Russian and Chinese conceptions of deterrence: a comparative study of revisionism and the status-quo

The study of deterrence provides a unique and insightful alternative for the evaluation of state revisionism and status-quo adherence. This thesis provides an innovate method and proof-of-concept for the categorization of state revisionism, through operationalization of state deterrence strategies, using two of the most topical and relevant rising powers as cases: the Russian Federation and People’s Republic of China, during the so-called period of the ‘Rise of the Rest’ and the ‘Return of Geopolitics’. Through the use of data-driven qualitative content analysis, areas of interest are determined; from which key events are identified and evaluated by comparing the empirical results to the theoretical frameworks of deterrence and the long-established definition of revisionism. Through this methodology, this thesis finds that both the Russian Federation and People’s Republic of China are revisionist states, with the Russian Federation being significantly more revisionist than China; due to the differing security environments, historical and territorial context, and deterrence conceptions. By using the study of deterrence as an explanatory framework, this thesis provides a proof-of-concept and model for future research, and is the first holistic study on state revisionism in over 15 years, as well as it is the first comparative measurement-based study of its class.https://www.ester.ee/record=b5242312*es

Narrative motion on the two-dimensional plane: the “video-ization” of photography and characterization of reality

"Art is not truth. Art is a lie that enables us to recognize truth" Pablo Picasso Time, as known to many, is an indispensable component of photography. Period(s) included in “single” photographs are usually and naturally much shorter than periods documented in video works. Yet, when it comes to combining photos taken at different times on one photographical surface, it becomes possible to see remnants of longer periods of time. Whatever method you use, the many traces left by different moments, lead to the positive notion of timelessness (lack of time dependence) due to the plural presences of time at once. This concept of timelessness sometimes carries the content of the photo to anonymity, the substance becomes multi-layered and hierarchy disappears. This paper focuses on creating photographical narratives within the two-dimensional world. The possibility of working in layers with transparency within the computer environment enables us to overlay succession of moments seized from time on top of each other, in order to create a storyline spread in time that is otherwise not possible to express in a single photograph, unless properly staged. Truth with the capital T is not taken as the departure point in this article; on the contrary, personal delineations of temporary yet experienced smaller realities is suggested

Specters of the subaltern : a critique of representations of rural women in contemporary China

China has speeded up modernization since the reform and open-door policy was introduced in 1978. After accession to the World Trade Organization in 1999, China has been further incorporated into the global track. The national policy of economic development requires a continuing exploitation of natural resources and intensive labor from the rural sector, and over the last few decades, there has been a ceaseless wave of rural women going to the cities and working mainly as assembly-line workers, domestic helpers and sex workers. Developing a subaltern and feminist perspective, this thesis examines representations of rural women in academic research and literary works, as well as in films, documentaries, TV dramas, photography and popular magazines. The thesis attempts to outline and invoke a spectral figure of the subaltern as the rural woman demonstrably haunting dominant regimes of representations of modernization. In the prevailing mentality of development, a mega-city is portrayed as the ultimate destination; meanwhile, the rural is depicted as residual and as a repository of the past. There is a system of negative equivalences attached to the rural, which is always positioned as the unspoken, invisible or stereotyped other of overwhelming cosmopolitan values. The thesis reviews how urban intellectuals represent rural women in the contemporary cosmopolitan settings. Drawing on Gayatri Spivak’s discussion of the two kinds of representation—proxy and portrait—the thesis aims to read how urban intellectuals speak for as well as draw a portrait of rural women. The thesis also tries to read against the grain of the texts to trace the irreducible figure of the rural woman. As the readings will demonstrate, there are contradictions, paradoxes and ambivalences in narrating and portraying rural women as actors of modernization, victims of industrialization, agents of proletarian struggle, consumers purchasing commodities, and as the residual from agrarian society. From such incongruities within the texts, one can posit the figure of the rural woman as a symbol of resistance to the predominant discourse of modernization. This is not necessarily to suggest a nostalgic return to the past, that is, to the statist industrialization of Mao Zedong’s period and the patriarchal tradition; or an orthodox ruralism that everyone should go back to ancient society; or a romanticization of the primitive. Rather, this figure operates like Stuart Hall’s concept of “black”, referring to a way of referencing the widespread experience of marginalization in contemporary China, and an organizing category of a new politics of resistance among different groups. This research not only negotiates but also re-adjusts the notion of urban superiority by exploring the spectral figure of the rural woman. Gendering the rural vision means not only making a difference from the present capitalist and patriarchal values and practices, but also taking the excluded majority into serious consideration. It is hoped that this exercise, in the end, will help us to imagine a communal society in which we can recognize the practice of care of others as care of the self

An empirical analysis of IPOs and SEOs : evidence from the Chinese stock markets

Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) have drawn much attention among financial economists recently. However, gaps still exist and more empirical research is warranted, especially for immature stock markets, such as China. This research mainly concentrates on the aspects of “Credit rating effect on IPOs and SEOs’, ‘Complicated IPO allocation mechanisms’ and ‘Links between IPOs and SEOs, and SEOs motivations’ in the Chinese case using data from 1990 to 2011, which covers the entire history of the Chinese stock market development.First of all, this thesis confirms that the presence of credit rating is able to reduce information asymmetry and lower the IPO/SEO underpricing level no matter the rating is from the Chinese domestic rating agency or top three international rating agencies (S&P, Fitch and Moody’s), where the so-called ‘Non-creditable rating’ system does work in Chinese case. Further, this thesis proves additional evidence that multiple credit ratings' presence can lower the IPO/SEO underpricing level. What is more, this research confirms that what matters on IPO/SEO underpricing is not only the presence of credit rating, but also the level of credit rating. In order to analyse the credit-rating effect, this thesis has also divided sample into four sub-samples based on a pricing model in China and provides additional results that credit-rating presence is only able to reduce information asymmetry in time periods two and three for IPO, but the presence of credit rating can lower underpricing for SEO in all time periods.Secondly, we examine the determinants of the allocation mechanism choice and the how effective each allocation mechanism is in reducing the IPO underpricing for the Chinese market. Our results show that among the several IPO allocation mechanisms in China, the “bookbuilding” (BB) is most effective in reducing the underpricing level, and that the market conditions, firm’s risk level, information asymmetry and capital demand all play important roles in the choice of the IPO allocation mechanism. Our results also attest that firms with larger board size and or a higher proportion of legal persons sharing ownership are less likely to use the BB allocation mechanism. A higher proportion of tradable shares is negatively associated with the likelihood of using BB allocation mechanism, and the short-term and the long-term performance of IPOs vary significantly across the allocation mechanisms.Thirdly, regarding the link between IPOs and SEOs, the results provide new evidence that firms do underpricing IPOs as strategy and will compensate the loss from following SEOs with higher price and larger sizes. Additionally, this thesis also captures the link between the IPO and SEO effect in different time lengths (doing SEOs within 12 months, 24 months, 36 months and more than 36 months after IPOs). The thesis confirms corporate governance can influence SEO decisions as well. Incentives of SEOs in the Chinese case also be evaluated in this thesis.All our results in the thesis provide empirical evidence of difference areas about IPO and SEO in the Chinese case, and the results can be used as references directly in the real world

China Studies Review

Our edition begins with Shangsi Zhou’s exploration of the unconventional growth of market capitalism in China’s state-governed economy. Her essay is followed by Sam Boone’s timely review of China’s relationship with the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), reflecting on the ways in which China uses international organizations to fulfill domestic goals. The next article is Dominic Chiu’s review of the inefficiency of China’s state sector and the inherent difficulties that exist in reforming state-owned enterprises. The fourth entry is Anna Woods’ examination of China’s growing food insecurity and the ways in which China leverages international organizations and multilateral relationships in attempts to mitigate future shortages. Her work is followed by Brian Hart’s research regarding technological innovation in China in terms of strategic military development, and how this impacts U.S.-China technological competition. Next, Kevin Garrahan examines China’s path to becoming a world leader of innovation, and the challenges presented by China’s current economic structure to this transition. Finally, Michael Sutherland concludes this edition with his review of China’s transition from a “standards taker” to an international “standards maker,” and what this means for international governance organizations

Annual report on research activities 2005-2006

https://commons.ln.edu.hk/research_annual_report/1004/thumbnail.jp

Annual report on research activities 2003-2004

https://commons.ln.edu.hk/research_annual_report/1002/thumbnail.jp

WAITING FOR 2008 OLYMPICS: POLITICS BETWEEN PEOPLE, THE WEST AND THE CHINESE STATE

In this dissertation, I primarily examine the power complex formed by the People/the peoples, the Chinese state and the West, particularly its embodiment before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. This dissertation will adopt Giorgio Agamben's theorizing of People/peoples to map the dialectical power dynamics through which the state sovereign of China tended to reinforced itself through hosting the Beijing Games. In addition, by engaging critical theories of cultural studies, I hope to avoid structural formalism caused by relying on one particular theory. Thus, by bringing post-colonial theories, theories of intersectionality, theories of transnational feminism and theories of globalization together, I want to capture the role discursively played by the West that shape and reshapes the People/the peoples. The focus of my empirical study is the People/the people. Each chapter explores one group of individuals - the peoples confined by constructed identities. According to Agamben, the People/the peoples are nothing but pure construction by the power of the state. Although the People/the peoples are sometimes "fragmentary multiplicity of needy and excluded bodies" (Agamben, 1998), it is often the case that the People/the peoples resist the power, acquire new subjectivities, and even actively engage in power negotiation with the state and the West. In this sense, the People/the peoples are not what Agamben theorized "bare life" that can only unconditionally subject themselves to the power. Instead, they carry the potential to disrupt power construction by forming transcendental subjectivity. Following Andrews' (2008) suggestion of embracing Physical Cultural Study, I employ a variety of qualitative methodologies to articulate the dynamic power complex. By doing so, I hope to make my limited contribution to breaking the confines that the power used to construct the People/the peoples, and possibly leading China to its proper place in this cosmopolitan world

Brands and Branding: An Analysis of the Evolutionary Development of Baijiu Industry Clusters in China

Research into industry clusters and brands and branding has emerged and developed in the Western world for decades. In China, the Reform and Opening up policy adopted since the late 1970s, has resulted in impressive economic growth around economic clusters, including some manufacturing processing industries, and some industries related to high-technology, and traditional industries (i.e. agricultural and Baijiu products). This thesis aims to contribute to the academic and political understanding of these issues through exploring the emergence, agglomeration and development of Chinese alcoholic beverage/Baijiu industry clusters. Inspired by theories of industry clusters, and brands and branding, this thesis proposes to find out and understand the development of Chinese industry clusters formations and their branding strategies, especially in a traditional industry sector. These ideas are described and analysed through a qualitative-oriented fieldwork investigation in seven industry clusters within three Chinese prefecture-level cities, namely, Luzhou, Yibin and Zunyi.From a theoretical perspective, industry clusters and brands and branding theories/strategies are not separate from, but are associated with, each other. Brands and branding strategies are not only marketing concepts but also have diverse meanings from economic, social, ecological, political and cultural perspectives. With the characteristics of geographical entanglements (Pike, 2009b), dynamic network frames and creative activity, the brands and branding strategies are geographically linked to multi-layer industry clusters. This makes it possible to identify industry clusters from brands and branding insights, especially in this global world. The concepts of brands and branding, and industry clusters, and the relationship between them form one part of the thesis’s contributions. In addition, evolutionary economic geography theory is useful to explore industry clusters, which has been utilised to explain the brands and branding of Chinese Baijiu regional agglomeration and industry clusters.From an empirical perspective, the Chinese Baijiu industry’s clusters, brands and branding strategies can be analysed from four aspects, namely, price and some intangible brand value factors; ecological and environmental elements; the Baijiu organisational structure of the production, circulation, and consumption; and the policies and regulations of regional agglomerations and industry clusters. Price is a tangible brand value factor which differentiates Chinese Baijiu commodity with multi-level prices. Enterprise structures and scales help form the Baijiu industry cluster formations as well; natural-related elements of environment/ecology include water, grains, human activities and cultural and historical backgrounds, which explain the meanings of origins, and influence the regional agglomerations of Chinese Baijiu; societal consumption and investment extend industrial chains of Chinese Baijiu and drive its agglomeration and dispersion; multi-layer governmental policies and regulations force and impede the emergence and development of Chinese Baijiu industry clusters. Regional agglomerations provide spatial backgrounds for Chinese Baijiu industry clusters. Drawing upon this, seven Chinese Baijiu industry clusters are identified and their evolutionary developments are explored: Chinese Baijiu Golden Triangle Baijiu Industry Development Zone, Sichuan Luzhou Baijiu Industry Park, Guojiao 1573 Square, Renhuai Economic Development Zones (including three functional parks: National Baijiu Industrial Park, Renhuai Famous Baijiu Industrial Park, and Tanchang Modern Service Park), Wuliangye Group, Jiudu Yibin · Wuliangye Culture Features Street and Qionglai Basic Baijiu Production Zone. Driven by the branding strategies of both enterprises and government policy guidelines, these seven Chinese Baijiu industry clusters show a development characteristic of enterprises/products branding–industry cluster branding–place/province branding.Furthermore, more detailed brand identification, industry clusters and global value chains, and globalisation and branding strategies all provide future research possibilities for Chinese Baijiu industry. This thesis still has its limitations, which may need more quantitative methods to measure and examine the formation and development of Chinese Baijiu industry. Basically, this thesis also offers potential research connecting to other Chinese agricultural industries, manufacturing industries and tourism industries