China Report

I ORIGINAL ARTICLES

• Sino-Japanese Reactive Diplomacy Through BRI and FOIP in Bangladesh: Economic Implications
  Md. Saifullah Akon, S. M. Rabby Raj, Md. Nadim Aktar and Abdullah-Al-Mamun
  Abstract
   
• Chinese Cinephiles in the Post-Pandemic Pandemic Era: Comparing the Transition from Traditional Theatres to OTT Platforms
  Muhammad Yaqoub, Khaled Al-Kassimi, Jonathan Matusitz and Wang Haizhou
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• Reconceptualising Security-development Paradigm: A Critical Analysis of Chinese ‘Development Peace Model’ in the Middle East
  Asif Iqbal Dawar
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• Domestic Accounts of China’s Belt and Road Initiative as an Internally Oriented Soft Power Exercise
  Runping Zhu, Zhipeng Ma and Richard Krever
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• Some Peasants’ Good Times under Mao: Privileged Lives in Mao-Era Rural Militias
  Sanjiao Tang
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• Problems of Legal Assessment of Integrated Environmental Risks of the Silk Road Economic Belt
  Ting Fu, Kamilya Altayeva and Yingjie Ma
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• A Review of China Studies in Taiwan: History, Development and Main Contributions
  Guan-yi Leu and Mu-min Chen
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• The Limits of China’s Sharp Power in Israel’s Academic and Media Discourse
  Mordechai Chaziza and Carmela Lutmar
  Abstract
   

An Introductory Note for the Articles

• This study by Md. Saifullah Akon, S. M. Rabby Raj, Md. Nadim Aktar and Abdullah-Al-Mamun delves into the realm of Sino-Japanese reactive diplomacy within the context of Bangladesh. It primarily examines their engagements through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) vision. The study evaluates these diplomatic efforts’ economic upshots in a continuously changing regional context. The contest between China and Japan for influence in Bangladesh has grown in the last few years due to the country’s constant economic growth. This study investigates how both nations use reactive diplomacy, reacting to each other’s actions and changing tactics to support Bangladesh’s economic growth. The Chinese government has invested significantly in infrastructure-related projects in Bangladesh as a part of the BRI, and Japan’s FOIP strategy strongly emphasises connectedness and high-quality infrastructure. This dichotomy of approaches leads to an intricate web of interactions with local stakeholders, reflecting diverse economic implications. However, the study emphasises how crucial it is to examine Bangladesh’s strategy for navigating this diplomatic rivalry—that is, how to balance the economic gains from bilateral investments while avoiding undue reliance or political entanglements.
• The COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped film consumption patterns in China, driving a notable transition from traditional theatres to over-the-top (OTT) platforms. This study by Muhammad Yaqoub, Khaled Al-Kassimi, Jonathan Matusitz and Wang Haizhou investigates the factors influencing post-pandemic cinephile preferences, particularly the interplay between OTT platforms and traditional cinema-going platforms. The surge in online streaming, boosted by pandemic-induced restrictions, has been critical with regional giants such as iQIYI restyling Chinese entertainment traditions. This research aims to uncover the determinants guiding cinephile choices by analysing demographic variables, technological advancements and consumption patterns. Through a survey in Tier II cities, data from 656 participants were analysed to determine the OTT platform and cinema usage. The findings reveal nuanced trends: females slightly favour OTT platforms, while males prefer traditional cinemas. Young adults aged 21 to 25 years are the most active users of both platforms, with education level slightly affecting usage. Smartphone usage is widespread, with 70% accessing OTT platforms via mobile. While 40% view OTT platforms as challenging traditional cinemas, 65% view OTT platforms in the future. Key factors influencing future cinema-going include OTT platform accessibility and time constraints—over 80% expressed satisfaction with their cinema experiences, with peak seasons significantly impacting ticket prices. Comedy, drama and action genres were most popular among cinemagoers, each with over 60% preference. These findings imply that the future of film consumption in China will likely be shaped by the balance and integration of OTT platforms and traditional cinema experiences.
• In recent years, China has emerged as a significant player in the intersection of international security and development in the Middle East. This development coincides with a decline in the enduring dominance of the US in the region’s security and development affairs. In contrast, China has pursued a cautious, impartial and novel concept of zero enemy policy with regional states. While existing research has explored Chinese economic engagement in the Middle East, literature focusing on the ‘Development Peace Model’ in relation to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) remains limited. This article by Asif Iqbal Dawar aims to provide a critical analysis of how China’s pursuit of a multi-polar world order, based on principles of neutrality and partnership for promoting stability through the ‘Development Peace Model’, offers an alternative approach to ‘Liberal Democratic Peace’ in the Middle East. Furthermore, the article examines why Middle Eastern states are receptive to China’s ‘Development Peace Model’ as they seek to address their economic crises.
• China’s Belt and Road Initiative is one of the world’s largest and most significant externally oriented soft power initiatives. Originally envisaged as a series of development projects in countries on historic land and sea trade routes between China and Europe, the initiatives quickly expanded to encompass projects around the globe. The projects, funded using Chinese finances and carried out for the most part by Chinese contractors, provide tangible benefits for recipient countries, such as ports, bridges, train systems, telecommunication systems, medical assistance, and much more. The project outputs provide invaluable soft power benefits for China. Separately, the Chinese government is able to use descriptions of the projects as internally oriented soft power tools that can enhance domestic support for the government and the Communist Party by describing the benefits for China that flow from the Belt and Road projects. This article by Runping Zhu, Zhipeng Ma and Richard Krever reviews messaging about the Belt and Road initiative projects posted online for Chinese readers to see how the Chinese government has created internally oriented soft power messages based on its projects abroad.
• This article by Sanjiao Tang re-examines a part of peasants’ exclusively privileged experiences of joining militias during the Mao era. The supporting sources come from a variety of informal repositories over eight provinces, such as statistical tables and rosters of rural militias, documents of departments of armed forces, and materials for conferences and classes of militia members. Although these sources are geographically scattered, quantitatively scarce and systematically incomplete, they present significant parts of peasants’ lives involved in Mao Zedong’s mass campaign of mobilisation and militarisation. Based on them, this article explores the political honours, the economic benefits and the enforcement power one enjoyed by joining the rural militias, in addition to the tensions that existed even in the same village centred on pocketing militias’ privileges in the countryside. Exposing these inequalities produced just by owning membership of rural militias challenged the mainstream of existing scholarship depicting Chinese peasants’ lives under Mao as similarly tough and deprived. This exploration also pays attention to the Cold War context that justified and glorified peasants’ good times in the militias, highlighting the Cold War element that contributes to the Mao era nostalgia in today’s China.The Silk Road Economic Belt has played a key role in shaping international trade relations since ancient times until today. In recent years, the particularities of the country’s involvement in the Silk Road Initiative have been exacerbated by environmental concerns and the emergence of legislative disagreements in the aspect of environmental risk management. It is for this reason that the issue of the legal assessment of the integrated environmental risks of the Silk Road Economic Belt remains relevant. Therefore, the purpose of this paper by Ting Fu, Kamilya Altayeva and Yingjie Ma is to investigate and establish the problems of legal assessment of the integrated environmental risks of the Silk Road Economic Belt, using Kazakhstan as an example, and to identify measures to address them. It has been determined that environmental protection in the Silk Road Economic Belt dimension is not legally backed up, and that all provisions, conventions and so on are voluntary in nature. Using the integrative method, it is the compliance with all national environmental legislation, the implementation of the Aarhus Convention provisions, the construction of a specialised information resource in Kazakhstan with current information on Silk Road projects, the development and introduction of legislative changes towards increasing the rates of environmental risk insurance in the country, have been established as the main measures to address the legal assessment of the integrated environmental risks of the Silk Road Economic Belt in Kazakhstan. Thus, the practical significance of the study is that the measures identified to address the problems of legal assessment of the integrated environmental risks of the Silk Road Economic Belt can be used by the Kazakh authorities in the aspect of the ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative.
• Taiwan has been a significant window for watching and understanding China. Several factors have contributed to Taiwan’s unique role, including geographical proximity and cultural understanding of China, its wide connections with China’s greater society, and its openness to the international community for exploring various qualitative and quantitative methods, including the adoption of artificial intelligence. In this article, Guan-yi Leu and Mu-min Chen examines the impact of political and educational environments as well as generational changes on research niches of Chinese studies in Taiwan in the past decades. The first stage, from the 1950s to the mid-1970s, was identified as studies of the Communist rebels, which aimed mainly at intelligence analysis and justification of the ruling Kuomintang government’s anti-Communist stance. From the late-1970s to the mid-1990s, the field underwent substantial reforms in methodologies and international exchanges. When Taiwan became more democratic and open, and its relations with China reconciled in the 1990s, China studies also became more diversified and eventually developed into a mature discipline in social sciences. Throughout these stages, China studies in Taiwan have shifted from being politically driven to being a scholarly driven field for diverse academic purposes.
• The term ‘sharp power’ has become a widely used concept in international relations to describe external influence targeting democracies. China employs sharp power statecraft to shape public perceptions in target countries, aiming to alter opinions and behaviour, undermine political systems and create a favourable consensus by manipulating information. This study by Mordechai Chaziza and Carmela Lutmar explores the nature and impact of China’s sharp power on the democratic resilience of Israeli society, particularly within academic and media discourse. The main argument is that China has attempted, albeit with limited success, to establish influence and shape public opinion in Israel through manipulation and censorship. However, these efforts have failed mainly due to the Israeli public’s scepticism and growing awareness of China’s broader geopolitical ambitions. Additionally, China’s pro-Palestinian stance and its alignment with Iran and the ‘axis of resistance’ have further hindered its ability to gain support, as these positions conflict with Israel’s core interests and values.