scholarly journals Religion in China’s Public Diplomacy: Transition and Institutionalization

Author(s):  
Wang Liwan

In recognition of religion’s growing role in social life, the Chinese government places ample political trust in religions and encourages religious organizations and leaders to be more deeply involved in Beijing’s public diplomacy. Having completed the transition from prudence to activism, China’s religious public diplomacy now takes many forms, from hosting high-profile international religious forums and participation in international religious organizations to engaging in exchanges of visit and multiple religious dialogues. Beijing has secured an institutionalized role for religion in public diplomacy through a string of legislative actions and policy measures, for example, erecting a legal and policy framework, putting in place a robust multiparty operational mechanism, formulating a well-defined list of targets, and granting religious groups greater autonomy and flexibility. Beijing’s religious public diplomacy also faces significant risks and competition, which will affect its effectiveness and outcomes. Going forward, religious public diplomacy should put more emphasis on its spiritual dimension, build more internationalized organizing platforms, expand its engagement targets, and improve risk control and prevention mechanisms. Moreover, Beijing should increase the institutional stability and creativity for its faith diplomacy and encourage the five state-sanctioned religions and folk beliefs to play a larger role, with a view to consolidating national identity and religious identity among the Chinese people.

Author(s):  
Anna Sergeevna Konopiy ◽  
Boris Andreevich Borisov

The subject of this research is digital national currencies of the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation. The advent of the new digital era entails inevitable, objectively dictated digital transformations of all spheres of social life. The financial and banking sector in Russia, China, and other countries, is in need for legislative-digital regulation by implementing digital fiat currency. One of the most promising vectors of development is the creation and introduction of new forms of currencies into circulation, which would be recognized by public authority as a legal means of payment, as well as subject to effective oversight by government bodies. The novelty of this research lies in the comparative legal analysis of the experience, as well as the stages of implementation of digital national currency in the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China. The article raised a pressing issue on feasibility of introducing digital ruble into the Russian reality, and thus, discusses successful experience of the Chinese government that a millennium ago was first to invent paper currency, and now is one of the world leaders to introduce digital currency alongside cash money. The concept of “digital currency” is often identified with cryptocurrencies and payment systems, which prompted the authors to conduct a comparative analysis of these terms. The analysis of Russian and Chinese legislation in the area of digital currency, as well as the established practice of implementing a new monetary form into the country’s economy, allowed outlining the pros and cons of such innovation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (10(74)) ◽  
pp. 31-36
Author(s):  
V. Mashchytska

The article is devoted to the theoretical reconstruction of the of the conceptual version of postsecular religiosity. All the theories clame that the traditional religion can survive today through cover-up it’s religious identity. This is accompanied by the marginalization of religious organizations and an increase in the influence of religion at the level of individual interest. Theological analysis is limited mainly by negative characteristics when describing post-secular religiosity: the devaluation of transcendence and the rejection of dualism (Daniel HervierLeger), the absence of doctrinal boundaries (Thomas Luckmann), the weakening of the ideological core of the doctrine (Roberto Cipriani). The author argues that post-secular religion is an implicit ideology in terms of the way it functions. In the late XX - early XXI century, a number of researchers (U. Eco, S. Zizek, G. Marcuse and others) noted that the imaginary post-ideology of modern society is associated with the formation of a specific type of ideology, which can be designated as "implicit". The post-Christian secular world is also "implicitly" religious. The author reveals the commonality of the processes taking place in the field of religion with the characteristics of the "post-ideological" world and concludes that the religiosity of the post-secular society is most productive to study precisely as part of an implicit ideology.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-23
Author(s):  
Hongwei Liu ◽  
AbuBakr S. Bahaj

Marine current energy conversion (MCEC) technologies are promising renewable energy systems with some full scale and semi-commercial turbines constructed and deployed in several countries around the world. In this work, we present the status of marine current energy and systems in China and policies geared to support these. Over the past ten years the Chinese government has provided a policy framework and financial supports for the development of MCEC technologies of various design philosophies which has resulted in significant technology deployment at sea. A review of these technologies – which have turbine capacities in the range 20 kW to 650 kW, mostly tested at sea – is presented in the paper. In addition, the paper also discusses Chinese plans for marine energy test sites at sea to support prototype development and testing and concludes with a view of future prospects for the marine energy technology deployment in China.


2020 ◽  
pp. 100-113
Author(s):  
Tetyana Meteliova ◽  
Vira Chghen

The article is devoted to identifying the role of the Confucian component in shaping China’s foreign policy during the period of “reforms and openness”. The author analyzes the Chinese “soft power” model and its differences from the classical one, the theoretical foundations of which were formulated by J. Nye, and discovers the China’s “soft power” features in foreign policy and establishes its meaningful connection with Confucian values and concepts. The article provides an overview of “soft power” interpretations in the main works of Chinese scholars, examines the reflection of Confucian “soft power” ideas in the state and party documents and decisions of the period of “reforms and openness”, shows the application of Confucian principles in the foreign policy of China. It is shown that the creation of effective Chinese “soft power” tools is becoming a part of a purposeful and long-term policy of the state. Such tools include the swift reform of leading media, TV and radio companies using modern technologies and focusing on foreign audience abroad, promoting China’s traditional and modern culture in foreign cultural markets, increasing China’s presence on the world market, spreading and promoting the Chinese language, “Education Export” and widening educational contacts, economic ties development and scientific and technical cooperation, public diplomacy development, support of the compatriots living abroad. Geopolitically, China’s soft power strategy is focused on developing relations with its close neighbors and creating a security belt around China. It has been proved that modern China seeks to proclaim itself as a new “soft power” center, the creation of which is a part of the State purposeful long-term policy. It is accompanied by the active appeal of Chinese ideologists to the country's traditional cultural heritage and basing of this new foreign policy on the conservative values of Confucianism, which is a kind of civilizational code determining all aspects of social life for China.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 176-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc L Hutchison ◽  
Ping Xu

China has long represented a puzzle for scholars of democracy, who view political trust as an important indicator of regime legitimacy. Previous studies show that while democracies around the world experienced declining levels of political trust, the authoritarian Chinese government maintained unexpectedly high levels of trust. Using World Value Survey (WVS) data over a critical 12-year period (2001–2012) and multilevel modeling techniques, we explore both macro- and individual-level determinants of political trust in China. We find that province-level economic performance and individual-level income combine to influence political trust. Higher levels of individual-level income have a positive effect on trust in more developed provinces but an opposite effect in less developed provinces. Furthermore, individuals living in provinces with higher levels of inequality and openness tend to be less trusting of government. Our study offers critical insights not only for political trust in China but also the country’s political future.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 943 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weihua Su ◽  
Yuying Wang ◽  
Lan Qian ◽  
Shouzhen Zeng ◽  
Tomas Baležentis ◽  
...  

This paper aims to adapt the social network analysis method to explore the characteristics of 59 cross-border e-commerce policies promulgated by the Chinese government from January 2013 to July 2018. On this basis, the paper quantitatively analyzes the internal structure and dynamic layout characteristics of sustainable cross-border e-commerce policy documents focusing on three dimensions: policy service contents, policy regulatory targets, and policy measures. The results suggest that policies involving service contents lack long-term strategic planning, especially those related to taxation and warehousing. In addition, policies regarding service system construction and demonstration construction follow an upward trend, whereas policies related to international cooperation and risk monitoring are less prevalent. Finally, it is suggested that the government pays attention to the supervision of payments, transactions, and goods in the early stage of development, but began conducting comprehensive supervision over all aspects of the cross-border e-commerce supply chain in 2015. Thus, there has been a relatively mature regulatory system established in China with particular attention to the aspects of quality and safety.


2016 ◽  
Vol 36 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 173-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee C. Jarvis

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to help introduce the empirical study of emotion within an institutional framework by examining shame and shaming as drivers of institutional stability and change, respectively. Design/methodology/approach – The author conducted a qualitative study of 101 US print media articles generated by major US news publications and trade magazines from 1999 to 2011 in the wake of the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) 1999 report To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System. Findings – This study resulted in two major findings. First, this research found that the institutions constituting the collective professional identity of physicians persisted via institutionalized shame inculcated in physicians during their extensive socialization into the medical profession. Potential shame over medical error served to reinforce institutionalized cultures which exacerbated medicine’s problems with error reporting. Second, this study reveals that field-level actors engage in shaming to affect institutional change. This research suggests that the IOM report was in effect a shaming effort directed at physicians and the institutions constituting their collective identity. Research limitations/implications – This study provides some verification of recent theoretical works incorporating emotion into institutional theory and also illustrates how shame can be incorporated into collective identity as an institutional imperative. Originality/value – This study provides a rare empirical investigation of emotion within an institutional framework, and illuminates ways in which the emotion of shame interacts with institutional processes. This research also focusses on collective identity and institutional stability, two topics which are largely ignored by contemporary institutional researchers but are integral aspects of social life.


English Today ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 38-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junhai Zhao

With more and more importance being attached to English since China's economic reform and opening up to the outside world in the late 1970s, the entire Chinese society has placed such high importance to the learning of English that at times it even plays a vital role for a person who plans to pursue further education and seek a better career (China Daily, 5 August, 2010). However, the end of 2013 saw an ‘unanticipated’ reform of policy on the National Matriculation English Test (henceforth, NMET) instituted by the Chinese Ministry of Education (henceforth, MOE). It was ‘unanticipated’ because in the past few years the Chinese government has invested heavily in English language teaching. As reported by ABC News (15 November, 2010), ‘China is pushing its people to learn English’, and English has thus occupied a prominent place in the life of the Chinese people because it is the ‘key’ to success (Chen, 2008: 16-37). According to this new policy, the once favorite ‘son’, i.e. English, may lose its predominance in the Chinese foreign language landscape and its importance may be diminished in exams. These changes are likely to cause a series of chain reactions since the dominant position of English largely lies in its weight in various levels of exams, with the NMET having the greatest impact. Given the determining factor of the NMET in Chinese people's attitudes towards English, NMET reform would almost undoubtedly change the current situation of English in China and it would be no exaggeration to say that it will have a foreseeable impact on various aspects of Chinese social life as well. In this article, I briefly review the causes for the ‘focus shift’ and attempt an analysis of the impact of the role of English in China in the future.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 340
Author(s):  
Hermansyah Hermansyah

The object of this study is Islam in Dayak communities; a subject that is rarely being studied. It tries to expose some interesting facts about Islam in these isolated communities. Many have hitherto thought that the Dayak communities are primitive with no particular affiliation to any formal religion. This paper tries to show the reverse. The truth is that these communities do even have reasonably developed view of Islam especially that which has to do the problem of tolerance and social life. The basic premise that this paper adopts is that a practice is form of paradigm; the way a particular society performs social life reflects their orientation of religious understanding. Hence, although the Dayak communities do not have paradigmatic understanding of Islam—in the strictest sense of the word—they do nonetheless have a practical discourse that emerge out of their unique and perhaps simple understanding of their religion. Relevant to the study of this object is the issue of community identity and how this issue is related to the religious identity. Hence, the paper is interested in exposing the tension between the two identities in the context of the Dayak communities in West Kalimantan.


Poligrafi ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 201-234
Author(s):  
Mettursun Beydulla

The social and economic integration of the Uyghurs into Turkish society reflects a problem to which policy makers have not yet found a response. Marginalized by the larger society and separated by linguistic differences and cultural and social life-styles, a significant proportion of Uyghurs, especially “newcomers” who have arrived since the 1980s, is in danger of becoming part of a “parallel society.” This is reinforced by exclusion, inferiorization and “otherness,” restricted educational achievements, uncertain citizenship, legal status limbo and low socioeconomic status. Pro-Uyghur, pro-independence and anti-Chinese government mobilization in Turkey has attracted the attention of Chinese authorities for a long time, and this attention has in turn affected and shaped mobilization in Turkey. The Turkey-China relationship is involved as well. The main goals of Chinese policy and strategy in Turkey are the security of “Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region” (a.k.a. East Turkistan), access to natural resources, security of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and economic and technological investment. It means that China believes it must consolidate its control of “Xinjiang” (East Turkistan) and restrain the Uyghur independence movement in Turkey. China’s economic and technological power and investments in Turkey are not just increasing its influence; they are making Turkey far more reticent to speak out about Beijing’s abuses, systematic oppression and atrocities in the “Xinjiang” (East Turkistan). China’s geo-economic strategy has resulted in political influence in Turkey that profoundly affects its Uyghur population.


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