Budget systems of Russia and China: issues of legal regulation

The monograph is devoted to the analysis of the patterns of development of modern legal regulation of budgetary systems in the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China. The range of issues under study includes clarification of the structures of budget systems in selected jurisdictions, identification of the specifics of legal regulation of the formation and expenditure of extra-budgetary and budgetary funds, study of the features of the delimitation of powers of state (municipal) authorities for public finance management. A comparative analysis of the legal regulation of the budgetary systems of Russia and China is presented. For a wide range of readers interested in the issues of legal regulation of budget systems. It can be useful for students, postgraduates and teachers of law and economics universities.

The COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Bhutan: strategy and enablers

Bhutan has reported a total of 2596 COVID-19 cases and three deaths as of September 15, 2021. With support from India, the United States, Denmark, the People’s Republic of China, Croatia and other countries, Bhutan was able to conduct two rounds of nationwide vaccination campaign. While many countries struggle to overcome vaccine refusal or hesitancy due to complacency, a lack of trust, inconvenience and fear, escalated in some countries by anti-vaccine groups, Bhutan managed to inoculate more than 95% of its eligible populations in two rounds of vaccination campaign. Enabling factors of this successful vaccination campaign were strong national leadership, a well-coordinated national preparedness plan, and high acceptability of vaccine due to effective mass communication and social engagement led by religious figures, volunteers and local leaders. In this short report, we described the national strategic plan and enabling factors that led to the success of this historical vaccination campaign.

Study on the evolving role of the People’s Republic of China in resolving the conflict in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

The age-old struggle for influence in Asia, intensified in recent decades, has gained a new player in the form of dynamic China, one of the leaders of world politics and the economy of today. The authors draw on the opinions of foreign and domestic experts to determine the reasons for the involvement and role of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in resolving the conflict in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (IRA) and to link these activities to China’s renewed strategy in the Middle East as a whole. The research done by the authors over the last six months has developed rapidly in recent weeks and even days, indicating that geopolitical turbulence is developing in recent times.The article classifies the full range of the People’s Republic of China interests in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and identifies the factors that influence the formation of China’s system of interests in Afghanistan, including factors in the international environment. The consequences of the pandemic and China’s new opportunities to use soft power to advance its interests have been identified. The People’s Republic of China’s strategy in the region has been defined and attention has been paid to security issues.Beijing’s envisaged steps to promote its projects in the region have been presented.

Metaphor Analysis in Political Discourse Based on Discourse Dynamics Framework for Metaphor: A Case Study

Contrary to the pre-existing mapping and top-down instantiation from thought to language, Discourse Dynamics Framework for Metaphor(DDFM)argues that metaphor works mainly inductively upwards from the linguistic metaphor data, offering a tool for understanding people, revealing something of speaker’s ideas, affective aspects and values. This study is designed to apply DDFM to a political speech about fighting COVID-19 made by Xi Jinping, the president of the People’s Republic of China. Assisted by computer software, such as tables of Microsoft Office, to sort metaphors of each segment of this speech, this article investigates metaphors in the speech by progressive process of metaphor analysis of DDFM. It is found that: (1)The most frequently occurring metaphors are related to bodily action and body experience, which implies actions Chinese government will take.(2)The dynamically emergent systematic metaphors evolve as the discourse proceeds, conveying the political ideas and attitudes of Chinese government in fighting COVID-19.(3) Most of metaphors are conventionalized, which indicates the framing role of conventional metaphors in discourse. Thus, DDFM offers a new approach regarding metaphors in political discourse.

Specific features and procpects for development of electronic government in the PRC at the beginning of the XXI century

The article is devoted to the analysis of features of functioning of the digital government in the Chinese State in the first decades of the 21-st century and the perspectives of its further development. In this work the authors give a brief description of the essence of phenomenon of digital government in general. The article explores the specific features of this process in the People’s Republic of China in the third millennium (taking into account the background of this issue). This research examines the influence of functioning of e-government bodies in Сhina on the internal political situation in the country – taking into account such aspects as building a dialogue between authorities and society, perfection of the public service system providing the Chinese citizens with essential public goods, the merits and the demerits of China’s online government are taken into account. This article examines such significant factors in the development of e-government in China as the impact of the global situation at the present stage on international politics and the country’s information security system. This article analyzes the features of the relationship between the Chinese authorities and media corporations operating on the Internet market of the Middle Kingdom (such as, for example, Google), and studies the reasons for the contradictions between them. The study also comprehended strategy of the authorities of the People’s Republic of China in matters of information security of the state, including the active use of Chinese hackers in network conflicts with Western countries, and the actions of special units of the Chinese armed forces created to counter foreign cyber terrorism.

Identification and pathogenicity of Pratylenchus scribneri on tomato in Sichuan Province of People's Republic of China

Root-lesion nematodes (Pratylenchus spp.) are a group of economically important pathogens that have caused serious economic losses in many crops. In 2019, root-lesion nematodes were recovered from tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) root samples collected from Sichuan Province, People's Republic of China (PRC). Extracted nematodes were disinfected, and one individual female was cultured on a carrot disc for propagation at 25 °C by parthenogenesis and designated the SC isolate. Afterwards, the isolate was identified on the basis of morphometric and molecular markers. Both morphometric characters and molecular analysis of the internal transcribed spacer region gene (ITS) of ribosomal DNA, the D2-D3 expansion region of the 28S rDNA gene and the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (mtDNA-COI) gene revealed that the species of root-lesion nematode was Pratylenchus scribneri. The Bayesian tree inferred from the ITS rDNA, 28S rDNA and mtDNA-COI gene sequences also showed that this isolate formed a highly supported clade with other P. scribneri isolates. The pathogenicity of the root-lesion nematode SC isolate on tomato was assessed, showing that tomato was a suitable host for P. scribneri. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of P. scribneri on tomato in Sichuan Province, PRC. These are also the first molecular data obtained from P. scribneri on tomato in the PRC, and the pathogenicity of P. scribneri to tomato was studied for the first time. This study provides scientific data for the detection, identification and control of tomato root-lesion nematode disease.