Hong Kong's society has become more politicised after 2003. Policy decisions have been driven by public opinion. With a growing "war of ideas", more social actors choose to do policy advocacies by research rather than slogans through setting up think tanks. Think tanks have seen their influence rising over time. The government has started to invite think tank representatives to give suggestions during the drafting of some important policy papers, like Policy Address.
A fast-changing China requires a new culture that is innovative, relevant and appealing to the outside world. If the cultural rise project is successful, China will have much more to offer its own people and people of other backgrounds. Hopefully, the country will become regarded the world over as trustable and benevolent. (CIJ/GIGA)
Evidence from sample surveys and local field studies have long supported opposed arguments about the impact of market reform on the value of political office in the rural economy. This article reviews the evidence, describes a gradual convergence in findings, and identifies unresolved questions about qualitatively different local paths of development. Examining previously unexploited data from a nationally representative 1996 survey, a resolution of the remaining issues becomes evident. The value of political office initially is very modest, as the first private entrepreneurs reaped large incomes. However, subsequent economic development led to rapid increases in the earning power of cadres and their kin, and by the end of the Deng era the returns to political office were roughly equal to those of private entrepreneurs. The political advantages were not limited to regions that industrialized rapidly under collective ownership: they were large even in regions where the private economy was most extensive. However, despite evidence of large and enduring political advantages, those who reaped wealth from political position were only a small fraction of the newly rich, the vast majority of whom achieved wealth without current or past office-holding or kinship ties to cadres.
Along with rapid population ageing and extensive policy changes, Chinese attitudes towards elderly care responsibility are shifting. Using nationally representative survey data, this study finds that the proportion of people holding the traditional view that children should be the main elderly care providers decreased from 57 per cent in 2010 to 50 per cent in 2015. Further analyses show that above and beyond individual factors such as gender, age and marital status, social policies and institutions have influenced people's attitudes. Pension coverage, an urban hukou (household registration), and employment in sectors that provide long-standing social programmes and higher pension benefits are factors that may increase people's likelihood to subscribe to an alternative view that the responsibility of elderly care should be shared equally among the government, the child(ren) and the elderly, or mainly undertaken by the government or by the elderly themselves. (China / GIGA)
The tension between mobilizing resources to meet education-related growth targets and regularizing educational funding for a more stable and sustainable growth is structurally rooted in China's educational system, which features growth-oriented, centralized mandates and county-based, decentralized financing. It was manifested in 2012, when China experienced a 'great leap' in educational expenditure. Based on interviews and school-level data from a province in western China, this article suggests that the 'great leap' was real rather than fabricated. Local governments have demonstrated remarkable capacity in resource mobilization involving both formal and informal strategies. It also shows the scarring effects of too much mobilization. The 'great leap' has clearly stressed and strained local governments to the extent that there is clear evidence of policy non-compliance and greater irregularity in government funding for education in the aftermath. (J Contemp China/GIGA)
