Concrete and coal: China's infrastructural assemblages in the Balkans

This article analyzes Chinese-financed infrastructural projects in the Balkans to further our thinking about how infrastructures shape international politics. By adopting an assemblage approach, which views infrastructures as part of a complex and dynamic interaction of both human and non-human actors and capacities, it questions the vascular trope that sees infrastructures as arteries of influence and power. Building on research into the construction of roads and coal power plants, assemblage analysis provides the nuance that refutes simplistic accounts of China's grand strategy in its Belt and Road Initiative. Chinese actors are not geostrategic players exerting influence from afar, but have become thoroughly linked to the region's politics through their specific modes of entry. The business priorities of Chinese state-owned enterprises required formal disentanglements, yet the political arrangements underpinning such deals have ironically caused Chinese actors to become entangled in the Balkans through its political instability, developmental discourses, fiscal exigencies, the traces of previous infrastructures on its society and ecology, and the often overlooked anchoring role of materials such as concrete or coal.     

Provenance of Zhangzhou export blue-and-white and its clay source

Trace element compositions of 25 shards of Chinese Late Ming export blue-and-white porcelain from Zhangzhou and Jingdezhen kilns are analysed by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry. Principle components analysis and REE distribution curves are used to establish method for provenance unknown Chinese export blue-and-white porcelain which may have originated from Zhangzhou or Jingdezhen kilns. By matching the REE distribution curves of Zhangzhou kiln samples and parent rocks of the possible clay sources used to make Zhangzhou blue-and-white, and comparing it with previous results of geological, geochemical and archaeological researches, the clay used for producing Zhangzhou export blue-and-white has been identified as having been collected from the weathered shells of a nearby potassium feldspar miarolitic granite outcrop.     

China's urban geography

"In this paper I seek to review recent work on Chinese urban geography and to appraise the development of China's urban geography as a field of study both inside and outside China. The temporal scope will span scholarship finished and published mainly during the 1980s." The focus is on works published in English. The author examines the primary topics of interest, methodologies and theories, and available sources of data.     

China's energy security

As the Chinese energy deficit increases at rates equal to or exceeding its economic growth, energy security raises an alarm among its policy-makers and the international community. This article asks whether China faces any threat to its energy security; and whether China's worldwide quest for energy is a threat to the regional and international stability. The main argument is that while China faces serious challenges in meeting its rising energy demand, its efforts to do so have been primarily domestically focused. In its foreign energy policy, China has behaved like a normal player in the international energy market, buying as much oil as it can and investing in as many places as it can afford. It is unlikely that the country is willing to seek overseas energy supplies at the expense of a peaceful regional and international environment which is a necessary condition for its continuing economic development.     

China's Tibet INDEX 2005

No.: P.FORUMWho Is Managing Tibet?Absurd Worries: Certain People's Reaction toConstruction of Qinghai-Tibet RailwayLies Do Not Hold WaterCOMMENTARYVice-Chairman Radi On Changes in Tibet40 YEARS OF TARAirports in TibetFounding of the TAR as I RecordedBirthday Celebrations of the TARSupernatural FlightGoing to Tibet With the Central GovernmentDelegation On Two OccasionsI Was Once an Interpreter of the Central GovernmentDelegation': Interview With Li Bingquan'Chai…     

China's strategic partnership with Latin America: a fulcrum in China's rise

China has over the last two decades been committed to creating a strategic partnership with Latin American states by persistently extending its economic and political involvement in the continent. China's efforts in this regard reflect not only its desire to intensify its economic cooperation and political relations with nations in Latin America, but also its strategic goals of creating its own sphere of influence in the region and enhancing its ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ power in order to elevate China's status at the systemic level. With access to Latin American markets, resources and investment destinations, China may sustain its economic and social progress that bases its long cherished dream of restoring its past glory of fuqiang (wealth and power) and rise as a global power capable of reshaping the current world system. The enormous economic benefits deriving from their economic cooperation and trade may persuade Latin American nations to accept the basic premise of China's economic strategy: that China's rise is not a threat, but an opportunity to gain wealth and prosperity. This will help China gain more ‘soft’ power in and leverage over its economic partners in Latin America, and thereby help it to rise in the global power hierarchy.     

China's Largest Chromite Mine

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China's Tibet INDEX 2015

<正>SPECIAL Gallery of the First China Tibet Tourism and Culture International Expo 1:04Looking Forward to Visiting Tibet Againa—An Interview with the PATA Chief Operations Officer 1:12An Ecological Safety Shelter Established on the Snowy Highland 2:04     

略论中国近代改革的特点

鸦片战争后,外族入侵愈来愈剧,各种社会矛盾也越来越尖锐,清王朝面临崩溃的边缘。社会各个阶层从各自的立场和角度提出了改革要求。自此开始,改革的舆论从未间断过,改革的浪潮此起彼伏。与其他国家的近代改革相比,中国近代改革有其明显的特征。     

关于中国会展旅游的思考

本文通过对“金属旅游”的思考,提出了会展旅游是我国新型的旅游产品的观点,阐述了我国会展旅游产品的性质和特点,以期能为我国旅游企业和会展企业进一步开发和经营会展旅游产品提供有益参考。