Italy’s China policy is becoming more hard-line

Significance However, since then, Rome has become increasingly hawkish over China, a shift which has intensified under Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s period in office. Draghi has already blocked three Chinese acquisitions of Italian firms this year, and stated he will assess Italy’s future participation in the BRI. Impacts Beijing’s decision to impose economic sanctions on Lithuania will put pressure on the EU to adopt a tougher China policy. EU fiscal and monetary support should reduce the appeal of hard-line Eurosceptism in Italy. Italy will be slow to advance projects envisaged under the 2019 MoU, although a future economic downturn could alter the dynamics.

The Belt and Road Initiative in Australian mainstream media: Why did its narratives shift from 2013 to 2021?

Compared with similar research mainly focusing on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Australian mainstream media using discourse analysis, this paper explores the reasons for the narrative shift by conducting semi-structured interviews with leading and well-known Australian narrative producers. This paper takes two conditions as a given. Firstly, the BRI narratives in Australian mainstream media shifted in tone from mostly positive to highly critical. Secondly, the Australian mainstream media's increasingly negative attitudes towards the BRI are essentially not just about the BRI but the Chinese government. Based on my analysis and interviews, this paper makes contributions by filling in the gap of finding out reasons to explain this narrative shift. More concretely, this paper finds out that while mainstream media is influential in many areas of national policy making, mainstream media reporting on foreign affairs is less so. By comparison, the Australian government's BRI or China policy has a significant impact on Australian mainstream media reporting. This narrative shift has been driven by international politics and Australia's China policy, influenced by Australian audiences’ preference of local news and their local position, and its democratic responsibilities. Meanwhile, the vagueness and constant changing characteristics of the BRI do not help the understanding of the BRI in Australian media.

Europe will find ways to work more closely with Taiwan

Significance Taipei has seized the opportunity, increasing its lobbying of both EU institutions and member states. China has threatened that those supporting closer ties with Taiwan will "pay a heavy price”. Impacts The Czech Republic’s new government will promote ties with Taiwan as during its presidency of the EU Council in the second half of 2022. No member state or EU institution is ready to abandon the 'One China' policy, but they will find ways to increase interaction with Taipei. There will be further rhetorical skirmishes and credible Chinese threats of sanctions on European individuals promoting ties with Taiwan.

Implications of the Digital Economy on Merger Control in Pakistan and China: Policy Implications for Pakistan

The rise of the digital economy has challenged the foundation of competition law frameworks the world over. Today, the antitrust doctrine finds itself confronting a new economy; an econo-my wherein data acts as a currency, markets are without prices, market collisions are based on algorithms, and the market is ‘infinite’. Several jurisdictions such as Germany, Austria, and China have developed new regulations or amended existing legislations to confront the chal-lenges presented by the digital economy. A dearth of theoretical and empirical literature has evaluated whether digital markets are so fundamentally different as to require a different set of rules. Of specific interest to this paper is whether current competition rules are sufficient to deal with mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in digital markets. This paper assesses M&A regulations in China and Pakistan in light of the new digital economy. Expert interviews were conducted using semi-structured interviews to investigate the comparisons between Pakistan’s and China’s merger control regimes. The findings indicate that China’s merger control regulations are better adopted for the digital economy than Pakistani’s. It also sets out the policy implications for competition policy makers in Pakistan.

No Common Ground: A Spatial-Relational Analysis of EU-China Relations

It is no secret that EU member states cannot come to terms on a unified China-policy. Most studies on EU-China relations come to the conclusion that disagreement exists and that this fragmentation is utilized by Chinese foreign policy in a kind of divide and rule strategy. However, the question as to why the EU members disagree has not been answered satisfactorily. This paper investigates the reasons for this discord from the perspective of the core-periphery theory. We illustrate how the spatial position of nations within Europe–in a geographical and political sense–shapes their outlook on China. As a case study to illustrate the differences in the outlook on China of among EU member countries, we analyse the discourses on Chinese COVID-19 vaccines in the Hungarian and German press from April 2020 until summer 2021. We argue that these differences have their grounds in the spatial-relational positioning at either the core or the semi-periphery of the EU. Based on our findings we suggest that a sustainable EU China-policy has first to address these differences in foreign policy outlook and then find a common ground.

The Elements of the China Challenge: Reading the Trump Administration’s China Policy Testament

Between 2017 and 2021 Donald Trump’s administration published over a dozen strategic documents on China among which The Elements of the China Challenge seems to stand out as it outlines a longer perspective and sketches a wider framework for US policy towards China. This paper attempts to examine the major assumptions of The Elements, arguing that by putting forward an anti-imperialist rhetoric, the American policy-makers want to emphasize the systemic differences with China, the importance of which have long been underplayed by Western policy-makers who have given precedence to economic considerations. However, the analysis also gives weight to the argument that the strong ideological appeal in The Elements is also intended to mobilize the American allies, anchor them to the leader of the “free world,” and reduce their tendencies to cooperate with China, including in 5G technology as in the case of Central and Eastern Europe.

Bridge to Future Livable Cities and City Clusters in the People’s Republic of China: Policy Opportunities for High-Quality Urban Development

The achievements in rapid urbanization and industrialization of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) over the past 40 years were historic. But they came at high environmental and social costs. By 2050, the country will be a high-income, four-generation urban society. Yet, according to the United Nations, the PRC’s population will have halved by 2100. Many cities will lose population and businesses. This will be equally historic and requires urgent action. The author recommends focusing on urban rehabilitation and retrofitting to make cities more livable—with a green circular zero-waste economy, aiming at low-carbon, climate-resilient cities—and making cities healthy and friendly for people of all ages.

THE DYNAMIC IMAGE OF CHINA PRESENTED IN GERMAN MAINSTREAM MEDIA REPORTS --THE CHINA-RELATED REPORTS OF GERMAN MAINSTREAM MEDIA FROM JANUARY 2020 TO JANUARY 2021 WERE USED AS EXAMPLES

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which began to spread globally in early 2020, has attracted a great deal of attention from global society on the world's politics, economy, public security and global development. The mass media played an important role in promoting it, making international relations and the construction of national images during COVID-19 pandemic an important and urgent issue of national interest in the international political arena. During this period, China also became the ‘centre of public opinion’. As the most inuential country in the European Union, Germany's foreign policy and the China policy under its presidency has attracted a great deal of global attention. While Sino-German cooperation remained at a ‘high level’ during the pandemic, Germany also sought to position itself between the great powers of China and the US. Therefore, the image of China presented by the German mainstream media in their coverage of China during the COVID-19 pandemic, their positions, the constraints behind them, and their development trends are worthy of attention and study by academics. This study attempts to research the generation of Chinese images in the German mainstream media, including both an analysis of "Germany" and a reection on "China", and to investigate what cognitive models and knowledge structures the German mainstream media use in their discourse construction, how they use their discursive power, and what kind of Chinese national image they construct

Russia’s China Policy: Growing Asymmetries and Hedging Options

This article examines the state and prospects of Russia’s policy toward China. We look at recent trends in the evolution of the world order, the history of Moscow-Beijing relations, and the changes in the balance of power between Russia and China to offer a forecast of Russia’s China policy in the near term. Special attention is paid to the role of the 2001 Treaty of Good-Neighborliness, Friendship, and Cooperation. The authors conclude that, despite the Treaty’s significance, the international situation – and indeed the relative strengths of the two countries – have significantly changed over the past 20 years. The new conditions will inevitably compel Russia to adjust its policy toward China. Moscow, as always, will seek to develop its political and economic partnership with Beijing. However, it will likely move toward hedging against risks that excessive dependence on China could bring about.