The New “Selective Diplomacy” of the People’s Republic of China: towards a “partial” interference in global affairs?

Rozdział z: The Quandaries and Foreign Development, ed. D. Mierzejewski, “Contemporary Asian Studies Series

the scourge of prostitution in contemporary china the bao ernai phenomenon

China in the post-Mao era was transformed by a veritable economic miracle and simultaneously underwent a series of radical epoque-making changes in the Chinese ruling classes' political and ideological approach to government. The continued rapid growth and the expansion of a consumer society have also contributed to the discrediting of those traditional values which for many years underpinned and fortified the force of communism. In addition to the demise of traditional values, the waning belief in Maoist ideology and the rise of consumerism as the new ideological credo, there have also been transformations in some of the main pillars of Chinese society, in particular the family, as a result of a resurgence of social practices that were thought to belong to the past. The most widespread in contemporary China is the "bao ernai" phenomenon, or the taking of a second wife, which involves mainly businessmen and politicians, strictly related to the increase of corruption. The increasingly worrying proportions assumed in recent years by such practice, while risking to compromise the sustenance of the much exalted harmonious society, have favoured the emergence of a heated debate inside the Chinese society

Planarians of temporary waters (Platyhelminthes tricladida)

Freshwater planarians are fragile animals susceptible to desiccation and high temperature and characterized by a poor dispersal power requiring contiguous freshwaters to survive and disperse. They are indeed excellent biogeographic models. However, some species of Planariidae (genera Phagocata and Hymanella) and Dugesiidae (genus Spathula) are known inhabiting temporary waters particularly from the Nearctic, Palaearctic and Australasian regions