CHINA AND EAST ASIAN ECONOMIC INTEGRATION AND COOPERATION

China¡¯s role in the East Asian economic development has grown increasingly important since China becomes a rapidly growing market for other regional economies. China¡¯s participation is essential to the progress of the East Asian economic integration. Due to its great diversity, East Asian trade and investment arrangements have to be gradual and flexible. The foundation of East Asian FTA have been gradually built up beyond ¡°functional integration¡± as observed in intra-regional FDI flow, a new regional network of production and services. A pragmatic approach is to negotiate East Asian FTA on the bases of three FTAs of China-ASEAN, Japan-ASEAN, and Korea-ASEAN, the combination of which are likely to serve the modality of the future East Asian FTA. The three separate agreements need to be integrated into one by harmonizing various degrees of liberalization of agricultural sector, labor mobility, rule of origin and other factors.Economic Integration, China, ASEAN, FTA

The Impact of Free Trade Agreements on Business Activity : A Survey of Firms in the People's Republic of China

The Peoples Republic of China (PRC) has emerged as a major player in the global economy and considers free trade agreements (FTAs) an important part of its global trading strategy. The PRCs export industries are embedded in existing regional and global production networks and are reliant on foreign direct investment flows and external supplies of material and intermediate goods. Immediately after its accession to the World Trade Organization in December 2001, the PRC adopted a regional approach to trade and began negotiating and implementing FTAs. This paper analyzes the results of a survey undertaken across 232 Chinese firms with regard to FTA-related issues such as utilization, perceived costs and benefits, perceptions of multiple rules of origin, and policy and institutional support mechanisms. It was found that, of the firms surveyed, 45% were using FTAs to some extent. While this utilization rate appears relatively high, and reflects the assertive stance of Chinese firms when it comes to exploring market opportunities, the actual coverage of export value by FTAs is variable. In general, Chinese firms view FTAs as a way to increase their access to partner markets. Nevertheless, there remains an orientation toward the United States and other traditional markets. However, over time, as rebalancing of growth takes place, there may be a shift in market orientation toward the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and regional markets and the use of FTAs may intensify. This study offers several proposals to increase FTA use, including the expansion of support services for firms, the promotion of larger regional FTAs, and the creation of more opportunities for collaboration between the government and the private sector.China, FTA, utilization rate, growth rebalancing

The Impact of Free Trade Agreements on Business Activity: A Survey of Firms in the People's Republic of China

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has emerged as a major player in the global economy and considers free trade agreements (FTAs) an important part of its global trading strategy. The PRC’s export industries are embedded in existing regional and global production networks and are reliant on foreign direct investment flows and external supplies of material and intermediate goods. Immediately after its accession to the World Trade Organization in December 2001, the PRC adopted a regional approach to trade and began negotiating and implementing FTAs. This paper analyzes the results of a survey undertaken across 232 Chinese firms with regard to FTA-related issues such as utilization, perceived costs and benefits, perceptions of multiple rules of origin, and policy and institutional support mechanisms. It was found that, of the firms surveyed, 45% were using FTAs to some extent. While this utilization rate appears relatively high, and reflects the assertive stance of Chinese firms when it comes to exploring market opportunities, the actual coverage of export value by FTAs is variable. In general, Chinese firms view FTAs as a way to increase their access to partner markets. Nevertheless, there remains an orientation toward the United States and other traditional markets. However, over time, as rebalancing of growth takes place, there may be a shift in market orientation toward the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and regional markets and the use of FTAs may intensify. This study offers several proposals to increase FTA use, including the expansion of support services for firms, the promotion of larger regional FTAs, and the creation of more opportunities for collaboration between the government and the private sector.chinese firm survey; free trade agreement; utilization

China’s Economic Progress and its Role in Strengthening Cooperation between East and South Asia

China has achieved great success in its economic development since it has conducted economy-wide reforms and opened itself to the outside world. Within less than three decades, China has now become a leading economy in the world, the second largest in FDI inflow, the third largest in foreign trade, the fourth largest in GDP, and an important engine for the global economic growth. One of the key factors for Chinas success is its integration into the world economic system, enabling it to utilize the global market resources (market, capital and technology). The WTO accession has made the Chinese economy more open, more transparent and more integrated into the world economic system. Chinas new regional strategy, i.e. forming FTAs with its partners, as well as its foreign investment strategy, have deepened and will continue to further intensify its economic integration and cooperation with its partners. In a regional perspective, the Asia-pacific is the major region from which China receives the most FDI inflows, as well as the principal destination of its exports, with the US and Japan being the two largest markets. East Asia accounts for half of Chinas foreign trade and more than 70% of FDI inflow. Chinas trade with South Asia is still small in volume, but high in growth rate. With the emergence of the Indian economy, trade and services between China and India have increased very rapidly in the recent years. Economic relations between East Asia and South Asia used to be very weak. But this now seems to change with Indian economic dynamism and its active Eastward strategy. Considering its geographical location and its further economic expansion, China can play an important and special role in bridging East and South Asian regions through trade, investment, service, technology, as well as broad economic cooperation activities.China, trade, economic integration, International Agreements, East West Cooperation

Re-Examining China’s Charm Offensive Toward Asia: How Much Reshaping of Regional Order?

Drawing mostly on Chinese-language sources, this article examines Chinese assessments of the effectiveness of China’s earlier “charm offensive” in increasing China’s regional influence and reshaping the regional order according to its preferences. The main argument is that China achieved mixed success. China was successful in preventing others from adopting hostile anti-China balancing postures, and especially before 2005, successful in attaining support and momentum for its preferred vision of East Asian regional cooperation and regional trade liberalization. China was less successful, however, in shaping the regional security order, although experts recognized the incremental improvements in what would be a gradual process in minimizing the dominance of U.S. alliances. Around 2005, however, Chinese experts noted increased resistance to China’s preferred vision for regionalism and regional economic cooperation. The article concludes by examining analytical themes that enabled China to successfully exert regional influence or represented challenges to its efforts to reshape the region

Flood Mapping of Recent Major Hurricane Events with Synthetic Aperture Radar, Commercial Imaging, and Aerial Observations

Floodwater mapping is an important remote sensing process that is used for disaster response, recovery, and damage assessment practices. Developing a system to read in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data and perform land cover classification will allow for the production of near real-time inundation mapping, enabling government and emergency response entities to get a preliminary idea of the situation. SAR is a unique remote sensing tool. Data in this project was obtained by NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratorys Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle SAR (UAVSAR), an L-band radar mounted to a Gulfstream III jet. Data collected by UAVSAR is similar to what will be available from the NASA-Indian Space Research Organization (NISAR) mission starting in early 2022. Using Python and ArcGIS applications, a model was developed using training samples taken from NOAA post-event aerial photography and UAVSAR data gathered in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence in September 2018

The Role Of Microfinance Workers In Financialization: Negotiating The Meaning Of Development In China

Microfinance is an attempt to alleviate poverty through offering collateral-free small loans to poor borrowers, especially women in developing countries or rural areas. Though it is indeed an actual economic activity, usually engaged in through some type of bank, there is much that is informal and context-bound in these transactions, making microfinance a kind of “social business.” While the impact of microfinance on women borrowers has been discussed many times, only a few studies have looked at the significance of the other members of the interaction: the microfinance workers, who are instrumental intermediaries between the women-borrowers and the microfinance institutions who attempt to market their products. The role of the microfinance worker-intermediaries is critical. Studying the role of the microfinance worker not only helps us understand how microfinance is actually practiced, but also reveals how the complexities of micro-financialization entails not purely economic and calculative activities, but also complex social interactions and meaning-making. This research studies workers in the microfinance industry in rural China by examining their everyday interaction with the borrowers. I show that the success of any given microfinance interaction has much to do with the competence, knowledge, and sensitivity of the individual microfinance worker. And their skill set depends on a number of factors, including their own understanding about the job and what the actual aim of microfinance is. The different participants in these interactions can sometimes have different agendas, or different ways of communicating them. Sometimes due to specific contingencies in specific contexts, a particular interaction may or may not succeed. Thus, sometimes the development-mission of microfinance can ‘drift’ away or become forgotten. Much depends, then, on the “relational” talents of the microfinance worker. Indeed, the relational work from these intermediary workers directly shapes the micro-financialization process. By examining the workers’ motivations, their “tenuous positions” (Kar 2013) as intermediaries between borrowers and lenders, and how they attempt to balance providing services to their potential borrowers while also maintaining their fiduciary responsibilities to their lending institutions, we can more fully understand the complexities of the microfinance process in daily life. As microfinance has often been touted as a pragmatic solution to possibly alleviating much poverty world-wide, this study has both practical as well as theoretical import

The Compiling Methods for Pinyin Textbooks of Teaching of Chinese as a Foreign Language: A Case Study on the Textbook for Interesting Chinese Pinyin

On the basis of reviewing and summarizing the current situation of Chinese Pinyin textbooks and considering the gains and experiences in the compiling process of The Textbook for Interesting Chinese Pinyin, this paper is to propose that Chinese Pinyin textbooks should take the difficulties for foreign learners fully into account and attach importance to the interest and practicality of teaching materials. We suggest to draw up a syllabus for Chinese Pinyin so that the teaching materials can effectively put teaching of pronunciation and speech flow together.Key words: Pronunciation; Chinese Pinyin textbooks; Compiling; Principles and method

Del silencio de los hombres sabios a la popularidad del arte dongba contemporáneo: Una aproximación antropológica a la recuperación de las tradiciones naxi a través de los objetos artísticos

Este artículo tiene como objetivo analizar la emergencia y el desarrollo del arte dongba contemporáneo en la sociedad naxi de Lijiang (R.P. China). La categoría “Arte Dongba Contemporáneo” surgió a principio de los años ochenta y consiste en una clasificación local que engloba a aquellos objetos artísticos contemporáneos que incorporan elementos formales o iconográficos de la cultura material tradicional naxi; siendo los pictogramas utilizados por los sacerdotes dongba en sus libros rituales, los principales elementos identificativos de dichos objetos artísticos. Para comprender el significado social de los objetos que conforman el arte dongba contemporáneo, en este artículo se analiza la relación entre su emergencia y los proyectos de recuperación de la tradición naxi tras la finalización de la revolución cultural, así como las transformaciones de la noción dongba y los usos sociales de dichos objetos artísticos en el contexto actual de la ciudad de Lijiang, fuertemente influenciada por el desarrollo turístico