International and Area Studies Commons^™

Social Trust In Contemporary Rural China: Its Sources And Impacts On Public Goods Provision, Narisong Huhe

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Social trust, as an essential element of political culture, is assumed to strongly affect the effectiveness of political institution. However, such studies in non-democratic settings are scarce, and even scarcer in the Chinese context. This dissertation, using data drawn from an original survey in rural China, examines the extent, sociopolitical origins, and political consequences of social trust in China. The results suggest that China has a unique pattern of social trust owing to its dual Confucian and Communist heritages. While trusts in relatives, neighbors, kinsman, and other villagers (i.e., particularized trust) are extensive, trust in strangers (generalized trust) is scarce. …

The Role Of Environmental Ngos In Chinese Public Policy, Andrew I.E. Ewoh, Melissa Rollins

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

The emergence of environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in China is increasingly drawing attention from observers interested in Chinese environmental politics. In the 1980s, the Chinese government started introducing environmental laws as well as seeking assistance from international NGOs, and bilateral and multilateral aid organizations. The 1990s witnessed a shift in government's focus on command and control regulation to more progressive citizen participation and market incentive laws. In fact, many ambitious environmental and energy efficiency targets were included in both the 10th and the 11th five-year plans. This analysis examines the role played by the environmental NGOs in Chinese public policy …

China And The New Asia: Policy Recommendations, Tasha N. Haug

Senior Honors Theses

The People’s Republic of China is an indispensable political and economic force in Asia. With the majority of the United States’ foreign economic interests invested in the Asia-Pacific region, the leading role that China is taking is a major concern. The Asia-Pacific region is strategically important to the US. How US policy makers craft foreign policy toward Asia has a direct impact on US involvement in the region. Unless the US becomes more invested in Asia, develops a comprehensive understanding of China’s role in the region, and proactively pursue strategic relationships, US influence in Asian affairs will become a thing …

Ann Veeck, Nate Coe

International Faculty Researchers

Rapidly changing food consumption patterns in China has for the last 15 years captured the attention of Western Michigan University international researcher and marketing professor Dr. Ann Veeck. In nearly annual trips to China, Veeck examines how these patterns are changing parallel to the expansion of the Chinese economy and how marketing efforts affect consumers' lives in both positive and negative ways.

Ann Veeck's website

Uncoiling The Modern Sino-American Relationship, Amanda Mcatee

Psi Sigma Siren

For this particular paper I seek to qualify the true nature of the Sino-American relationship as it has developed over the last quarter of the twentieth century. To more fully appreciate the complex relationship that evolved between such seemingly antithetical nations, I will critically review both James Mann‘s About Face: A History of America’s Curious Relationship with China, From Nixon to Clinton and Margaret MacMillan‘s Nixon and Mao: The Week that Changed the World. This paper will specifically focus on evaluating the similarities and inconsistencies between Mann‘s and MacMillan‘s theses, elucidate the structural differences between each author‘s arguments, and …

Asian Americans And Politics: Voting Behavior And Political Involvement, Elizabeth Hoene

Political Science Theses and Capstones

Voting behavior and political involvement are two commonly studied topics among political scientists today, most commonly involving Caucasian, African, and Hispanic Americans. However, there have been relatively few studies done on Asian American and Asian immigrant voting behavior and their political involvement. What causes Asian Americans and Asian immigrants to vote the way they do? How involved are they in American politics and why? These are questions that I am aiming to answer through the studying of the Pilot National Asian American Political Survey 2000- 2001 from the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. Socioeconomic factors such as income, …

Elephants In The Room: Challenges Of Integrating China Into The Wto System, Henry S. Gao

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Since China’s accession to the WTO in late 2001, one of the most intriguing questions for trade analysts has been whether the “new kid on the block” would seek to disrupt the status quo in the WTO upon its entry. This paper answers the question by reviewing China’s participation in two key activities of the WTO, i.e., trade negotiations and dispute settlement, as well as another important component of global trade governance: regional trade agreements (RTAs). Drawing from an in-depth study of China’s record in these activities, the author argues that, overall, China has transformed from a passive “taker” of …

Rising Asian Powers And Changing Global Governance, Ann Florini

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

International Relations (IR) scholarship is directly in the path of two simultaneous tidal waves. The first is the rise of China and India in the traditional IR terms of military and economic power. The second is the expanding nature of what IR scholarship needs to address, as global integration transforms the nature of the issues to be addressed and numerous trends expand the number and types of relevant actors. Neither theory nor practice is yet coping well with the profound implications of these fundamental changes. Investigating what kind of a world order might emerge from these two simultaneous tsunamis will …

Liberalization Of Taiwan’S Securities Markets: The Case Of Cross-Taiwan-Strait Listings, Wen-Yeu Wang, Christopher Chao-Hung Chen

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The purpose of this paper is to examine the liberalization of Taiwan’s capital market regarding cross-Taiwan-Strait listing of securities. Taiwan is in an advantageous position to compete with other Asian rivals to attract issuers and capital from China. However, the long political hostility ensures that there is little regulatory cooperation on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. Assuming that the creation of a cross-strait capital market is an unstoppable trend, this paper examines from the perspective of regulatory competition several regimes that may facilitate Taiwan to overcome regulatory obstacles arising from the special Sino-Taiwan relationship. This paper argues that regulatory …

Chinese Parents’ Perspectives On Adolescent Sexuality Education, Wenli Liu, Kali S. Van Campen, Carolyn P. Edwards, Stephen T. Russell

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

There is growing interest in China to understand how young people learn about sexuality, but there are few existing studies about the role of parents as sex educators of their children. This study surveyed 694 Chinese parents of adolescents in three cities about their knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding sexuality education for their children. The majority supported sexuality education, yet few parents had provided it. High-income parents had more favorable sexual attitudes and, in turn, were more likely to educate children about sexuality. The findings provide insight into parents’ role in adolescents’ sexual behavior and can be useful to sexuality …

Nepal, Megan Adamson Sijapati

Religious Studies Faculty Publications

Nepal is a democratic republic located along the southern region of the Himalayan range, bordering India to the south, west, and east and the Tibetan autonomous region of China to the north. Though a small country in geographic terms (approximately 54,362 square miles [1 mile = 1.6093 kilometers]), its population of approximately 29.5 million people is a complex and heterogeneous mix of both Indo-European and Tibeto-Burman ethnic groups and castes, each with distinct languages and religious and cultural traditions. [excerpt]

The People’S Republic Of China’S Stance On Human Rights In Selected Crises, Brian T. Kopczynski

CMC Senior Theses

This paper examines China’s policy towards human rights internationally with the intent of discerning real support for human rights. It compares China’s responses to two cases of mass human rights violations (the Darfur and Israel-Palestine conflicts) in which it has a serious interest (energy in particular). It finds that China treats human rights self-interestedly, but also has some support for them when its interests are not at stake.

Economic Transition, Higher Education And Worker Productivity In China, Belton Fleisher, Yifan Yu, Haizheng Li, Seonghoon Kim

Research Collection School Of Economics

We investigate the role of education on worker productivity and firms' total factor productivity using a panel of firm-level data from China. We estimate the returns to education by calculating the marginal productivity of workers of different education levels based on estimates of the firm-level production function. We also estimate how the education level of workers and CEO contributes to firms' total factor productivity. Estimated marginal products are much higher than wages, and the gap is larger for highly educated workers. Our estimate shows that an additional year of schooling raises marginal product by 30.1%, and that CEO's education increases …

From Peasants To Farmers: Peasant Differentiation, Labor Regimes, And Land-Rights Institutions In China's Agrarian Transition, Q. Forrest Zhang, John A. Donaldson

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The development of factor markets has opened Chinese agriculture for the penetration of capitalism. This new round of rural transformation—China’s agrarian transition— raises the agrarian question in the Chinese context. This study investigates how capitalist forms and relations of production transform agricultural production and the peasantry class in rural China. The authors identify six forms of nonpeasant agricultural production, compare the labor regimes and direct producers’ socioeconomic statuses across these forms, and evaluate the role of China’s land-rights institution in shaping these forms. The empirical investigation presents three main findings: (1) Peasant differentiation : capitalist forms of agricultural production differentiate …

Victor Xiong, Julia Valentine

International Faculty Researchers

Dr. Victor Cunrui Xiong, Western Michigan University professor of Chinese and East Asian history, is a Chinese medievalist by training recognized internationally for his research and publications focused on Early Imperial China, especially the Sui-Tang period.

Victor Xiong's website

China And Geography In The 21st Century: A Cultural (Geographical) Revolution?, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

A noted Singapore-based cultural geographer and specialist on Asia reviews the recent emergence of cultural geographic research on and within China and the implications of China's rise for the study of 21st century cultural geography more broadly. She identifies six major issues modern China is confronting that, when addressed from a cultural geographical perspective, may both enhance an understanding of the country and reshape the practice of cultural geography as a subdiscipline: agricultural reform, economic reform, urban change, rural-urban migration and related social inequalities, the changing family structure, and environmental change. The author argues that if China's cultural geography is …

A Forward-Looking Commentary: China's Agricultural Development, Priya A. Roy

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This paper describes China's agricultural development before the reform period from institutional, economic, and ideological perspectives; the reform period; the 11th 5-year plan; and the current situation. The paper gives two case examples of the Soviet Union and India. Finally, the paper ends with a discussion of what this means for China.

Adaptable Ideology And Policymaking In Contemporary China: A Case Study Of The Government Response To The Rich-Poor Gap, Gary Stephen Andrasko

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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China And Brazil: Potential Allies Or Just Brics In The Wall?, Anthony Petros Spanakos

Department of Political Science and Law Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Brazil is an increasingly important actor in global governance and for China specifically. Sino-Brazilian relations have deepened considerably but they remain concentrated in areas of trade and investment. There is also considerable overlap in interests between the two countries in other areas, such as diplomatic and political relations. At the same time, China must manage carefully important differences that exist over the enlargement of the UN and the potential challenge to the Brazilian industry.

Explaining The Continuities And Changes In United States Policy In Relation To Taiwan For The Past Three Presidents, Alexander G. Chanock

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis attempts to explain the continuities and changes in United States policy in relation to the Taiwan-China conflict. The paper examines this in the context of the presidential administrations of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. This explanation is done by applying the three level-analysis approach of international relations to the policies of each president. The paper examines how individual-level, state-level, and systemic variances between the presidents affect the changes in policy towards Taiwan and China. After looking at all the different factors, the state-level factors mostly influence the continuities in policy while the individual and systemic …

Taking Justice Into Your Own Hand: The Tbi Mechanism In China, Henry Gao

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

To protect the trade interests of their firms in foreign markets, several countries have established various institutional arrangements. For example, the United States has the section 301 procedure, while the EU has the Trade Barrier Regulation (TBR). Learning from their experiences, China also established its own Foreign Trade Barrier Investigation (TBI) mechanism in 2002. This article starts with a discussion on the background for its establishment as well as the substantive and procedural requirements for investigations under TBI. In the next part, the article discusses how TBI has worked in practice by reviewing the Japan – Quantitative Restrictions on Laver …

Chinese Culture In Western Shadow: Sichuan Shadow Puppetry, Margaret Chan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

An Entity Sui Generis In The Wto: Taiwan's Wto Membership And Its Trade Law Regime, Han-Wei Liu

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

As one of the founding members of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), Taiwan (the Republic of China or ROC) - the 17th largest economy, was granted accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in November 2001 after its observer status of eleven years. Taiwan, classified by most commentators as an "unrecognized state" or an "entity sui generis", has been excluded from most of the major international organizations. Taiwan's accession to the WTO, therefore, is considered to be an important breakthrough in diplomacy for the past decades. Notwithstanding its WTO membership, the Taiwanese Government has employed numerous trade …

Impact Of Culture On ‘Partner Selection Criteria’ In East Asian International Joint Ventures, Ravinder K. Zutshi, Wee Liang Tan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Selecting the right partner is important for the success of alliances and joint ventures. For international joint ventures (IJVs) from diverse cultures the partner selection process can become complicated. Prior studies have investigated the alliances and joint ventures to develop a set of objective criteria for evaluating potential partners. This paper reports the study of IJVs formed by Singapore firms in Peoples Republic of China and India. The intent was to develop a methodology for identifying partner selection criteria in a cross-cultural setting. The findings reveal that the partner selection process follows a different logic in Confucian societies. Trust has …

A Re-Examination Of China's Share Issue Privatization, Guohua Jiang, Heng Yue, Longkai Zhao

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Previous studies show that in contrast to evidence that share issue privatization (SIP) in most other countries have improved firm profitability, China's SIP of the 1990s had no such effect. We argue that the main reason for the failure of China's SIP is likely to have been the weak institutional environment in place at that time. We examine China's SIP in a more recent period in which the institutional environment was greatly improved. Using a matching sample method, we find that SIP firms continued to experience negative post-SIP profitability changes in our sample period. However, their performance decline was significantly …

Do We Have A Winner? What The China-India Paradox May Reveal About Regime Type And Human Security, Devin K. Joshi

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

As the concept of human security spreads in the pose-Cold War period it is often presumed chat non-democracies have worse human security than democracies. But the national human security (NHS) siruation in weak or failed democracies can be even worse than in some non-democracies. So how exactly do the NHS records of stares with different regime types like non-democratic China and democratic India compare? To address this question the paper assesses and compares NH S in terms of "freedom from want" (anti-poverty security) and "freedom from fear" (anti-violence securiry). Ir develops a theory of how different regime types might impact …

China And The United States: A Balance Of Power, William Jeffery Stephens

Dissertations

Throughout world history states have banded together to form coalitions, alliances, and economic agreements with each other to protect and secure their borders, develop their economic prosperity, and grow their political relationships. Alliances, economic agreements, and political relationships have come and gone, decreased or increased, and continue to be at times as fluid as water. During the Cold War the international system had a bipolar structure, with the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies balancing against the United States and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies. What makes countries align themselves with other countries economically, politically and militarily? There …

Reintroduction Of The Chinese Tiger, Philip J. Nyhus, Urs Breitenmoser, Ron Tilson

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Sino-Soviet Split: Cold War In The Communist World, Austin Jersild

History Faculty Publications

A reader of both Russian and Chinese, Lorenz M. Lüthi provides fascinating depth and detail to an unstable Sino-Soviet alliance shaped by strong and ambitious personalities, nationalist sensitivities, cultural misunderstandings, and the perhaps inevitable clash between two societies at very different stages in “socialist” history.

Human Rights In China: Introduction, Hsiu-Lun Teng

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The People’s Republic of China has experienced rapid and cardinal changes in its political, economic, and societal realms over the past thirty years. These changes, in conjunction with China’s political and economic policies abroad, have left recognizable imprints on a variety of human rights issues. The human rights issues discussed in this digest cover both domestic and international dimensions.