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Along with the rapid economic development of China, the Chinese language is becoming a popular target language of learning in the world. A large number of learners try hard to learn Chinese. It is even believed that this situation is not a fad; instead it will continue and will make Chinese a world language. This paper is a conceptual and theoretical refutation of the possibility of such a happening. An analysis is made with occasional comparison to English from the perspectives of sociolinguistics and specific limitations of the Chinese language. It is argued that the concept of world language is related to the concept of language dominance. Although economic status and population of speakers may facilitate the promotion of a language, they are far from enough to make it possible. A language spreads on several more conditions. Among them are the broad acceptance of the traditional culture that a language represents, extensively scattered speech communities, a multiplicity of audio-visual publications of wide circulation, and more importantly, ease of learning and use. Evidence shows that none of these conditions currently exists for Chinese. In particular, the complexity and difficulty of the writing system handicap its spread.

This paper formalizes a classic idea that in second-best environments trade can induce welfare losses: incremental income losses from distortions can outweigh trade gains. In a Melitz model with distortionary taxes, we derive sufficient statistics for welfare gains/losses and show departures from the efficient case (Arkolakis, Costinot, and Rodríguez-Clare 2012) can be captured by the gap between an input and output share and domestic extensive margin elasticities. The loss reflects an endogenous selection of more subsidized firms into exporting. Using Chinese manufacturing data in 2005 and model-inferred firm-level distortions, we demonstrate that a sizable negative fiscal externality can potentially offset conventional gains. (JEL D22, F14, H25, L60, O19, P31, P33)

Putonghua, the official Chinese language of mainland China, has become an intriguing topic for language researchers
and teachers in Hong Kong. This study involved 275 Form VI (Grade 12) students in Hong Kong. The twin research
questions are to investigate the subjects' general attitudes toward the use of Putonghua in Hong Kong contexts as
well as the learning of the language. The research is qualitative in nature and discusses the data through statistical analysis.
The major findings are: (1) on the whole the subjects are instrumentally motivated to learn Putonghua; (2) subjects'
learning motivation is related to their political and cultural identity; (3) subjects still give more preference to English over
Putonghua; (4) currently it is premature to greatly expand the use of Putonghua in education and other social domains
such as government affairs. Based on these findings, the paper poses critical comments on Pierson's study (1991,
1998). It seems clear that the spread of Putonghua in Hong Kong lacks a social and psychological support currently. The
spread can occur only on a logical and incremental basis in tandem with a titanic effort to produce qualified, competent
local teachers in order to teach this target language.

Der Ansatz SEMIZENTRAL wurde als mögliche Lösung für Herausforderungen im Bereich der Wasserver- und Entsorgung schnell wachsender Städte entwickelt und im chinesischen Qingdao erstmalig realisiert. Für 12000 Einwohnerwerte wurde ein semizentrales Resource Recovery Center (RRC) errichtet. Ausgehend von einem Referenzentwurf erfolgte eine Anpassung an den realen Standort. Hierbei mussten insbesondere Stoffströme den lokalen Randbedingungen und die Verfahrenstechnik des Resource Recovery Centers Qingdao ShiYuan angepasst werden. Der Beitrag evaluiert den Einfluss der veränderten Stoffströme auf Verfahrenstechnik und Energiebilanz.