The political economy of Chinese and Japanese infrastructure regime : a case study of Indonesia (preliminary analysis)

Ever since the so-called rise of China has started and particularly after Japan has lost a key Indonesian high-speed railway to China, Sino-Japanese relations have been increasingly posited on a geo-economic rivalry between both states. As a result, perspective on Chinese and Japanese infrastructure investment tends to place the state at the center of explanations and be guided more by what infrastructure projects are imagined to leverage, than what Southeast Asian countries have influenced. Taking issues from existing studies which have overly coalesced the discussion around geopolitical standpoint and norm-based approach, this study brings fresh framings of the political economy of Chinese and Japanese infrastructure regime in Southeast Asia. By using the case study of Indonesia, this study compares the pattern of agenda setting and political settlement that China and Japan have pursued to accommodate state transformation pertaining to the infrastructure development in Indonesia. It also unfolds the ‘localized’ process of infrastructure regime that has implicated different levels of playing field which Japan and China have encountered in the country. The study puts forward the challenges and prospects for policy engagement by analyzing initiatives, such as Japan’s ODA-based projects, Indonesian government’s master plan MP3EI, China’s Belt and Road Initaitive (BRI), Japan’s Partnership Quality Initiative (PQI), and Indonesia’s proposed PPP (Public Private Partnership) scheme. Offering a unique perspective on the linkage of power configuration and infrastructure regime, this study finds that Chinese infrastructure regime reflects a continuous trial and error in linking capital accumulation with infrastructure agenda due to an uneven expansion of sub-national entities and companies to the infrastructure market. This has led to “de-institutionalization” of policy formulation and implementation in order to accommodate fragmented interests in Indonesia. Whereas, Japanese infrastructure regime demonstrates how infrastructure projects have been historically narrated and intertwined with the rationalization of economy as well as adjusted with the political constellation and economic structure in Indonesia. Such adjustment resulted political settlement that invariably upgraded informalization into “institutionalization” so as to narrow coalitional interests and maintain centralization of authority in a well-coordinated manner

Cause for optimism? Financial sanctions and the rise of the Sino-North Korean border economy

This article critically engages with recent arguments that financial sanctions are capable of overcoming the shortcomings of traditional trade sanctions as well as more targeted ‘smart sanctions.’ Much of the existing analysis of financial sanctions cites as evidence of their success the case of the US Treasury's 2005 accusations against Macao's Banco Delta Asia of facilitating North Korean money laundering. We argue, however, that analysis of the broader impact of financial sanctions on North Korea's principle bilateral economic relationship, namely the Sino-North Korean border economy, reveals that such measures have merely served to increase the scope of evasive economic activity. In particular, financial sanctions have meant that methods of trade settlement in the border economy are based primarily on cash and barter, with minimal recourse to the official banking system. This raises questions not only regarding the effectiveness of financial sanctions but also the degree to which they serve to provoke counter-responses that actively undermine the broader objectives pursued by sender states. Through examining the case of Sino-North Korean border economy, this article contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the shortcomings of financial sanctions as a tool of foreign policy

The Wild East: Criminal Political Economies in South Asia

The Wild East bridges political economy and anthropology to examine a variety of il/legal economic sectors and businesses such as red sanders, coal, fire, oil, sand, air spectrum, land, water, real estate, procurement and industrial labour. The 11 case studies, based across India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, explore how state regulative law is often ignored and/or selectively manipulated. The emerging collective narrative shows the workings of regulated criminal economic systems where criminal formations, politicians, police, judges and bureaucrats are deeply intertwined. By pioneering the field-study of the politicisation of economic crime, and disrupting the wider literature on South Asia’s informal economy, The Wild East aims to influence future research agendas through its case for the study of mafia-enterprises and their engagement with governance in South Asia and outside. Its empirical and theoretical contribution to debates about economic crimes in democratic regimes will be of critical value to researchers in Economics, Anthropology, Sociology, Comparative Politics, Political Science and International Relations, Criminologists and Development Studies, as well as to those inside and outside academia interested in current affairs and the relationship between crime, politics and mafia enterprises

A Correlation Analysis of Construction Site Fall Accidents Based on Text Mining

Construction site fall accidents are a high-frequency accident type in the construction industry and have received extensive attention from accident causal factor analysis and risk management research, but evaluating the relationship between accident causal factors and unstructured texts remains an area in urgent need of further study. In this paper, an analysis method based on text mining was chosen to analyze and process the collected data of 557 investigation reports of construction site fall accidents in China from 2013 to 2019. First, the accident reports were preprocessed to identify six types and 28 causal factors of fall accidents; subsequently, the 28 causal factors were classified into critical causal factors, subcritical causal factors and general causal factors according to their document frequency. Then, the Apriori algorithm was used to analyze the correlation of construction site fall accidents. Finally, strong association rules were obtained between the accident causal factors and between the causal factors and the types of construction site fall accidents. The results showed that 1) insufficient safety technology training and untimely elimination of hidden danger in safe production were the most frequent accident causal factors in fall accident reports. 2) There were different degrees of strong and weak correlations among the causal factors of construction site fall accidents, among which the higher the importance was, the stronger the correlation. 3) There were strong potential laws between the causal factors and the types of fall accidents, and the combination of some causal factors was most likely to lead to the occurrence of the corresponding accident types. This study scientifically and logically elucidated the inherent risk factors for fall accidents, which provides a theoretical basis for preventing fall accidents in construction projects

Bilateral Economic Relations in a Global Political Economy: Australia and Japan

This paper argues that despite the internationalisation of economic activity, and a concomitant diminution of economic policy-making autonomy, national policy settings continue to display a surprising degree of divergence and remain important determinants of economic outcomes. Similarly, there are distinctively different and enduring patterns of corporate organisation across nations which confer specific competitive advantages. Important theoretical and empirical questions are raised, therefore, about the potential efficacy of national economic policies and their capacity to accommodate such divergent practices. This paper examines the bilateral relationship between Australia and Japan, and assesses the effectiveness of Australia's predominantly neoliberal economic policy framework in the light of such national and organisational variation. It will be suggested that Australian policy-makers' faith in market mechanisms caused them to underestimate the significance of Japanese commercial practices and regional production strategies, rendering attempts to transform the relationship largely unsuccessful

What factors determine the success and failure of innovation in China? A systemic study of the Chinese mining industry

China's economy has enjoyed rapid development in recent decades. Its achievements in innovation, however, are far from satisfactory. So why is it the case that innovation has not followed? The mining industry is chosen as the research target. Above all, it is indispensable for China's future energy security and some materials can be used and have no replacement for the manufacture of a constellation of high-tech products. Secondly, mining is a difficult case for the study of innovation. Finally, this study is located at the overlap between development studies and political economy. This research adopts a qualitative method. Its aim is to find the mechanism through which innovation outcomes can be determined as the qualitative method can be beneficial in presenting such a mechanism clearly. The data is collected mainly through interviews. This research is first illuminated by System of Innovation(SI) theory. SI views concrete innovations as the outcome of a System. This research adopts the Triple Helix approach to organise interviews and conduct fieldwork. This approach focuses upon the interaction of universities, governments and industries. The Innovation Ecosystem is also utilised to produce systemic research results. The empirical finding of the research recognises that, compared with the prospecting and manufacturing stages, the mining and mineral processing stages are more innovative. One theoretical finding is that the triple helix displays in different forms under different circumstances. More work ought to be done to further discern and update the evolution of a Chinese National System of Innovation and a comparison of the different forms of Triple Helix is also a rich vein for scholars

The new class in Vietnam

PhDVietnam has posted impressive gains in growth of output, exports and poverty reduction over the last twenty years. The standard explanation of this sustained success views Vietnam‟s transition from socialism to capitalism as an extension of markets and removal of obstacles to their efficient operation. This view of transition is based on a particular view of the origins of capitalism, in which capitalism emerges due to the expansion of trade, technology and the removal of obstacles to the natural tendencies of human interaction. However, this view of the origins of capitalism cannot explain the uniqueness of capitalism as a distinct historical social formation. A Marxist framework will be used, stressing the emergence of a new social division of labour based on the emerging class relation between capital and labour. This transformation forces a shift to accumulation through the market, requiring capitalists to operate under the market imperative in order to survive. This will be combined with Djilas (1957) and the concept of communist bureaucracies as a New Class in order to investigate the emergence of capitalism in Vietnam. The research question is how does the appearance and reproduction of the New Class provide insight into the development of a specifically Vietnamese capitalism? Data on Vietnam‟s largest 200 firms will be analyzed through the New Class lens to explore the transformation occurring in Vietnam

The Wild East

The Wild East bridges political economy and anthropology to examine a variety of il/legal economic sectors and businesses such as red sanders, coal, fire, oil, sand, air spectrum, land, water, real estate, procurement and industrial labour. The 11 case studies, based across India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, explore how state regulative law is often ignored and/or selectively manipulated. The emerging collective narrative shows the workings of regulated criminal economic systems where criminal formations, politicians, police, judges and bureaucrats are deeply intertwined. By pioneering the field-study of the politicisation of economic crime, and disrupting the wider literature on South Asia’s informal economy, The Wild East aims to influence future research agendas through its case for the study of mafia-enterprises and their engagement with governance in South Asia and outside. Its empirical and theoretical contribution to debates about economic crimes in democratic regimes will be of critical value to researchers in Economics, Anthropology, Sociology, Comparative Politics, Political Science and International Relations, Criminologists and Development Studies, as well as to those inside and outside academia interested in current affairs and the relationship between crime, politics and mafia enterprises