Money laundering: Analysis on the placement methods

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2015 estimated the size of money laundering to be at 2-5% of the world Global Domestic Production (GDP) with around USD800 billion to USD2 trillion being laundered. The global criminal activities are on the rise and the contribution of money laundering to exacerbate the problems associated with the upsurge in the criminal activities is unquantifiable. The negative effect of this on global economic development has grown to a staggering proportion. This is partly because the crisis experienced due to increase in criminal activities is borne out of the fact that the life blood of almost all the crimes are embedded in the financial system. Ironically, detecting money laundering becomes extremely difficult once it has been allowed to crystallized at layering level and finds its ways to the legitimate fund through integration mechanism. To combat money laundering, the parties must understand how money-laundering activities operate. The need to institute greater vigilance to prevent money laundering therefore becomes imperative. This has become the primary focus of most of the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance measures and anti-crime initiatives at local and international levels. This paper therefore focus on the need to nib this dreaded crime at a point where it is almost likely to be detected. By using Malaysia as a focal point, the need to institute greater vigilance at placement level to salvage and ensure financial integrity in the banking sector as a necessary antidote to this problem is therefore the thrust or contention of this paper

Regulation of Digital Financial Services in China: Last Mover or First Mover?

Since 1979, China has made tremendous progress in its transformation to a socialist market economy. As part of this process, China’s financial system has evolved to one characterised by a high degree of marketization. At the same time, China today faces new challenges to growth and development, particularly from the necessity of restructuring its economy to focus increasingly on innovation and away from government led investment and low wage labour. In the context of digital financial services, China has been a late mover but this has changed dramatically in the past five years, to the point today where China is one of the major centres for digital financial services and financial technology (“fintech”). Looking forward, China needs to provide an appropriate regulatory basis for the future development of digital financial services and fintech, balancing growth and innovation with financial stability. China today is exhibiting signs of a last mover advantage in this respect that may see it leaping regulatory developments elsewhere.postprin

In Search of Legitimacy in Post-revolutionary China: Bringing Ideology and Governance Back In

The contemporary politics of China reflect an ongoing effort by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to claim the right to rule in light of the consequences of economic development, international pressures, and historical change. China stands out within the Asian region for the success the regime has achieved in this effort. By focusing on the changes in China’s elite discourse during the reform period and particularly during the last decade, this paper aims to elaborate on the relative importance of various sources of legitimacy as they shift over time, as well as on their inherent dilemmas and limitations. There is evidence of an agile, responsive, and creative party effort to relegitimate the postrevolutionary regime through economic performance, nationalism, ideology, culture, governance, and democracy. At the same time, the paper identifies a clear shift in emphasis from an earlier economic-nationalistic approach to a more ideological-institutional approach.regime legitimacy, China, Chinese Communist Party, performance, nationalism, ideology, culturalism, governance, democracy

The Rise of Industrial Policy in China, 1978-2012

Abstrac

The EU's promotion of human rights in China : a consistent and coordinated constructive engagement?

This thesis investigates whether the European Union and its member states have been able to balance normative priorities – specifically the promotion of human rights – and material priorities – specifically economic interests – within the strategy of constructive engagement towards China embraced since 1995. In order to respond to this central question this thesis originally elaborates a liberal intergovernmental approach for the study of the promotion of human rights within the EU’s system of multilevel governance in external relations. Such an approach is applied to analyse the issues of consistency and coordination in the policies for the promotion of human rights in China elaborated by the European Community and three selected member states, namely Germany, France and the UK. The choice of the country cases serves theoretical and analytical purposes. At a theoretical level it allows consideration as to whether the EU’s overall policies were mainly influenced by the interests and policy preferences of the three selected member states, which had the most bargaining power and the highest stakes in China, as expected by liberal intergovernmentalism. At an analytical level, the choice of the country cases allows for consideration of whether the EC’s policies for the promotion of human rights in China were coordinated with those of the three selected member states, which had the most conspicuous development assistance policies towards China and whose approaches to human rights in the country were broadly representative of the other member states. This supports the assessment of the achievement, or otherwise, of a significant EU promotion of human rights through development assistance in China. From the study it emerges that the EC and its three selected member states have been unable to devise consistent and coordinated policies for the promotion of human rights in China. On the one hand these findings suggest that the EU and its member states have been unable to balance normative and material priorities in their relations with China. On the other hand this thesis illustrates that this was due to the influence of the material interests and policy preferences of Germany, France and the UK, thus supporting the expectations of liberal intergovernmentalism. These findings form an original contribution to the study of the EU’s promotion of norms because they suggest that the EU can promote human rights, as well as other norms, in a consistent, coordinated and ultimately strategic way, only if the member states with the most bargaining power and the highest stakes in a specific policy issue privilege normative interests over material ones. At the same time this thesis offers an original contribution to EU-China studies on human rights, as it suggests that due to the present interests of the most influential member states, the EU’s promotion of human rights should be reframed to address what Chinese authorities are willing to accommodate in the human rights field, namely give preference to the support of socio-economic rights, where a consensus among the EU’s member states can more easily be built

China und Südostasien: auf dem Weg zu regionaler Partnerschaft

'Seit einigen Jahren empfiehlt sich die VR China ganz Südostasien als 'verantwortliche Großmacht' und aufstrebende Wirtschaftsmacht, deren weiterer Aufstieg untrennbar an das Wohlergehen seiner Nachbarländer geknüpft ist. Im Mittelpunkt dieser Studie steht hierbei die Frage, ob Chinas Politik in Südostasien lediglich darauf abzielt, die bisherige Führungsrolle der USA in dieser Region zu übernehmen oder ob sie von dem aufrichtigen Willen geprägt ist, sich aktiv an dem Aufbau einer regionalen Wirtschaftsgemeinschaft und eines multilateralen Sicherheitssystems zu beteiligen. Die Arbeit kommt zu folgenden Ergebnissen: China verfolgt in Südostasien ein sehr breites Interessenspektrum, das von ökonomischen, sicherheitspolitischen, aber auch kulturellen Überlegungen bestimmt wird. Obgleich es in dieser Region nicht als der uneigennützige große Bruder gesehen wird, als den es sich gerne ausgibt, konnte es mit seiner Politik des aktiven, aber nicht konfrontativen Engagements weit verbreitetes Misstrauen verringern und zunehmende Akzeptanz unter den nationalen Eliten gewinnen. Europäische Politik ist daher gut beraten, wenn sie den ASEAN-Staaten nicht nur die Erfahrungen des europäischen Einigungsprozesses vermittelt, sondern auch konkrete Hilfestellung beim Aufbau der Institutionen eines regionalen Sicherheitssystems leistet und sich hierbei um ein hohes Maß an Koordination und Zusammenarbeit mit den USA und Japan bemüht.' (Autorenreferat

The EU's promotion of human rights in China : a consistent and coordinated constructive engagement?

This thesis investigates whether the European Union and its member states have been able to balance normative priorities – specifically the promotion of human rights – and material priorities – specifically economic interests – within the strategy of constructive engagement towards China embraced since 1995. In order to respond to this central question this thesis originally elaborates a liberal intergovernmental approach for the study of the promotion of human rights within the EU’s system of multilevel governance in external relations. Such an approach is applied to analyse the issues of consistency and coordination in the policies for the promotion of human rights in China elaborated by the European Community and three selected member states, namely Germany, France and the UK. The choice of the country cases serves theoretical and analytical purposes. At a theoretical level it allows consideration as to whether the EU’s overall policies were mainly influenced by the interests and policy preferences of the three selected member states, which had the most bargaining power and the highest stakes in China, as expected by liberal intergovernmentalism. At an analytical level, the choice of the country cases allows for consideration of whether the EC’s policies for the promotion of human rights in China were coordinated with those of the three selected member states, which had the most conspicuous development assistance policies towards China and whose approaches to human rights in the country were broadly representative of the other member states. This supports the assessment of the achievement, or otherwise, of a significant EU promotion of human rights through development assistance in China. From the study it emerges that the EC and its three selected member states have been unable to devise consistent and coordinated policies for the promotion of human rights in China. On the one hand these findings suggest that the EU and its member states have been unable to balance normative and material priorities in their relations with China. On the other hand this thesis illustrates that this was due to the influence of the material interests and policy preferences of Germany, France and the UK, thus supporting the expectations of liberal intergovernmentalism. These findings form an original contribution to the study of the EU’s promotion of norms because they suggest that the EU can promote human rights, as well as other norms, in a consistent, coordinated and ultimately strategic way, only if the member states with the most bargaining power and the highest stakes in a specific policy issue privilege normative interests over material ones. At the same time this thesis offers an original contribution to EU-China studies on human rights, as it suggests that due to the present interests of the most influential member states, the EU’s promotion of human rights should be reframed to address what Chinese authorities are willing to accommodate in the human rights field, namely give preference to the support of socio-economic rights, where a consensus among the EU’s member states can more easily be built.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Law and Development as Anti-Comparative Law

This Article asserts that during the twentieth century, American law has predominantly structured its relationship to foreign legal experience through a set of ideas and practices known as law and development, which is irredeemably antithetical to the practice of comparative law. Centrally, law and development is built on the assumption that American law can be exported abroad to catalyze foreign legal development. The dismal record of such efforts has remained paradoxically popular while the field remains locked in repeating cycles of failure and optimism. This Article demonstrates that the history of law and development\u27s failures is far older than has been traditionally recognized, and dates back to the turn of the twentieth century. In this era, foreign reform became a key part of the professional image of the modern American lawyer. At the same time, the origins of law and development were intimately tied to the decline of comparative law in American legal culture. This history reveals that the paradox of law and development\u27s contemporary popularity can only be understood by recognizing the cultural politics that these developments embedded in the American legal community. The troubling legacy of this widely entrenched view of America as solely an exporter of legal knowledge presents pressing liabilities for American law, both internationally and domestically, on the competitive terrain of the twenty-first century. This Article concludes that in order to address these liabilities, America should categorically abandon law and development and should fundamentally reorient its relationship to foreign legal experience through a self-interested practice of comparative law. As exemplified in the debate over judicial citation of foreign precedents, this shift will require basic changes in how American legislative and administrative bodies relate to foreign law, as well as the place of comparative law in American law schools. Such a reorientation will enable America to strategically perceive foreign legal developments and, most critically, productively adapt foreign legal experience as an energizing stimulant to our own legal innovation