The Middle Class and Political Change in China: Chinese Middle Class\u27s Attitudinal and Behavioral Orientations Toward Democracy

Does the middle class in China think and act democratically and hence serve as the harbinger of democratic development in that country? Little empirical work has been done to systematically address this crucial question. The primary goals of this dissertation are to explore the level of attitudinal support for democracy among Chinese middle class individuals, examine their behavioral orientations toward politics, and provide a comprehensive assessment of the role of the Chinese middle class in the evolution of the Chinese political system. This dissertation argues that the middle class in China consists of the following four occupational groups: self-employed laborers, managers, professionals, and civil servants. Following this conceptualization, it discusses the relations between the Chinese party-state and the newly rising middle class, and makes distinctions between the subgroup of middle class individuals employed in the public sector and the subgroup employed in the private sector, and posits three hypotheses: (1) The private-sector middle class has strong democratic attitudes; on the other hand, the public-sector middle class has significantly weaker democratic attitudes; (2) The private-sector middle class individuals\u27 democratic orientation may lead to their negative evaluation of the current forms of mass political participation; in turn, this negative evaluation may cause the private-sector middle class individuals to engage in non-participatory action as a form of protest against the current system; and (3) The public-sector middle class individuals\u27 undemocratic belief may lead to their positive evaluation of the current forms of mass political participation; in turn, this positive evaluation may cause the public-sector middle class individuals to engage in participatory action to express their support of the current system. The hypothesized causal relationships are tested via three representative public opinion surveys. The three hypotheses are strongly supported by the empirical evidence. This dissertation concludes that the private-sector middle class people are more likely to hold democratic values and act in ways that promote democracy in China, while the public-sector middle class people tend to hold negative attitudes toward democracy and act in an undemocratic fashion. Such findings are of theoretical and practical significance

Popular Support for Community Self-government in Urban China

From the outset of the post-Mao reform, the central government has made genuine efforts to adapt the grassroots government system in the urban areas to social changes brought about by the reform in the urban neighborhoods, such as the drastic decline of the role of work units and the rapid increase in private ownership of residential properties. This system was anchored by its self-governing body, Residents’ Committee (RCs, jumin weiyuanhui). Residents’ Committees were first established by the government in the 1950s. Before the post-Mao reform, the central government used RCs to assist work units at the grassroots level in implementing Party and government policies, monitoring and controlling the population, and providing residents with some basic social welfare services. Moreover, the central government treated the RCs as its administrative extensions, in conjunction with work units, at the local level

Les valeurs démocratiques dans la population chinoise

Cet article confronte les résultats d’une enquête menée en Chine en juin 2001 dans le cadre de la World Values Survey, à trois théories relatives à l’émergence des valeurs démocratiques. Cette étude fait apparaître d’assez fortes aspirations démocratiques dans la population chinoise. La classe moyenne affiche le soutien le plus fort à la démocratie. La relation négative entre l’âge et l’attachement à des valeurs démocratiques confirme la théorie du remplacement des générations. Cette étude montre également que l’éducation joue un rôle déterminant dans le soutien à la démocratie

Democratic Values Among Chinese People

This study confronts the results of the World Values Survey conducted in China in June 2001 with three theories on the origins of democratic values. It shows that Chinese people have rather high democratic aspirations. The Chinese middle class offers the highest level of support for democracy. The negative relation between age and democratic-value orientations confirms the generation-replacement theory. This study also shows that education plays a critical role in support of democracy

Les valeurs démocratiques dans la population chinoise

Cet article confronte les résultats d’une enquête menée en Chine en juin 2001 dans le cadre de la World Values Survey, à trois théories relatives à l’émergence des valeurs démocratiques. Cette étude fait apparaître d’assez fortes aspirations démocratiques dans la population chinoise. La classe moyenne affiche le soutien le plus fort à la démocratie. La relation négative entre l’âge et l’attachement à des valeurs démocratiques confirme la théorie du remplacement des générations. Cette étude montre également que l’éducation joue un rôle déterminant dans le soutien à la démocratie

Les valeurs démocratiques dans la population chinoise [Analyse d'une enquête d'opinion]

Chunlong Lu, Jacquet Raphaël. Les valeurs démocratiques dans la population chinoise [Analyse d'une enquête d'opinion]. In: Perspectives chinoises, n°84, 2004. pp. 40-48

Walkaway vertical seismic profiling first-arrival traveltime tomography with velocity structure constraints

Walkaway vertical seismic profiling (WVSP) is known for its high level of credibility in obtaining the relationship between first-arrival traveltime and detector depth through first-arrival picking. This relationship can be utilized for seismic velocity model inversion to improve velocity model accuracy and rationality. Here, we present a WVSP first-arrival velocity model with velocity structure constraints, by utilizing layer and fault data interpreted by ground seismic structure technique. We constructed a geological structure and layer sequence models based on sedimentary patterns to obtain complex velocity structures. Furthermore, we introduced a smooth regularization term based on the velocity structure into the inversion model to enhance its consistency with geological laws and compensate for the reduced inversion accuracy owing to the regularization term based on flat structures. This approach addressed the limitations of the regularization term based on flat structures, resulting in more accurate and reliable inversion results. Through simulation analysis, the proposed method realized the WVSP first-arrival velocity inversion, with results being closer to those of the real velocity model

Effect of Emergence Angle on Acoustic Transmission in a Shallow Sea

In this study, the effect of the emergence angle of a source array on acoustic transmission in a typical shallow sea is simulated and analyzed. The formula we derived for the received signal based on the Normal Mode indicates that the signal is determined by the beamform on the modes of all sources and the samplings of all modes at the receiving depth. Two characteristics of the optimal emergence angle (OEA) are obtained and explained utilizing the aforementioned derived formula. The observed distributions of transmission loss (TL) for different sources and receivers are consistent with the obtained characteristics. The results of this study are valuable for the development and design of active sonar detection

Modulating the Performance of the SAW Strain Sensor Based on Dual-Port Resonator Using FEM Simulation

Surface acoustic wave (SAW) strain sensors fabricated on piezoelectric substrates have attracted considerable attention due to their attractive features such as passive wireless sensing ability, simple signal processing, high sensitivity, compact size and robustness. To meet the needs of various functioning situations, it is desirable to identify the factors that affect the performance of the SAW devices. In this work, we perform a simulation study on Rayleigh surface acoustic wave (RSAW) based on a stacked Al/LiNbO3 system. A SAW strain sensor with a dual-port resonator was modeled using multiphysics finite element model (FEM) method. While FEM has been widely used for numerical calculations of SAW devices, most of the simulation works mainly focus on SAW modes, SAW propagation characteristics and electromechanical coupling coefficients. Herein, we propose a systematic scheme via analyzing the structural parameters of SAW resonators. Evolution of RSAW eigenfrequency, insertion loss (IL), quality factor (Q) and strain transfer rate with different structural parameters are elaborated by FEM simulations. Compared with the reported experimental results, the relative errors of RSAW eigenfrequency and IL are about 3% and 16.3%, respectively, and the absolute errors are 5.8 MHz and 1.63 dB (the corresponding Vout/Vin is only 6.6%). After structural optimization, the obtained resonator Q increases by 15%, IL decreases by 34.6% and the strain transfer rate increases by 2.4%. This work provides a systematic and reliable solution for the structural optimization of dual-port SAW resonators