Emile Kok-Kheng Yeoh

Literacy, Education and Economic Development in Contemporary China

Literacy has been conceptualized traditionally as having a major role in developing a nation. Literacy helps to spread awareness among the people of their rights. People with good literacy skills enjoy a higher standard of living, have better opportunities of finding jobs, and are able to continue to learn new skills that will help them in the workplace. A nation with high literacy rate is more likely to attract a large pool of investors and entrepreneurs as well as the inflow of money which in turn have a great impact on the nation’s economy. A society’s economic prosperity and literacy have great influence on each other as they jointly grow together. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of literacy in the economic development of contemporary China. Five variables, i.e. number of the illiterate and self-educated, primary school enrolment, secondary school enrolment, university and college enrolment and the education length were chosen based on empirical studies, especially the Solow model. Quantitative data were analyzed across China’s twenty-two provinces, five autonomous regions, and four municipalities which are under the direct control of the central government. On the other hand, qualitative data were generated by hypotheses or tested assumptions. The paper reveals that there is a significance relationship between the above-named variables and the economic development as well as the effect of structural changes on the education system, and that literacy is the key to move China forward. However, due to funding inequalities and certain aspects of government policies, some regions and provinces in China remain underdeveloped. Comparison of literacy rates between eastern, central and

Fiscal reform, decentralization and poverty alleviation in the context of China's 12th Five-Year Plan

China is said to be one of the worlds most economically decentralized countries. While the claim that economic as well as fiscal decentralization had much to do with the success of Chinas reforms is controversial and it has been argued that Chinas approach to administrative decentralization might over time threaten the success of the reform process, the highly remarkable extent of fiscal decentralization could have the potential to aid the effort at poverty alleviation, especially in the context of the ethno-regional dimension of the countrys poverty problem, and reduce the extent of social stratification and enhance stability. This paper analyses the various issues related to fiscal reform and fiscal decentralization in China in the context of the countrys 12th Five-Year Plan and explores the Plans implications for poverty alleviation and the overcoming of stratification.

Nationalism, Historical Consciousness and Regional Stability: Rising China as a Regional Power and Its New Assertiveness in the South China Sea

This chapter looks at the impact of the contemporary rise of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as a regional power on the geopolitical configuration and international relations in the East Asian region, the main flashpoints of which include the high-profile disputes over the ownership of the islands, atolls, reefs, cays, and islets in the South China Sea (SCS)/Bien Đong (East Vietnam Sea)/West Philippine Sea.1 While the presence of rich energy and other ocean resources in the surrounding waters makes these ownership disputes in large part resource conflicts, this maritime region as a whole also occupies an important strategic position in terms of geopolitics, being the key to the control of regional waters and the critical hub of the sea route transport connection between East Asia and Southeast Asia, West Asia and the Indian Ocean.

Evolving Agencies amid Rapid Social Change: Political Leadership and State–Civil Society Relations in China

Causes of social change can usually be categorized into three groups: economic, political and cultural factors. Economic factors, especially the impact of industrial capitalism, form the core of the Marxist approach to social change. Such a Marxist emphasis on economic factors, whether for ideological reasons or for the convenience of power maintenance, still forms the basis of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) fundamental definition of human rights as the people’s rights to be fed, to be sheltered, to be educated and to be employed. Nevertheless, straying from this orthodox Marxist tenet is the neo-Marxist expansion of sources of social contradictions, which are inherent in social structures, to the political, religious, ethnic and ideological factors of conflicts and also the importance of culture not least as a marker for political mobilization. Adapting Buckley’s (1967: 58–59) concepts of morphostasis referring to ‘those processes in complex system-environment exchanges that tend to preserve or maintain a system’s given form, organization or state’ and morphogenesis referring to ‘those processes which tend to elaborate or change a system’s given form, structure or state’, Archer (1995), on the other hand, posited that humanity had entered the stage of the morphogenetic society and spoke of the central importance of the role of the human agency that generates the social segments’ morphostatic and morphogenetic relationships which, in turn, are not able to exert causal powers without working through human agents.

Taiwan and Mainland China: Impacts of Economic Progress and International Environment on Political Trajectory in Comparative Perspective

While Taiwan’s democratization and China’s continuing authoritarianism have often been attributed to the decisions of their leaders, might there, instead, be external factors which have ensured that these two polities would have walked along more or less the same route that they have so far, regardless of who their rulers are? Questions as such make for a good basis of comparison between the two states and may offer a deeper insight into the facets of democracy and authoritarianism. Without contesting the relevance of other factors in influencing these two states’ political trajectories, this paper explores and evaluates the two most popular sets of factors – economic factors related to the modernization theory and those from the international environment including impacts from abroad on regime security and on domestic dissident movements – which have been put forward to explain Taiwan’s democratization versus China’s continuing authoritarianism.

The Visualization of the Chinese Economy from a Multi-Dimensional Perspective: 1979-2009

This paper shows the behavior of different macroeconomic variables together in the same graphical space. The case study in this paper is the Chinese economy from the year 1979 to 2009. To visualize the behavior of large macroeconomic data graphically, we suggest the application of the inter-linkage coordinate space to plot different statistical or econometrical results simultaneously in the same graphical space.

Trade Facilitation: Developments and the Way Forward for ASEAN and China

Trade facilitation is important based on the rationale that all of the processes of international transaction need to go through regulated procedures. Efficient management and implementation of these procedures are thus essential and can serve as one of the channels to enhance a country’s competitive edge in international trade. This paper reviews the development of cooperation and performance in trade facilitation for ASEAN and China and provides policy recommendations. Trade facilitation cooperation is important as ASEAN and China are in the process to enhance regional trade flows through cooperation under the Framework Agreement of ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA). Since tariffs have been reduced in the framework agreement, we suggest the incorporation of the negotiation on trade facilitation into ACFTA, as an alternative scheme that will reduce trade transaction costs and increase trade flows. For this purpose, ASEAN and China need to come up with a comprehensive mechanism for cooperation on trade facilitation. It can be implemented through negotiations to achieve an agreeable definition of trade facilitation and its coverage, as well as clear measures for implementation and timeliness conforming to the WTO provisions.