Asian Studies Commons^™

A Geopolitical Economy Analysis Of China And India’S Approaches To Transnational Data Governance, Yujia He, Ka Zeng

Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce Faculty Publications

Recent literature on the behavior of rising powers in digital trade and data governance highlights their discourses of data sovereignty and desire to preserve domestic policy autonomy. This article contributes to the literature by employing a political economy lens that shifts the focus from the nation-state/inter-state framework towards the dynamics of state–capital relations, allowing for a more historical and contextual understanding of the geopolitics of data governance in emerging economies. Using China and India—two of the largest emerging economies—as comparative cases, and drawing on secondary data from government documents and other sources, the article argues that the interplay between the …

China In Global Digital Trade Governance: Towards A Development-Oriented Agenda?, Yujia He, Ka Zeng

Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce Faculty Publications

Existing literature on the behaviour of rising powers in global trade governance has yielded inconclusive evidence about their role and impact. This article contributes to this literature by examining China's role in global digital trade governance, an issue area which so far has not received sufficient scholarly attention. Specifically, it addresses the following question: as a self-proclaimed leader of the developing world in digital development, to what extent do its preferences and negotiation approach align with the interests of other developing countries? Analysing China's participation in three sets of negotiations using process tracing, the article argues that China's dual identity …

Chinese Digital Platform Companies’ Expansion In The Belt And Road Countries, Yujia He

Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce Faculty Publications

The emergence of digital platforms is shifting the digital economy toward a platform economy, and Chinese platform-based businesses like Alibaba, Tencent, and JD are increasingly expanding in the Global South. Alongside this, the Chinese government has been promoting digital economy collaboration with emerging markets through high-level engagement under the banner of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and its digital economy component the Digital Silk Road (DSR). Despite significant market interest and policy attention, grounded empirical analysis of Chinese digital platforms’ expansion within Belt and Road Initiative countries is scarce. This study employs a mixed-methods approach, drawing on both quantitative …

Chinese Fintech Goes Global: Political Challenges And Business Strategies, Yujia He

Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce Faculty Publications

Fintech (the application of digital technology to financial services) has witnessed unprecedented growth, bringing significant implications for the financial system and sustainable development.1 The Financial Stability Board, an international body that monitors and makes recommendations about the global financial system, defines fintech as “technologically enabled financial innovation that could result in new business models, applications, processes, or products with an associated material effect on financial markets and institutions and the provision of financial services.”2 The use of technology in finance is certainly not new—consider the growth of electronic banking and high-frequency trading in the early 2000s. In the past two …

Realizing Innovation And Sustainability: A Case Study Of Macau Sar’S Smart City Development Capabilities, Yujia He, Felix Ter Chian Tan, Carmen Leong, Jingbo Huang, Don Rodney Junio

Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce Faculty Publications

The emergence of digital technologies has transformed organizational innovation with important implications for a city, its economy and policymaking. Despite this, research on how capabilities underpin innovation through smart city initiatives is still lacking. To address this gap, we conduct an empirical investigation of smart city initiatives in Macau, a former Portuguese colony and now special administrative region (SAR) of China. The case study adopts a qualitative approach, using data collected through fieldwork observations and in-depth interviews with stakeholders, and analysis of secondary documents. The study develops a stage-based assessment of innovation capabilities related to the use of technologies in …

Towards Smart Cities As Innovation Systems: The Case Of Macau Sar, Yujia He

Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce Faculty Publications

Smart cities are emerging as major engines for deploying intelligent systems to enhance urban development and contribute to the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. The rise of smart city initiatives is not only seen in North America and Europe but also increasingly in Asia and across the developing world which faces rapid urbanization and technological change. Home to the UNU Institute in Macau, the city of Macau is a special administrative region (SAR) of China where “the East meets the West” in local governance, economy, and society. Our research article, recently published in the Journal of Urban Affairs, …

The Geopolitics Of Infrastructuralized Platforms: The Case Of Alibaba, Hong Shen, Yujia He

Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce Faculty Publications

Contemporary digital platforms have become increasingly infrastructuralized, and started to raise geopolitical tensions with their global expansion. Amidst the heightened geopolitical competition between the US and China, the growing power of Chinese infrastructuralized platforms has made them the center of recent geopolitical dynamics. Drawing from an exploratory case study, this paper discusses Alibaba, one of the most prominent Chinese Internet giants, as an infrastructuralized platform, and highlights its geopolitical struggles. Often perceived as an e-commerce company, Alibaba has become ‘infrastructuralized’: its now-massive digital empire has moved beyond e-commerce, expanding into almost every aspect of China’s and global digital economy such …

Chinese-Backed Fintech Lending Boom: How Did Indonesia Respond?, Angela Tritto, Yujia He, Victoria Amanda Junaedi

Diplomacy and International Commerce Reports

Peer-to-peer (P2P) online lending has the potential to boost innovation and financial inclusion in emerging markets, yet it can also incur investment and borrower-related risks, such as privacy breaches.

Driven by regulation control in China, Chinese investments flocked to Indonesia, causing a rapid expansion of online lending platforms.

Similar to what happened in China prior to the regulatory crackdown, the P2P lending boom in Indonesia saw a rise in unethical and illegal business practices. The government responded by creating new regulations and institutions to mitigate risks without stifling the potential for financial inclusion.

A proactive approach towards monitoring and regulating …

Urban Utopia Or Pipe Dream? Examining Chinese-Invested Smart City Development In Southeast Asia, Yujia He, Angela Tritto

Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce Faculty Publications

With increasing public–private partnership and international cooperation in smart city development across the Global South, Chinese firms are poised to take advantage of growing business opportunities, a situation that few studies have examined. This empirical case study of the Forest City, a Chinese-invested greenfield smart city project in Iskandar Malaysia, begins to fill that gap. This megaproject represents the coming together of overlapping economic development interests of the local authorities and the profit motivations of the Chinese investor. However, the project’s use of the ‘smart city’ discourse contrasts with the reality of limited technology adoption. Its visibility and considerable socio-economic …

The Isolated As The Revolutionary: How “Leftover” Men In China Challenge Heteronormativity, Ruwen Chang

Theses and Dissertations--Gender and Women's Studies

In contemporary China, demographers estimate that 30 million men are single because there are simply not enough women in the Chinese population, and the 2020 Chinese census shows that there are 34.9 million more men than women. These men are called guanggun, which can be directly translated to “bare sticks/branches,” a slur that indicates a lack of marriage and sex. In this project, I demonstrate that guanggun’s singlehood marks them as the marginalized at the intersection of heteronormativity, patriarchy, globalizing capitalism, and pronatalist governmentality. In a highly heteronormative and patrilineal culture, guanggun are branded as abnormal/incomplete. However, because …

Beyond The Great Power Competition Narrative: Exploring Labor Politics And Resistance Behind Ai Innovation In China, Yujia He, Hong Shen

Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Chinese-Invested Smart City Development In Southeast Asia - How Resilient Are Urban Megaprojects In The Age Of Covid-19?, Yujia He, Angela Tritto

Diplomacy and International Commerce Reports

Smart cities are emerging as major engines for deploying intelligent systems to enhance urban development and contribute to the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG). In developing economies facing rapid urbanization and technological change, new cities are being built with smart technologies and ideals, complete with business districts and residential, retail, entertainment, medical, education facilities to entice businesses and talents to relocate. Governments tout the potential of such “greenfield” smart cities for innovation and sustainability. Yet such urban megaprojects are often extremely expensive, prompting governments to partner with private players such as property developers, investors, and tech firms to …

Building Quality? Migration, Suzhi, And Subaltern Masculinity In The Shanghai Construction Industry, Leif Johnson

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

This doctoral dissertation providesa novel perspective on the everyday lives of construction workers in urban China, demonstrating the underpinnings of urban infrastructure and citizenship policy in affective and gendered relations surrounding the construction industry. Drawing on 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Shanghai, China, this dissertation makes a series of three related arguments: First, focusing on the role that migrant labor plays in the construction of urban infrastructure in Shanghai, I argue that the physical existence of infrastructure itself is inextricably tied to systems that govern rural-urban migration across China. Second, building from the Chinese concept of suzhi as both …

Connecting The Emerging Markets: China’S Growing Role In Global Digital Infrastructure, Yujia He

Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce Faculty Publications

Rising demand for international communications drive cable capacity growth, yet financing and political risks remain major obstacles. Chinese investments help finance cable systems in multiple emerging market regions. Emerging economies need to develop robust domestic regulations and international coordination to reduce political risks, protect cable infrastructure, and manage cyber risks.

How China Is Preparing For An Ai-Powered Future, Yujia He

Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce Faculty Publications

U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence (AI) research and development (R&D) may be challenged by China’s recent and centralized policy planning aimed at rapidly developing AI-related technologies. The Chinese government supports AI as a strategic area supported by high-level policies with ambitious and quantifiable targets, inter-ministry coordination, government funding for research and development, support for workforce development, and suggestions for international collaboration and expansion. Still, as a relative latecomer in the global AI race, China faces numerous challenges to implement its policy planning, including short-term skills gap and long-term institutional constraints.

A Study Of The Determinants Influencing The Legislative Success Of A Government-Proposed Bill In Korea, Byung Jun Ahn

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

As there is a widespread perception of legislative gridlock and subsequent failure in addressing national problems in Korea, this study examines what factors influence the legislative success and legislative time of a government-proposed bill in Korea. This study uses government-proposed bills from 1988 to 2016 to estimate the effect of explanatory variables such as divided government, the year of presidential term (one to five year), the presidential approval rate, the unemployment rate, filibusters, jurisdictional area of a bill, and the ratio of members’ bills to government-proposed bills.

The results of regression analyses show that there is no evidence divided government …

Quality Measures Of Universities And The Determinants Of Tuition In South Korea, Young Hoon Ko

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

University tuition had increased in highly excess of the inflation rate from 1990s until 2008. Many people are wondering whether the quality of university education is proportional to the tuition level. Thus, this capstone project examines whether the quality measures in higher education can predict the tuition level.

After analyzing eight-year data of 146 private universities in South Korea, I get the result that university tuition is not a function of quality measures in terms of educational costs. However, tuition is a function of quality measures related with attractiveness, accomplishment, and satisfaction. Incoming student recruitment rate, and drop-out rate have …

A Study On Change And Determinants Of South Koreans' Perceptions Of Unification, Seong Koo Ham

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

South Koreans’ interest in and aspirations for unification have decreased recently. This decrease of desires for unification is one of the obstacles to achieve unification. This study analyzes the change of South Koreans’ perceptions of unification and examines various factors that affect those perceptions toward unification. I use unification perceptions survey data from 2007 to 2014 collected by the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies Seoul National University.

The dependent variables of this study are perceptions of the necessity of unification and the possibility of unification. Independent variables are classified into four types. They are expected benefit factors, the political …

The Effects Of Land Use Deregulations In The Capitol Region On Gross Regional Domestic Product In South Korea, Youngchul Kim

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

South Korea has implemented strong land use regulations controlling the growth of the capitol region (Seoul, and around areas) in order to encourage balanced regional development between the capitol area and the non-capitol area. However, there are ongoing debates about the relationship between the regulatory policies and the balanced regional development.

The purpose of this study is to examine the extent of the effect that the land use deregulation in the capitol region has on growth of both regions. To address this question, I use a difference-in-differences model to empirically analyze how the land use deregulation in the capitol region …

The Impact Of Intellectual Property On Provincial Unemployment Rates In South Korea, Soon Ho Shin

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Intellectual property is drawing attention as an important policy tool to lower the unemployment rate in low-growth economies. The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) provides services that facilitate companies to effectively create intellectual property by operating local intellectual property support centers in connection with local governments. In this context, this research examine how the differences of intellectual property registration affect provincial unemployment rates by analyzing 10 years (2006-2015) of panel data with a fixed-effects regression model. According to my estimation results, intellectual property registrations have a statistically significant impact on provincial unemployment rates in South Korea. Since the reduction of …

Beyond Metropolises: Hybridity In A Transnational Context, Raihan Sharif

disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory

Beyond metropolises and within transnational contexts, investigating hybridity discourses is long overdue. This article argues that the epistemic violence embedded in such discourse has grave implications for the very impoverished nations and peoples with whom it claims solidarity and that, because this discourse is trendy in academia, its service to neoliberal capitalism is both easy to miss and important to expose. Interstices of postcolonial hybridity discourses, development discourses, and environmental justice discourses—dominant versions of which are segregated from contextual issues—as produced in Western academia and exported to third world countries for appropriation as developmental efforts—reveal epistemic violence, the manipulation of …

Housing Satisfaction In South Korea, Yoo Gunseuk

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Since April 2013, the Korean government has implemented a series of plans to stabilize the housing market, which has suffered from falling housing prices and surging rent after the 2008 financial crisis. This study estimates the effectiveness of the government's plans by analyzing the housing satisfaction of 2012 and 2014 Korea Housing Survey (KHS). The data used in this study are collected from the KHS carried out by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT)

This study uses 2012 and 2014 KHS to show that some variables and subcategories of household and housing attributes have positive or negative correlation …

Prevailing Against Polio: India's Holistic Development Strategy, Anonymous Submission

Ex-Patt Magazine

No abstract provided.

Breaking Boundaries: The Timely Demise Of The Third-Order Enclave, Travis Cady

Ex-Patt Magazine

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Sino-Russian Cooperation: A Rough Road Ahead, Cassidy Henry

Ex-Patt Magazine

After spending two semesters on the Chinese-Russian border, Henry reflects on the future of Sino-Russian relations and whether the West should worry.

A Study Of Determinants Of The Birthrate Change In South Korea, Kyunghoon Ahn

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

South Korea has experienced a sharp demographic transition from a high birthrate of 4.5 children per woman in the 1970s to a low birthrate of around 1.19 in 2013. A low birthrate can lead to big problems for South Korean society.

In response to such a low birthrate, the South Korean government introduced policies to increase the birthrate, such as providing subsidies for daycare costs and the supply of daycare facilities. The South Korean government has spent heavily on these programs. However, the birthrate stays very low. Also, other social and economic factors could affect the birthrate.

Therefore, I studied …

Cartel Leniency Program And Cartel Enforcement In South Korea, Kyung Jong Han

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) is in charge of competition and consumer protection policies in South Korea. Of these policies, the cartel leniency program is the most powerful enforcement tool to regulate cartel activities which expropriate consumer surplus and create social welfare deadweight loss. The cartel leniency program grants exemptions or reductions in penalties to firms involved in the cartel activities when they cooperate with the cartel investigation of a competition authority. The Korea cartel leniency program was first adopted in 1997 and considerably revised in 2004.

The cartel leniency program can enhance the cartel detection or discovery ability of …

The Primary Colors Of Political Dysfunction, Dillon Nichols

Ex-Patt Magazine

Am no an listening depending up believing. Enough around remove to barton agreed regret in or it. Ad

All Is Fair In Democracy & War: Burgeoning Democracy In Sri Lanka?, Scooter Steiner

Ex-Patt Magazine

Can the rebel opposition movement succeed politically after surrender?

Now Rising O’Er The Ganges: Vibrant Lives In Rural India, Lindsay Johnson

Ex-Patt Magazine

All photographs were taken in and around Anupshahr, Uttar Pradesh, where Johnson lived for a year volunteering with Pardada Pardadi School. These photos were taken between 2009 and 2012.