like political science, economics and law but its application to the supply chain resilience is rather scant. Our study, therefore, contributes to the emergent literature on supply chain resilience within the context of BRI by exploring its potential opportunities and challenges.

This research aims to explore the potential impacts of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) on sustainable supply chains.

This study employs twenty qualitative interviews with supply chain managers located on the BRI lane from Asian countries.

Findings revealed that if not managed properly, BRI can pose a serious threats to sustainable supply chains from environmental perspective. The findings also revealed additional properties which lead to the emergence of these perspective.

The findings of this study may not be generalizable to a broader population. Second, this study explores supply chain managers’ interpretations from Asian countries only.

Supply chain firms can use the findings from this study to understand the implications of BRI for sustainable supply chains. Particularly, firms can understand how the BRI may harm the organization's sustainable supply chains from the environmental perspective.

This is, perhaps, the first study which provides empirical evidence concerning the potential impacts of BRI on the management of sustainable supply chains.