Suchergebnisse

"In 2003, President Hu Jintao instructed Communist Youth League cadres to "keep the Party assured and the Youth satisfied". This laconic recognition that winning the support of Chinese youth requires a more responsive engagement with their interests and demands, provided the League with a new youth work mandate to increase its capacity for responsiveness. This original investigation uses a combination of interviews, surveys and ethnography to examine the often contradictory and self-defeating ways the League implemented this mandate locally and nationally. By doing so, it also sheds light on Xi Jinping's decision to downgrade it politically and organizationally in 2016. This book introduces a previously unexplored organization and develops 'juniority' as a conceptual tool that captures the ways generational power is institutionalized and fuels youth political apathy. For this reason, apart from China scholars, this study will be of particular interest to those working on comparative youth politics and sociology"--Vendor's summary

The Communist Youth League (CYL) has attempted to engage and respond to student interests and demands by expanding its channels for participation and consultation and by deepening its involvement in the provision of welfare services. Based on qualitative and quantitative research conducted in five universities in Beijing and Zhejiang province, this article evaluates the league's engagement with its "constituency" on campus by bringing together the perspectives of both ordinary students and CYL cadres. Placing this case in a wider discussion of "authoritarian resilience" that seeks to understand the effectiveness of the Chinese regime's institutional sources of support, the article demonstrates that despite initiatives promoting responsiveness, students exhibit an even more cynical stance on both the league's newfound inclusivity and efficiency. CYL cadres occupy a weak position in the academic, generational, and political hierarchies on campus, a situation that compromises the league's potential for a renewed and more responsive engagement with students.

The Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) youth organisation, the Communist Youth League (CYL, League), has an extensive grassroots network and approximately twelve million members in public and partially state-owned sectors of the economy, as well as a political mandate to promote 'youth' interests at work. This article examines the League's operation in the Chinese workplace by analyzing qualitative data collected during fieldwork in twelve different sites in Beijing and Zhejiang province. It was hypothesised that as League organisations are under pressure to represent youth-specific demands, their response would be similar to the Trade Unions, which try to simultaneously remain loyal to pro-management Party committees and act as grassroots channels for advocacy. The article finds that League cadres occupy junior positions in political, generational and workplace hierarchies resulting to their multifaceted subordination to more senior power holders present, namely the management, Party Committee and Union leadership. The institutionalised 'juniority' of cadres creates strong disincentives for pro-youth employee initiatives and leads to the disarticulation of a distinctive 'youth' agenda. This institutional 'gap' in workplace representation has direct implications both for the welfare of young employees and for the future of industrial relations in China.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is one of the most talked about yet little understood policy initiatives of the People's Republic of China. This book offers a comprehensive, balanced and policy-oriented assessment of the BRI's first ten years and what it has meant for the world's businesses, polities and societies. The authors explore China's role as a globally significant source of development finance and investment capital, and examine the political, economic, normative, environmental and social implications of its increased presence in the world.Aimed at researchers and academics, business professionals and policy analysts, as well as informed readers, the book seeks to answer some of the most pressing questions that China's rising economic presence in global markets poses: how is the BRI organized? Is it China's grand strategy? Is it green, is it corrupt, and what are its social effects? Is there even a future for the BRI in a world beset by new uncertainties? The book offers a sober analysis of the most prevalent narratives that cast China as a 'threat' and as an 'opportunity' and considers the specific challenges that it presents for the liberal international order.

Abstract
This article unpacks the discursive construction of a European 'China Threat' narrative by European think tanks. We theorise think tanks as crucial actors in the securitising process, especially at the initial stages where ideas and reference frames are formed. Despite having no decision-making authority, think tanks participate as securitising actors in the process of idea formation and bidding, articulating a securitised frame of reference for policy makers. In the case of EU–China relations, we observe an emerging congruence between think tanks and policy makers that engage in a non-linear construction of a 'China Threat' policy frame. In this article, we review key think tank reports that are circulated through official EU policy channels and deconstruct the assumptions behind the 'China Threat' discourse. We first argue that, analytically, their securitising attempt is characterised by a distorted representation of Chinese economic activities abroad, including those falling under the Belt and Road Initiative. Second, politically, this narrative produces a distorted notion of European politics where pluralism is weakness and disagreement dissent, promoting a view of the EU where 'responsible' core countries must contain the periphery's 'opportunism'. Third, we contend that despite defending 'Europeanness' as the epitome of human rights and democracy, the securitisation of Chinese FDI rests on othering practices that risk undermining those very ideals. By identifying the problematic undertones of this securitising effort, we call for a fact-based and pluralistic debate on the challenges of Chinese investment and financing for European economies and societies.

Chinese economic presence in Europe is primarily discussed as a security threat with its impact on sustainability remaining a rather marginal issue. This article investigates the repercussions of Chinese capital's surge in Europe for environmental protection and analyses the reasons behind its performance. We examine five key Chinese projects in Southeast Europe, a subregion that includes countries with different forms of association with European institutions and with varying levels of development and state capacity. We find that the negative environmental impact of these projects cannot be attributed to the commonly-held perception of the Chinese as inherently 'bad' investors and of host states as 'weak' and dependent. Rather, we identify a synergy of failures between investors, host states and regional institutions that results in poor regulation and compliance. This finding calls for the inclusion of sustainability in foreign investment screening mechanisms and the abandonment of contradictory developmental priorities in the region.

Chinese economic presence in Europe is primarily discussed as a security threat with its impact on sustainability remaining a rather marginal issue. This article investigates the repercussions of Chinese capital's surge in Europe for environmental protection and analyses the reasons behind its poor performance. We examine five key Chinese projects in Southeast Europe, a sub-region that includes countries with different forms of association with European institutions and with varying levels of development and state capacity. We find that the negative environmental impact of these projects cannot be attributed to the commonly held perception of the Chinese as inherently "bad" investors and of host states as "weak" and dependent. Rather, we identify a synergy of failures between investors, host states and regional institutions that results in poor regulation and compliance. This finding calls for the inclusion of sustainability in foreign investment screening mechanisms and the abandonment of contradictory developmental priorities in the region. (JCCA/GIGA)