Suchergebnisse

Under the influence of neo-liberalism, financial liberalization initiated by developed countries has transformed industrial capitalism into financial capitalism and subsequently brought about the globalization of financial capitalism. Despite the respite after the financial crisis of 2008, the resurgence of globalization of financial capitalism will be unavoidable. Globalization of financial capitalism, an economic phenomenon as well as a social, political, and legal phenomenon, may have a significant impact on the financial sovereignty of countries around the world. In an era of globalization of financial capitalism, how to safeguard the financial sovereignty has become a serious challenge for all countries, especially developing countries.

The paradox that the performance of China's stock market has not matched the performance of China's real economy has been puzzling. This article argues that one of the major causes of the poor performance of China's stock markets is that ever since their establishment, China's stock markets have been systematically politicized by the ruling party to promote its political agenda. The mantra of 'socialism' of the ruling party has turned the stock markets into a mere fund-raising vehicle largely for failing state-owned enterprises, with investors' interests being only a secondary consideration. The regulation of stock markets is subject to the principle of maintaining one-party ruling. Such a systematic politicization of stock markets has caused some serious consequences for China's stock markets and economic growth. (J Contemp China/GIGA)

In developing and emerging countries, rapid urbanization at an unprecedented pace and degradation of ecosystem services at an alarming rate have caused many regions, especially those in environmentally sensitive areas (ESAs), to encounter the &ldquo ; regional development dilemma&rdquo ; (RDD), in which regions can hardly divert their current development pattern to achieve a transition to sustainability. The main research focus of this study is to introduce&mdash ; by means of a case study&mdash ; a payments for ecosystem service (PES) scheme as a policy instrument that incorporates an ecosystem services (ES)-based baseline for payments and a spatial-targeting-based allocation plan to address that dilemma and to bridge, as well as achieve, sustainable development goals simultaneously at a regional scale. The water source areas of the Middle Route Project in the South-to-North Water Diversion Project in China were used as the case study. Land Use/Land Cover Change (LUCC) of this area between 2002 and 2010 was detected by adopting remote sensing and spatial analysis technologies. The ecosystem services value (ESV) variation was then estimated and the eco-compensation plan was determined through comprehensively applying equivalent weighting factors of the ecosystem service of terrestrial ecosystems in China and the adjustment coefficient of the ecosystem service based on the notion of willingness to pay for ecosystem services. Results show that rapid urbanization has substantial impacts on the spatial dynamics and quality of ecosystems in the research area. From 2002 to 2010, the total ESV declined by CNY 6 billion. Therefore, the baseline eco-compensation from the benefit zone to the research area was CNY 1.1 billion under the assumption of commensurability. Responsibility ought to be shared by Henan and Hebei provinces, and Beijing and Tianjin, with payment of CNY 422.3, 388.5, 110.9, and 133 million, respectively. We drafted the allocation plan of eco-compensation based on the spatial pattern of ESV variation, and suggested policy tools tailored for subregions in the research area defined by LUCC change categories. Such an integrated study can lead to a more comprehensive understanding of regional PES schemes and provide a set of policy instruments with upgraded spatial-targeting and better cost-efficiency, particularly as blueprints for regional governments in developing and emerging countries that aim at leveraging regional sustainability through bridging and achieving SDGs.

The view of political achievements suggests that officials will prefer to implement measures that benefit their own development in order to seek promotions. In the past, GDP weighed heavily in officials' appraisals, leading them to develop the economy without regard to sustainability. Now that the central government has incorporated environmental indicators into the officials' appraisal system, will this lead officials to implement sustainable development strategies to the fullest extent? Are there spillover effects and regional heterogeneity in this role? This paper discusses these questions with the help of entropy method and a spatial Durbin model using data of 30 provincial-level regions in China from 2006 to 2016. The conclusions show that, firstly, the officials' competitive pressure is beneficial to enhance the sustainable development capacity of the province, but this effect is only effective in western China. Secondly, there is no spillover effect of officials' competitive pressure on sustainable development capacity; thirdly, foreign direct investment, the proportion of state-owned enterprises and environmental regulations have their own unique effects on sustainable development capacity, and there are spillover effects. Based on these findings, this paper proposes corresponding policy recommendations in terms of officials' appraisal system, talent training, foreign investment introduction, and state-owned enterprise reform.