I ORIGINAL ARTICLES
- India in Chinese Quest for Nationalism & Modernity: Perspectives from Chinese Travel Writings
Kamal Sheel
Abstract
- Energy Interdependence and Economic Statecraft: A Critical Analysis of the Sino-Saudi Oil Partnership
Asad Ullah and Li Xinlei
Abstract
- Navigating the Policy Risk Landscape: How Emerging Economy MNEs Make OFDI Location Choices
Miao Wang
Abstract
- Financial Management Practices and Financial Performance in China’s Main Capital Markets: A Macroeconomics Moderation Analysis
Ronald Ebenezer Essel
Abstract
- Sino-Russian Cooperation in Scientific and Technological Innovation in the Arctic: Fields, Achievements, Promising Areas and Prospects
Irina Strelnikova
Abstract
- Guanxi: A Vitamin for China’s Economic Recovery in COVID-19 Pandemic?
Inda Mustika Permata and Bima Jon Nanda
Abstract
An Introductory Note for the Articles
- This paper by Kamal Sheel examines how was India a factor in shaping Chinese reflections on nationalism and modernity. Although India and China historically shared deep civilizational linkages, the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century transformation of China from a civilization-state to a nation-state intensified anxieties over sovereignty and identity. These concerns found vivid articulation in Chinese travel writings on India. A glimpse of that is available in two contemporary Chinese travelogues which positioned India both as a comparative reference and as a cautionary example. Huang Maocai’s 1886 narratives entitled Xiyou Riji and Yindu Zazhi, that were, composed after his travel through Tibet, Myanmar, and India, underscored Qing’s frontier insecurities amid the geopolitics of the “Great Game” and situated India as a reference for their own quest for civilization and nationhood. Kang Youwei’s Yindu Youji (1901–02), on the other hand, interrogates India’s colonial subjugation to critique Western modernity and reimagine Chinese nationalism. By juxtaposing these two seminal travelogues, the paper highlights how India served as both inspiration and warning in the Chinese quest to reconcile tradition with modernity, and to redefine nationalism in an age of empire and global transformation.
- The Sino–Saudi Oil Partnership (SSOP) exemplifies the convergence of energy interdependence and economic statecraft in contemporary international relations. Through the lens of strategic bargaining theory, this analysis by Asad Ullah and Li Xinlei examines how asymmetric interdependence facilitates geopolitical influence. The partnership transcends traditional resource exchange by integrating energy security with sophisticated bargaining mechanisms, where Saudi Arabia’s supply-side dominance and China’s demand-side leverage create a framework for advancing mutual national interests. Key developments—including renminbi-denominated oil transactions, renewable energy investments and Belt and Road Initiative integration—demonstrate the practical application of sequential bargaining theory in global economic statecraft. The SSOP’s theoretical significance lies in its balancing of immediate resource-based bargaining power with long-term strategic objectives, managed through credible commitments and material asymmetry. This partnership illuminates the evolution of global governance within multipolar economic structures, offering insights into how national interests can be harmonised through strategic energy cooperation.
- This study by Miao Wang examines the impact of policy risk differences on outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) of emerging economies’ multinational enterprises (MNEs) based on organisational learning theory. A framework analyses the relationship between policy risk differences and OFDI, and the moderating effects of institutional quality and economic dependence. Using China’s OFDI data from 2009 to 2021, empirical results show policy risk differences negatively impact Chinese enterprises’ OFDI, while institutional quality and economic dependence weaken this effect. Heterogeneity analysis indicates the negative impact is significant in more developed hosts, with insufficient political relations and less Chinese aid. Findings suggest Chinese multinationals are risk-averse, preferring hosts with smaller policy risk differences, considering the institution, development and bilateral political-economic exchanges in location decisions.
- This study by Ronald Ebenezer Essel investigated the moderating role of interest rate (IR) and inflation (INF) in the association between financial management practices (FMPs) and financial performance of non-financial companies listed on China’s Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges. Espousing a mixed-methods approach, with quasi-experimental design, grounded in pragmatism, it analysed financial data from 3,689 companies (2010–2019) and interviews, utilising two-step system generalised method of moments, effectively addressing endogeneity and other econometric issues, yielding 36,890 balanced-panel, firm-year observations. Fixed effects and random effects were employed to handle unobserved heterogeneity and guarantee robustness. Findings indicated that, whilst total-debt-to-total-assets ratio and dividend yield significantly and negatively influenced firm financial performance (FFP), total-equity-to-assets-ratio, cash conversion cycle, current ratio, total assets turnover, tangibility, dividend payout ratio, firm size and firm age significantly and positively impacted FFP. These associations were complementarily moderated/strengthened by IR and INF, emphasising the risks of high-borrowing costs for highly-geared companies and stressing the necessity for corporate deleveraging and optimal capital structures. Managers are admonished to engage in diversified projects with positive net present value to guarantee constant cash flows and sustainable dividend payments. Whilst the study’s framework is Chinese-oriented, it is replicable in similar developing economies. It incorporates prior unexploited FMP metrics into the resource-based view theory, extending the theory’s scope, making it more rigorous, robust and generalisable.
- International projects in the field of innovation and technology are one of the most effective forms of strengthening international scientific cooperation in the Arctic, combining science with investment and economics. The development of these projects has significant potential for creating new and supporting existing technologies that will help in the development of regions through a network of multi-level cooperation, as well as multilateral and bilateral cooperation. Scientific cooperation, environmental protection and promotion of technological innovations are closely interconnected. Digitalisation and scientific and technological innovation play a crucial role in either environmental protection or resource utilisation and logistics—the most important areas and priorities for the Arctic and non-Arctic states in the region. This article by Irina Strelnikova analyses the main aspects and achievements in the field of digitalisation and scientific and technological Sino-Russian cooperation in the Arctic at the present stage, taking into account the joint statements of the leaders of Russia and China, and identifies the most promising areas for cooperation between Russia and China in this area in the future.
- In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit the Chinese economy and caused a substantial decline. As a result of the global economic downturn in the first quarter of 2020, China’s GDP declined by 6.8%, which was the lowest figure in the country’s history. However, in the second quarter, the economy rebounded with a growth rate of 3.2%. This phenomenon is interesting, as China was the first country to be economically affected by the pandemic, yet it recovered the fastest compared to other nations. Therefore, this article analyses the conditions that enabled China’s rapid recovery. Using the concept of hybridity, this article by Inda Mustika Permata and Bima Jon Nanda explores how China’s economic system, shaped by cultural hybridity, served as the primary driver of its economic rebound. Guanxi played a central role in this recovery. Guanxi enabled China to become the first major economy to recover during the COVID-19 pandemic because through the existence of renqing and mianzi as guanxi main components, private enterprises supported and assisted government policies during the COVID-19 pandemic and utilised their resources and expertise to help the government achieve its goals.
II REVIEW ESSAY
- Seeing India Through China, Seeing China Through India
Madhavi Thampi
Abstract
III BOOK REVIEWS
- Xiao Ma, Localized Bargaining: The Political Economy of China’s High-speed Railway Program, England: Oxford University Press, 2022
Shruti Jargad
Abstract
- Wang Yingyao, Markets with Bureaucratic Characteristics: How Economic Bureaucrats Make Policies and Remake the Chinese State, New York: Columbia University Press, 2024
Santosh Pai
Abstract
- Gal Gvili, Imagining India in Modern China: Literary Decolonization and the Imperial Unconscious, 1895–1962, New York: Columbia University Press, 2022
Barnali Chanda
Abstract
