Abstract:In the context of high-quality development, new quality productive forces have become an important driving force for Chinese-style modernization. The essence of new quality productive forces lies in contemporary advanced productive forces, and high-quality development requires new quality productive forces as both a practical and theoretical guide. Research on the spatial differentiation patterns, fractal dimension barriers, and influencing factors of new quality productive forces can deepen the understanding of new quality productive forces, providing theoretical support for spatial development, barrier removal, and government regulation of new quality productive forces. It is of great significance for accelerating the formation of new quality productive forces in Chinese cities and promoting high-quality economic and social development. The development of new quality productive forces is inseparable from the industrial chain, innovation chain, talent chain, and financial chain, and the cultivation of new quality productive forces is intrinsically consistent with the integration of these four chains. This paper utilizes panel data from 2011 to 2021 for Chinese cities, constructing an evaluation index system for urban new quality productive forces based on the perspective of four-chain integration. Using the entropy method, it measures the level of new quality productive forces in Chinese cities, analyzes the spatial differentiation through spatial trend surfaces and emerging spatiotemporal cold and hot spots, identifies the barrier dimensions affecting the enhancement of new quality productive forces, and employs the geographic detector method to investigate factors influencing the distribution of new quality productive forces. The results indicate the following: First, there is a significant polarization phenomenon in the levels of new quality productive forces among Chinese cities, though this trend weakens over time with a general upward trajectory. High-value areas are concentrated in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Pearl River Delta, and the Yangtze River Delta, with increasing clustering. Second, the development of new quality productive forces in Chinese cities has generally been hindered, but conditions have significantly improved over time, with a clear trend of reduced barriers. Among the probabilities of all barriers, industrial barriers > financial barriers > technological barriers > educational barriers, with four-dimensional barriers being the most likely combination. Third, in terms of the influencing factors of new quality productive forces, social factors have a stronger explanatory power compared to natural factors; however, natural factors can interact with social factors to jointly influence the spatial distribution of new quality productive forces. The potential innovations of this paper include: First, the construction of a new quality productive force index system based on the perspective of four-chain integration, providing a new perspective for measuring new quality productive forces; second, the measurement and analysis of the spatiotemporal differentiation of new quality productive forces at the urban level, expanding the research scale of new quality productive forces; and third, the identification and diagnosis of internal barrier dimensions affecting the improvement of new quality productive forces from the perspectives of industry, technology, education, and finance, as well as the exploration of external influencing factors from natural and social dimensions, providing empirical evidence for the formation of new quality productive forces.

Abstract:The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China adopted the Resolution on Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively to Advance Chinese Modernization, which calls for improving the institutions and mechanisms for fostering new quality productive forces in line with local conditions, and made comprehensive arrangements for the development of new productive forces. By measuring the development potential of the new productive forces, we can fully identify the crux of their development imbalance, grasp their potential driving forces and feasible directions more comprehensively and systematically, and provide a more targeted basis for policy formulation. Based on provincial panel data, this paper analyzes the development potential of new quality productive forces, and its temporal-spatial differences in different provinces of China using the entropy method, Theil index and Moran index, and puts forward the corresponding development strategy focus. The study finds that: 1) The development potential of new quality productive forces in the provinces and regions shows a fluctuating and rising development trend, but there are significant gaps between regions. 2) The spatial imbalance between provinces and regions is decreasing year by year, showing a strong regional convergence. 3) There has been an interconnectedness between provinces and regions, with high-value regions driving the development of the regions. 4) In the future, we should focus on three strategic aspects: improving the development potential of new quality productive forces in line with local conditions, accelerating the development spatial pattern driven by multi-core, and building a multi-dimensional collaborative cooperation mechanism, so as to form a joint force to improve the development potential of new quality productive forces. This study provides important reference for the strategic concept of coordinating all the activities of the nation like moves in a chess game, the formulation of differentiated development policies tailored to local conditions, and the scientific and rational optimization of regional synergy and high-quality development.

Abstract:This paper constructs an index system based on the concept of new quality productivity, focusing on technological innovation and industrial chain modernization, and systematically analyzes the differences, spatial evolution characteristics, and synergistic effects of regional new quality productivity levels in China, with the goal of providing theoretical foundations and policy support for promoting high-quality economic development. The innovation of this study lies in the first construction of a composite system synergy model, which comprehensively evaluates the synergistic effects between multiple dimensions such as technological productivity, educational productivity, talent productivity, and green transformation. It reveals the interactions among the internal elements of new quality productivity and their impact on regional economic development. Furthermore, this paper uses Dagum Gini coefficient and spatial convergence analysis to uncover inter-regional disparities and spatial convergence of new quality productivity levels across different regions of China. The results show that China’s overall new quality productivity is on an upward trend, with the eastern region significantly leading, while the western and northeastern regions lag behind, reflecting substantial regional development disparities. The eastern region maintains its leadership through a strong foundation in technological innovation, modernized industrial chains, and policy advantages, while its gap with the western and northeastern regions persists despite policy support, indicating a need for further intervention. Dagum Gini coefficient analysis reveals that regional differences are primarily driven by inter-group disparities, with intra-group disparities in the central region notably increasing. Spatial agglomeration characteristics have evolved, showing a recent resurgence, indicating the positive effects of policy adjustments on high-tech industries. Spatial convergence analysis shows that new quality productivity levels across the country and the four major geographical regions tend to converge to a steady state, with control variables such as per capita GDP and urbanization rate accelerating the process, especially in the eastern, western, and northeastern regions, while the central region lags behind due to structural issues. The composite system synergy model analysis demonstrates strong synergy between technological productivity, educational productivity, and talent productivity in the eastern region, where policies have been effective. However, the synergy between green transformation and other dimensions remains weak, particularly in industrial chain modernization, where green transformation faces challenges such as high costs and technological barriers, leading to short-term difficulties. In 2022, negative synergy values related to green transformation reflect the challenges enterprises face in adapting to environmental sustainability requirements. Therefore, this paper proposes increasing investment in technological innovation and industrial chain modernization, implementing differentiated policies to guide industrial upgrading, and adapting to the development needs of new quality productivity in different regions, thereby promoting sustainable and high-quality economic growth in China.

Abstract:Productivity is a key driver of high-quality economic development and social progress. New quality productive forces are an advanced type of productive forces, whose main characteristics include significant growth in total factor productivity, with innovation as a feature and high quality as a key element. New quality productive forces emphasize innovation, intelligence and efficiency to improve productivity, reduce costs and thus improve product quality to meet the needs of a competitive marketplace. Promoting the development of new quality productive forces can help enterprises better adapt to market changes, enhance competitiveness and achieve sustainable development. At the same time, the digital element is an important factor in promoting the development of the digital economy, fostering a new type of growth momentum and enhancing national competitiveness. The establishment of the national digital innovation and development pilot zone is not only of great significance in promoting the development of the digital economy, fostering new growth momentum, enhancing national competitiveness, promoting the upgrading of the industrial structure as well as facilitating the construction of the innovation system, but also a key force in upgrading new quality productive forces. In the face of the current development trend that digital element as an important innovation element is increasingly entering into all aspects and processes of economic and social development, it is of great significance to understand and deepen the research on its relationship with new quality productive forces. Although existing literature has conducted some research on new quality productive forces from the perspective of the digital economy, little literature has analyzed them from the perspective of policies related to the digital economy. Therefore, on the basis of clarifying the impact mechanism of the establishment of the national digital economy innovation and development pilot zone on new quality productive forces, this paper makes use of panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2012 to 2022 to construct a new quality productive forces evaluation index system of new quality workers, new quality labour materials and new quality labour objects, and explores the impact of the establishment of the pilot zones on new quality productive forces with the help of a difference-in-difference model. The study finds that: 1) The establishment of the pilot zones has a significant positive effect on the improvement of the level of new quality productivity, with the improvement effect reaching about 10 per cent. This conclusion remains valid after a series of robustness tests such as parallel trend tests and sensitivity tests. 2) Heterogeneity analyses find that the positive effect of the establishment of the pilot zones is greater for provinces with low levels of financial development, intelligence and digitization. 3) Mechanism analysis finds that the establishment of the pilot zones has contributed to the development of new quality productive forces through vigorous promotion of technological innovation, formation of a cluster effect of senior talents and promotion of digital transformation. Based on this, the government should strengthen the summary and promotion of the typical experience of national digital economy innovation and development, optimize the layout of the pilot zones and stimulate the multi-dimensional path of the pilot zones to influence new quality productivity, so as to achieve sustainable economic development and improve the level of new quality productivity.

Abstract:Currently, the global industrial chain is undergoing accelerated adjustment and reshaping. The security and stability of China’s industrial chain face significant challenges. Enhancing the level of industrial chain modernization will become a key means to promote the high-quality development of the real economy and an urgent requirement to accelerate the development of a Chinese-style modern industrial system. Under the influence of the accelerating changes in the global market, the manufacturing industry has become an important area for achieving industrial chain modernization in the new development pattern. Enhancing modernization level of the industrial chain and promoting high-quality development of the manufacturing industry are of strategic significance for comprehensively building a modern powerful country. An in-depth analysis of the temporal-spatial evolution and spatial correlations of the modernization of manufacturing industry chain can not only provide reference for constructing a high-quality modern industrial system in China but also provide feasible suggestions for achieving coordinated regional development of the modernization of manufacturing industry chain. Based on this, this article constructs a comprehensive index system for the modernization of China’s manufacturing industry chain from four dimensions: innovation, security, high-end, and greenness. The entropy method is used to measure the modernization level of the manufacturing industry chain, and the Dagum Gini coefficient and local Moran index are used to analyze regional differences in the modernization level of the manufacturing industry chain nationwide. The Kernel density estimation and Markov transition probability matrix are used to analyze the evolutionary trend of the development level of the manufacturing industry chain modernization in order to observe its dynamic evolution and steady-state distribution characteristics. The research results show that: First, the modernization of China’s manufacturing industry chain is still at a medium-low level and presents an east high and west low distribution pattern in space. There is a catch-up effect in the eastern region, while the potential in the western region needs to be further explored. Second, overall, the regional differences in modernization level of manufacturing industry chain in China are decreasing, and the gap among provinces is slowly narrowing, with a weakening trend in spatial agglomeration characteristics. Third, the modernization level of manufacturing industry chain in China is constantly improving, but there is a certain degree of middle-income trap and backslide phenomenon. Western provinces and some northeastern provinces have long been at a low level, with significant room for improvement. Obviously, these research conclusions have important reference value for improving the modernization level of manufacturing industry chain. Specifically, considering the current background of supply and demand imbalances and weakening expectations, they provide insights into how to achieve regional coordinated development of the modernization of manufacturing industry chain in China.

Abstract:The good performance of enterprise ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) is a crucial lever for promoting sustainable development and enhancing corporate image and overall value, thus achieving high-quality economic development. The regional peer effect refers to a phenomenon where, within a specific geographical area, certain management policies, culture, and regional economic development factors lead to a convergence in strategic choices, operational models, organizational culture, etc., among enterprises. However, there is limited literature addressing the regional peer effect of enterprise ESG performance, and its mechanisms and heterogeneous manifestations remain unclear. Based on data from A-share listed companies in the period from 2009 to 2021, this study empirically tests the existence, mechanisms, heterogeneity, and related consequences of the regional peer effect on enterprise ESG performance. The research reveals that there is a regional peer effect in enterprise ESG performance, and this conclusion is validated through a series of endogeneity and robustness tests, including instrumental variable methods, two-stage residual inclusion methods, placebo tests, substitution variables, and the inclusion of control variables. Information asymmetry, internal governance, external demonstration, and government regulation are identified as the causes of the regional peer effect in enterprise ESG performance. Specifically, information asymmetry increases the motivation for lower-information companies to learn and imitate the ESG performance of higher-information companies, thereby enhancing the regional peer effect. Lower internal governance levels make it difficult for companies to meet the requirements of scientifically deciding their ESG performance, promoting the motivation for companies to imitate the ESG performance of regionally peer companies, thereby increasing the regional peer effect. Positive external demonstration creates a favorable ESG learning atmosphere for companies, increasing the motivation for companies to learn and imitate the ESG performance of other companies, thereby increasing the regional peer effect. Government regulation leads to a certain convergence in ESG decision-making behavior among enterprises, thereby increasing the regional peer effect. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that when a company has a lower position in its region, it has a stronger motivation to learn and imitate regional leading companies, making the regional peer effect in ESG performance more pronounced. When a company is in a mature or declining phase, the regional peer effect in its ESG performance is more apparent, as it seeks to reduce decision-making risks. In contrast, companies in a growth phase are more inclined to engage in strategic exploration and innovation, resulting in a less pronounced peer effect. Non-heavy-polluting industries exhibit a more pronounced regional peer effect in ESG performance compared to heavy-polluting industries. Further research indicates that the regional peer effect in enterprise ESG performance has a significantly positive effect on effectively enhancing a company’s green innovation capability and promoting corporate social responsibility. The research conclusions complement and enrich relevant findings in the field of corporate ESG behavior, providing theoretical and empirical evidence for central and local governments to formulate policies that effectively promote the improvement of enterprise ESG performance.

Abstract:In the era of digital economy, against the backdrop of cities’ transformation toward smartization, the issue of government-market relations has extended to new dimensions in the field of urban governance. Specifically, private technology enterprises, by virtue of their products and services, can influence public decision-making, impact or even challenge public values, and even exacerbate existing inequalities, as well as barriers to access to opportunities and resources, thereby undermining high-quality development and the interests of the public.This article first analyzes the reasons and rationale for the widespread adoption of public-private partnership (PPP) in smart city construction, i.e. there is a natural correlation between smart cities and PPP based on the similarity of historical origins, commonality of concepts, and the unique advantages of the PPP model in smart city construction. On this basis, it explores possible sources of risk to public values in the PPP model, such as data privacy, multi-actor collaboration and risk-sharing, political commitment, equality of opportunity, and technology and regulation, focusing on the issues of vendor lock-in and embedding of technology values that are different from those of traditional infrastructure construction, but rather are closely related to smart city technologies. The article shows how PPP and smart cities are shaping for-profit companies into central players in the creation of efficient and innovative public services and infrastructure. Current data protection legislation, including the EU’s GDPR, is still insufficient to provide pragmatic guidance on maintaining the two core public values of accountability and transparency. Data legislation has problems in protecting public values in terms of where control resides, as well as how to provide a basis for legal data processing and establish relevant accountability systems on this basis. Based on the various barriers and limitations of the smart city PPP model, this paper points out that there is a need to introduce a broader concept of openness to extend public norms to private actors (technology firms) acting or serving public goals, and publicizing them through contractual agreements, so that the two core public values of transparency and accountability are transmitted to private technology firms and enterprises in smart city projects, and to mitigate the risks of smart technologies being divorced from public scrutiny and people being passively marginalized. The novelty of this paper lies in its novel discussion of the possibilities and limitations of utilizing PPP in smart cities as a tool for safeguarding public values, pointing out that PPP poses a serious challenge to the core principles of accountability and transparency of public governance. In light of the unique complexities of distributing and transferring benefits and rights in PPP smart city projects, this paper explores whether and how publicizing can be an alternative to extending public value to private partners, and makes an attempt to expand the realm of government-market relations in digital urban governance.

Abstract:General Secretary Xi Jinping, based on the strategic overall situation of Chinese-style modernization construction, has put forward a series of new ideas, judgments, and viewpoints on the healthy and high-quality development of the private economy. He has profoundly expounded the basic theoretical issues of the development and growth of the private economy in the new era from the perspectives of ontology, epistemology, methodology, practice, and value theory. These can be summarized as seven adherences, namely: adhering to the comprehensive leadership of the Party over the private economy, adhering to the basic policies and guidelines for the development of the private economy, adhering to the construction of a good development environment for the private economy, adhering to the rule of law for the private economy, adhering to the high-quality development of the private economy, adhering to implementing policies and measures to promote the development of the private economy, and adhering to guiding private entrepreneurs to innovate, strengthen enterprises, and serve the country. The seven adherences constitute a logically rigorous and systematically complete theoretical system from dimensions of political guarantee, institutional framework, basic conditions, legal protection, development orientation, implementation path, and value guidance. General Secretary Xi Jinping's important discourse on the development of the private economy highlights distinctive features such as the strategic comprehensiveness of coordinating the development of the private economy, the profound people-oriented nature of guiding the development of the private economy, the profound timeliness of grasping the development situation of the private economy, the strict rule of law that guarantees the development of the private economy, and the policy effectiveness in solving the problems faced by the private economy. General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important discourse on the development of the private economy represents a major theoretical innovation in Marxist political economy, deepening the understanding of the laws governing the development of China’s private economy in the new era, and providing important theoretical guidance and practical guideline for the development of China’s private economy. In practice, to implement General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important discourse on the development of the private economy, we should accelerate the improvement of the institutional system and build a solid foundation for the development of the private economy; implement systematic support policies and accurately promote the development and growth of the private economy; strengthen the construction of the rule of law and ensure the high-quality development of the private economy in accordance with the law; promote private enterprises to strengthen independent innovation and vigorously develop new quality productive forces; guide private entrepreneurs to enhance their patriotism, improve their ability to innovate and strengthen enterprises, and leverage emerging digital technologies such as DeepSeek to efficiently empower the development of the private economy.

Abstract:Since 2025, the accelerated implementation of U.S. tariff increases on Chinese goods has transcended traditional trade frictions, evolving into a systematic suppression tool with multi-dimensional coordination across economic, strategic, political, and technological domains. Economically, it aims to balance trade deficits and enforce protectionism; strategically, to restructure global supply chains and reduce dependence on China; politically, to divert domestic tensions and engage in geopolitical rivalry; and technologically, to stifle China’s innovation leapfrogging and maintain generational advantages. These high tariffs impose systemic risks on China’s private economy, including supply chain strain (persistent cost escalation), export contraction (compressed traditional markets), technological containment (fractured innovation ecosystems), and talent drain (restricted high-end intellectual inflows). In April 2025, General Secretary Xi Jinping’s inaugural proposal of the Asia Security Model at the Central Conference on Peripheral Work marked China’s strategic shift from passive defense to proactive rule-shaping in regional governance, offering a new paradigm for private sector resilience. This study proposes a five-dimensional strategic framework: reform and opening-up, government-enterprise collaboration, market expansion, risk prevention, and innovation-driven development, to navigate U.S. tariff pressures. Key measures include: strengthening domestic circulation as the cornerstone while promoting dual domestic-international cycles; enhancing institutional safeguards and policy support for private enterprises; deepening multilateral cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative; building trade early-warning systems and legal protections; advancing sci-tech system reforms and talent ecosystem optimization. This transformation not only provides practical guidance for Chinese enterprises to counter U.S. trade tactics but also offers a China solution for emerging economies to break the core-periphery dependency through institutional innovation. By integrating reforms into global governance restructuring, China aims to convert tariff crises into historic opportunities for rule-making—a pragmatic response to unilateral hegemony and a strategic commitment to advancing a shared future for humanity.

Abstract:The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China made systematic arrangements for further comprehensively deepening reform, emphasizing the construction of a system and mechanism that supports comprehensive innovation, promoting the integrated reform of the education, science and technology, and talent systems, and improving the new national system, and enhancing the overall efficiency of the national innovation system. There is an inherent logical connection between the construction of university disciplines and the development of the national innovation system. Empowering the national innovation system is an intrinsic requirement for the construction of university disciplines. To improve the overall efficiency of the national innovation system, it is necessary to perfect the construction of interdisciplinary fields that meet the strategic needs of the country and the corresponding talent cultivation models. From the perspective of the transformation of knowledge production model, exploring how the construction of university disciplines can empower the national innovation system and finding its promotion path are of significant theoretical and practical importance for accelerating the development of new productive forces. At present, the transformation of knowledge production model has given rise to innovative characteristics such as innovation-driven, high-quality elements, openness and inclusiveness, and element synergy, revealing the logical coupling in university discipline construction empowering the national innovation system, including subject integration, value efficiency, cross-border collaboration, and systematic interaction. However, in the practice of university discipline construction, there are still barriers in terms of organizational logic, value logic, cultural logic, and dynamic logic, which affect its empowerment for the development of the national innovation system. To overcome these barriers, it is possible to strengthen the organization of scientific and technological innovation, promote the integration of disciplines and industries, build a transdisciplinary culture, and promote the integration of disciplines and scientific and technological talents, thereby enhancing the core driving force, industrial innovation capacity, cultural soft power, and development support power for the development of new productive forces. Therefore, the construction of university disciplines should not only focus on the deepening of basic research but also pay attention to the development of applied research and interdisciplinary research to adapt to the rapidly changing technological trends and market demands, playing a crucial role in empowering the overall efficiency of the national innovation system. In the future, universities should continue to deepen the reform of discipline construction and strengthen the interaction and integration with the national innovation system to make greater contributions to promoting the progress of science and technology and economic and social development.

Abstract:At present, exchanges between different countries, regions, and nationalities are constantly increasing, and at the same time, friction and contradictions between different civilizations are becoming increasingly apparent. To actively respond to the current situation of the emergence of different thoughts of openness and closure, inclusiveness and exclusion, cooperation and conflict in human civilization, and to answer the core question of the sustainable development of human civilization with great foresight, Xi Jinping has issued a series of important statements on exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations on various occasions since the 18th National Congress of the CPC. The importance of exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations for the innovative development of the Chinese civilization and the common development and prosperity of human civilizations has been repeatedly emphasized. It has become a common value all countries share to promote exchanges rather than confrontation among civilizations. Xi Jinping’s important exposition on exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations is based on the Marxist theory of civilization and combined with the unique insights into exchanges between different civilizations derived from the development demands of the times, and as an important content of Xi Jinping Thought on Culture, it has rich and profound connotations, including three aspects: basic premise, core essence, and practical path. The basic premise of exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations is to uphold human civilizations’ diversity, equality, and inclusiveness. The core essence of exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations include the attitude of mutual respect and equality, harmony with diversity and inclusiveness, the value orientation of upholding justice and interests and pursuing win-win cooperation, the development philosophy of openness and innovation and mutual learning, and the vision of civilizations for beauty in diversity and a harmonious world. The practical path of exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations is as follows: promote equality and inclusiveness and encourage different development models to complement each other, smooth an internet platform for rational reference and unimpeded exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations, go beyond the zero-sum game and build a new model of civilized and harmonious major-country relations, and pursue win-win cooperation and foster a new pattern of open, inclusive, and common development. Xi Jinping’s important exposition on exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations, as a Chinese plan for exchanges among different civilizations, provides guidelines and theoretical basis for correctly handling relations among different civilizations at present and has long-term instructive significance for the development and prosperity of human civilizations.

Abstract:Industrial standardization is an important part of industrialization and the result of large-scale production and scientific management. Before the War Against Japanese Aggression, influenced by the export of Western powers to China, China’s industrial materials came from many countries, so industrial standards were different. During the War Against Japanese Aggression, the Chinese people realized that industrial standards played an important role in industrial development. They could save manpower, material and financial resources, improve work efficiency, facilitate division of labor and cooperation in mass production and industrial mobilization, and promote industrial popularization, thereby improving the level of industrialization. The National Government considered the issue of industrial standardization from the perspective of promoting post-war industrial construction. Its purpose was to facilitate the unification of standards for importing foreign machinery and equipment; export agricultural and mineral products to foreign countries according to certain standards, improve the international credit of export commodities; and integrate the national defense industry with the people’s livelihood industry. Before and after the victory of the War Against Japanese Aggression, the National Government actively participated in international standardization affairs. The most important event was its participation in the establishment of the United Nations Standards Coordinating Committee and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Its strategy was to require countries to retain their autonomy in the formulation of industrial standards so that industrially backward countries could protect their own immature industries and avoid China becoming a vassal of the US economy after the war. Given that China is an agricultural country, the National Government advocated that ISO should set up more technical committees for agricultural product standards, tried to set up five subcommittee secretariats in China, and suggested the establishment of a tea subcommittee. In general, before and after the victory of the War Against Japanese Aggression, the National Government and people in the industrial and scientific communities spared no effort to promote China’s industrial standardization. On the one hand, stimulated by nationalism, they hoped to use industrial standardization to directly learn from the experience of industrially advanced countries, use the latest technology for mass production, and catch up with industrially advanced countries in the shortest time. On the other hand, China’s industrial standardization movement was in line with the planned economic thought of the 1940s. By formulating industrial standards, it was possible to achieve cooperation among various departments, which would help to carry out planned industrial construction after the war. However, due to the civil war launched by the Kuomintang after the war, severe inflation, unstable political and economic situation, and slow recovery of international trade, China’s industry failed to develop rapidly and industrial standardization was difficult to implement smoothly.

Abstract:Raw meat dishes, popular among peoples from different countries and regions throughout history, refer to a mixture of sliced raw meat and sauces. They have been the food culture of Yunnan since the Kingdom of Nanzhao. Past scholarship on raw meat dishes in Yunnan emphasized ethnic cultural differences and the lag in the cultural development of border areas, while the functions of such dishes in promoting interactions among ethnic groups, local knowledge production, and the cultural transformation of Yunnan received little attention. As mainstream culinary preference shifted from raw dishes to cooked ones, raw meat dishes in Yunnan not only was maintained, but they further evolved into a part of provincial culture. Such cultural transformation was the result of both the frequent daily interactions among different ethnic groups, and the joint effort by the elite to construct local knowledge, regardless of their ethnicity. Raw meat dishes was labeled, in textual representations and in practice, as being different from the mainstream food culture from Tang dynasty till Yuan dynasty, despite that Yunnan became a Chinese province in Yuan dynasty. However, the dishes became a shared food culture among Yunnan officials and commoners in Ming dynasty with the popularity of the Torch Festival, and the local elite of different ethnicity all emphasized that it was unique to Yunnan. The fact that the dishes was popular among Han commoners in Yunnan in Qing dynasty distinguished Yunnan from other provinces and thus mapped the borderline of raw meat dish consumption based on administrative unit. Moreover, while Han commoners invented new eating styles of the dishes, cultural elite in Qing dynasty created new cultural traditions for the local custom, which reinterpreted the historic and cultural interactions between Yunnan—the Southwestern borderland—and the Chinese imperial courts. Therefore, with massive Han immigration to Yunnan during the late imperial period, raw meat dishes became a shared and jointly-built food culture among people of different ethnicity, and the consumption of raw meat dishes was transformed from the culture of the other to the culture of a province in texts by the elite, as a way of incorporating the borderland into the cultural map of late imperial China.

Abstract:The absence of a transcendent dimension and the suspension of ultimate concern in contemporary literature constitute a persistent and widespread malaise. This issue has been frequently pointed out by critics and deeply perceived by writers themselves. However, its manifestation in literary works often falls short of expectations and remains distant from readers’ desires. Beyond the influence of external circumstances, the fundamental cause lies in the writers’ inadequate philosophical penetration, which results in their lingering within the confines of empirical experience. This phenomenon is closely tied to the writers’ selective engagement with intellectual resources. Their alienation from tradition and detachment from classical texts have led to weakened thinking capacities and a constricted vision. In contrast, He Shiguang stands out as a rare and remarkable exception. Through his profound immersion in Daoist and Buddhist traditions, accompanied by experiential cultivation, he has attained a vision of ultimate concern and transcendent wisdom. With these insights, he re-examines both his own life and the lives of others, producing a series of autobiographical essays that chronicle his spiritual and contemplative practices. These writings offer an alternative path for articulating ultimate concern within contemporary Chinese literature. Illuminated by the principles and experiences derived from Daoism and Buddhism, his literary works exude both a sense of intimacy and a luminous wisdom. They not only provide solace amid worldly afflictions but also awaken a deep-seated yearning for the eternal. Whether in the examination of narrative motivations, the structuring of literary works and writing techniques, the introspection on personal life trajectories, or the systematic reflection on existence and the cosmos, all dimensions are situated within the coordinates of ultimate concern. Each element and detail is thus endowed with its rightful value and meaning. For instance, from this ultimate concern perspective, he offers novel interpretations of issues such as homosexuality, the relationship between sexuality and desire, and the critical readings of Dream of the Red Chamber. Consequently, these works are not only inspirational for literary creation but also provide profound spiritual comfort and intellectual enlightenment. Moreover, as a singular case, He Shiguang exemplifies the revival of traditional cultural values in an era marked by superficial reading. His work demonstrates both the efficacy of culture and the feasibility of engaging it in depth. Therefore, his series of contemplative essays contributes not only to literary creativity but also to the cultural renaissance and the remedying of contemporary maladies brought about by technocratic encroachment such as superficial reading habits and the fragmentation of knowledge.

Abstract:Procuratorate supporting litigation refers to a mechanism whereby, when a subject whose civil rights and interests have been infringed finds it difficult to effectively participate in civil litigation due to fear or insufficient litigation capacity, procuratorial organs support them in initiating civil litigation to safeguard their rights and interests. In recent years, procuratorate supporting litigation has been continuously explored and promoted in civil judicial practice, but relevant controversy has not ceased.The main points of contention are the necessity of procuratorate supporting litigation, the clarity of the case scope, the propriety of participation in court proceedings, and the connection with other procedures.These are also the core issues of building a system of procuratorate supporting litigation. At present, the academic community mainly examines the system from the perspective of procedural justice in civil litigation, questioning whether it disrupts the isosceles triangle structure of litigation, affects the principle of party disposal, and impacts judicial trials. They hold that procuratorate supporting litigation should be restrained, or even eliminated. However, it is insufficient to evaluate the system from this single perspective, instead, it should be discussed in the context of the overall civil litigation model and the reality of civil judicial operations. From the perspective of necessity and propriety, China’s civil litigation follows the adversarial litigation model, where the court is in a passive position and the parties bear the obligations of investigation, evidence collection, proof, and making litigation requests. This makes it difficult for parties with insufficient litigation capacity and fear of litigation to exercise their right to sue. Procuratorate supporting litigation can achieve substantial equality in the right to sue, demonstrate judicial authority and justice, maintain the legal order, and is a necessary supplement to the passive judicial model. As for the scope of cases for procuratorate supporting litigation, the current legislation is rather vague.There are issues with procuratorate supporting litigation in public interest litigation cases, such as, wide range, strong professionalism, and academic doubts about the procuratorate’s duties. Branches of law should be improved to clear the legal standards for initiating public interest litigation, and a legal assessment mechanism involving the people should be introduced to address the doubts. In private interest litigation, to solve the issues of unclear standards for supporting litigation and vague positioning of procuratorial organs, it is proposed that the criteria of supporting litigation should include weak litigation capacity, fear of litigation, significant impact on local governance, and assessment mechanisms. Regarding the participation method of procuratorial organs, the academic community is wary of procuratorate supervisory power and questions the feasibility of procuratorate participation. However, from the perspective of theory and judicial practice,supporting litigation does not disrupt the isosceles triangle structure. Procuratorate participation helps to clarify the facts and improve the efficiency of the trial, so the procuratorate should be granted the right to participate in court proceedings. From the stages of participation in litigation, the parties’ inability to litigate runs throughout the entire litigation process. The procuratorate should decide whether to support the second instance, retrial, and for forced execution based on the existence of the reasons for supporting litigation, to realize the legislative spirit of supporting litigation. Given that the existing concept of supporting litigation is limited to filing and cannot encompass its connotation and value, it is suggested to amend the principle of supporting for filing a lawsuit in the Civil Procedure Law to the principle of supporting litigation,so as to completely solve the conceptual confusion of the corresponding system construction from a logical perspective.

Abstract:China’s criminal law has a long tradition of setting up the clause of voluntary surrender and exemption from punishment, and exemption from punishment by voluntary surrender is based on the theories of human nature, normativity, and efficiency, and the precise application of the clause has three functions: implementing the concept of leniency, conforming to the orientation of crime prevention and saving judicial resources. There are two ways to apply the clause in China: conviction but exemption from punishment and exemption from punishment for guilt. The former represents a substantive avenue for release from criminal liability, whereas the latter constitutes a procedural avenue for exoneration. In practice, there are problems in the application of the clause by judicial organs, such as unreasonable methods, inconsistent standards, unclear logic and low rate of separate application, which make it difficult for the clause to give full play to its unique value. The reason is that the judicial interpretation interprets the premise of the application of the clause—the crime is relatively minor—as the circumstances of the crime are relatively minor, which makes the clause become a vassal of other exemption clauses and loses its status as an independent system, and in turn leads to the application of the clause only by the method of estimation. Between application or non-application, the clause is reduced to a tool for compromise treatment. With the advent of the era of misdemeanors, the number of misdemeanor cases continues to increase, and the disadvantages of punishment with consequences have gradually emerged, which has further exacerbated the contradictions between leniency of punishment, crime prevention and saving judicial resources. Compared with other exemption clauses, the voluntary surrender and exemption from punishment clause is the most cost-effective, most morally demanding, and easiest incentive clause to limit the initiation of criminal punishment, and should be actively applied. First of all, it is necessary to improve the application mode of the clause, characterize the clause as a special provision or legal fiction, and change the existing comprehensive application model to a mode of comprehensive application + separate application. Secondly, the crime is relatively minor should be interpreted as committing a misdemeanor without the aggravating circumstance of a preventive sentence, since the legislature has already taken into account the social harmfulness of the act when setting the statutory sentence, and the fixed-term imprisonment of less than three years is a dividing line of many systems in the Criminal Law and the Criminal Procedure Law, it is appropriate to define the scope of misdemeanors with the statutory sentence of three years imprisonment. Thirdly, the discretionary logic of the clause should change from calculating the statutory mitigating circumstances before calculating other circumstances to calculating the base sentence first according to the responsibility penalty + then calculating the mitigating circumstances of the preventive sentence + finally calculating the aggravating circumstances of the preventive sentence. Finally, based on the theory of human nature, normativity, and efficiency, the types of voluntary surrender that apply the clause should be perfected. They should be limited to those characterized by timeliness, initiative, and sincerity, while excluding situations where voluntary surrender is maliciously exploited to evade legal sanctions.

Abstract:Generative artificial intelligence, represented by ChatGPT and DeepSeek, refers to artificial intelligence that can generate text, pictures, videos, and other corresponding content according to user instructions. Personal information is the basis of generative artificial intelligence. Generative artificial intelligence needs to deal with a large amount of personal information in all stages of model training, model generation and model optimization, which also brings a certain impact on the traditional personal information protection rules. In the stage of information collection, generative artificial intelligence may blur the rules of informed consent and infringe the privacy of information subjects. In the stage of information utilization, generative artificial intelligence may impact the basic personal information processing rules such as the principle of purpose limitation and the principle of openness and transparency, and increase the risk of personal information disclosure. In the stage of information generation, generative artificial intelligence may generate false information and discriminatory information. In the context of the transformational development of generative artificial intelligence, it is urgent to examine the basic concept of personal information protection and seek its value orientation in the field of generative artificial intelligence. By examining the development of comparative law and the concept of personal information protection in China, we can see that the unipolar thinking of personal information protection or personal information utilization is difficult to adapt to the practical needs of the digital society, and the dynamic balance between personal information protection and personal information utilization is the ideal path to properly balance the interests of various subjects. Generative artificial intelligence can be widely used as a basic model in many fields such as education, finance, science, and technology. In view of this, a balance between personal information protection and generative artificial intelligence development should be coordinated and promoted. Personal information is closely related to the information subject. Once personal information is disclosed or abused, the information subject may suffer higher risks. Therefore, it is necessary to build a collaborative relief mechanism of risk prevention and damage compensation, to promote the benign development of generative artificial intelligence based on whole life cycle protection of personal information. As far as the risk prevention mechanism is concerned, it is necessary to improve the de-identification measures based on risk identification, and grant the information subject the right to limit processing and the right to interpret algorithms, to curb the potential risks in an all-round way. Determination of the subject of liability is the basis of damage compensation. It should be proved by the service provider of generative artificial intelligence and the user that there is no causal relationship between them and the damage, otherwise they need to bear joint and several liability for compensation. In terms of the principle of imputation, the principle of presumptive fault liability or no-fault liability can be applied respectively according to the fact that the infringed object is personal general information or personal sensitive information. In order to better remedy the damage suffered by the information subject, in addition to the traditional compensatory compensation such as property damage compensation and mental damage compensation, punitive compensation should also be introduced to protect the damaged rights and interests of the information subject to the greatest extent.

Abstract:Compared to other types of data, financial data inherently demands higher confidentiality. With the internationalization of financial markets and the digitization of financial data, cross-border flows of financial data have become commonplace. However, this process has increasingly highlighted issues concerning data utilization and privacy security, as traditional privacy regulations struggle to address cross-border requirements. At the legal level in China, the Data Security Law has preliminarily established a foundational framework for cross-border data transfers, while the Personal Information Protection Law incorporates GDPR-inspired principles to regulate the cross-border flow of personal information. However, at the regulatory level, overlapping rules from the People’s Bank of China (PBC), the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), and other authorities coexist, leading to inconsistencies in regulatory approaches, ambiguous definitions, conflicting rules, and a disconnect between data classification standards and cross-border regulations. The core issues are as follows: First, an excessive emphasis on security has resulted in a prohibited in principle approach, stifling the release of data value and market vitality. Second, overlapping and conflicting regulations from multiple regulators—such as the PBC, CAC, and China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC)—increase compliance difficulties. Third, existing data classification systems fail to effectively link to cross-border conditions. Finally, there is a lack of differentiation in cross-border business needs, and foreign regulatory requirements are not addressed with tailored rules. The EU and the U.S. represent two distinct models of personal data protection. Comparing these two systems can provide clearer insights into China’s regulatory challenges: The EU, centered on the GDPR, has established a stringent and complex cross-border framework through adequacy decisions, standard contractual clauses (SCCs), and binding corporate rules (BCRs). While it lacks specific financial data rules, its overall requirements are exceptionally high. The U.S. adopts a sectoral legislation and industry self-regulation model. In finance, laws like the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act provide specific rules, while free trade agreements are leveraged to dismantle barriers, facilitate data flows, and attract data to the U.S. To address the difficulties in cross-border personal financial data flows, the following pathways can be explored: Firstly, shift regulatory philosophy from prohibited in principle to permitted in principle, recognizing the value of data as a factor of production and the global nature of cross-border flows while maintaining security baselines. Secondly, harmonize regulatory oversight, enhancing interdepartmental coordination to eliminate rule conflicts and gaps, ensuring coverage of emerging financial institutions. Thirdly, align data classification with cross-border rules, setting differentiated transfer conditions and assessment requirements based on data sensitivity or criticality. Fourthly, differentiate rules by flow purpose: refining necessity standards for business-driven flows, establishing efficient security assessment procedures, and negotiating mutual recognition mechanisms and standard contracts based on reciprocity. Ultimately, through these measures, contract law, organizational law, and regulatory frameworks can be coordinated to construct a governance system that safeguards security and sovereignty while promoting financial market internationalization, unlocking data value, and strengthening influence in global rule-making.

Abstract:As a key reform and innovation measure of national governance modernization, the digital transformation of megacity governance is essentially to build a digital city, that is, to reconstruct the urban operation logic and governance paradigm through digital technology to promote the high-quality development of megacities. From the perspective of public law, the institutional guarantee of digital governance in megacities should take people’s cities for the people as its value orientation, take the constitution as its order foundation, and achieve the balance between governance efficiency and rights protection through the dual adjustment of legal norms and organizational structure. At present, the digital transformation of megacity governance and the construction of the rule of law in China need to be further integrated. First, reform and innovation have put forward higher requirements for the legal norm system. There are signs of inappropriate convergence between legal norms and between legal norms and practical applications. For example, new legal relationships such as public data sharing and algorithmic decision-making involved in digital governance still lack high-level legislative support. Second, the comprehensive protection of civil rights has become a key issue to adapt to technological innovation and build a harmonious society. While improving administrative efficiency, digital governance tools may aggravate the risk of digital Leviathan due to the absence of rights protection mechanism. Third, the legal safeguards for the digital risk prevention linkage mechanism is insufficient. Urban operation is highly dependent on digital infrastructure, but the cross-domain linkage prevention and control mechanism of risks such as network security, data leakage and algorithmic malfunctions is not yet perfect. The overlapping of departmental responsibilities and data barriers will lead to the break of the supervision chain and insufficient coverage. The core of solving the above dilemma is to build a system of vertical convergence and horizontal coordination within the legal framework. First, under the control of the Constitution, promote the convergence of local legislation and various legal norms, and establish an elastic regulatory system of central legislation sets the framework and local legislation creates detailed rules. Second, clarify the functional orientation and power-responsibility boundary of digital governance institutions, integrate decentralized digital governance functions, solve the stubborn disease of data island and multi-head management, and form the two wings of the reform of the organization law of megacity governance together with legal procedures to prevent technical power from deviating from the rule of law. Third, improve the full-cycle prevention and control mechanism of digital risks, build an intelligent system based on the urban brain, and embed the early warning data into the legal procedure of emergency management synchronously, so as to realize the deep integration of technical rationality and legal rationality and comprehensively improve the emergency prevention and control ability of urban disasters. Only by implanting the spirit of the rule of law into the underlying logic of technical governance and injecting the concept of humanism into the system design can the rule of law guarantee of digital governance in megacities be realized, and the ultimate goal of digital governance in megacities in the future needs to return to science and technology for good, can we protect human dignity and urban civilization in the digital wave.

Abstract:In the era where the digital economy profoundly reshapes cultural industry chains, the exclusive copyright licensing system faces dual challenges of value adaptation and functional transformation. As a private rights instrument for digital platforms to shape business models, exclusive copyright licensing inherently enhances transactional efficiency and security. However,its technology-empowered nature—amplified by algorithmic recommendations, blockchain-based evidence preservation, and smart contracts—has transcended the traditional framework of copyright law. This has triggered triple negative externalities in copyright markets: resource-blocking competition, distorted allocation of copyright resources and diminished consumer welfare, alongside potential monopolistic risks that invite policy rejection. Nevertheless, copyright competition among digital platforms exhibits distinct content-driven and evolving characteristics. A rigid one-size-fits-all regulatory approach risks undermining the inherent advantages of licensing mechanisms in transactional efficiency and security, leading to weakened governance efficacy and obscured institutional strengths. Analyzing and resolving governance issues in digital platform copyright competition through licensing mechanism innovation necessitates a three-dimensional analytical framework of rights allocation,competition order,and institutional innovation, which aligns with the commercial logic of the digital economy. Firstly, digital platform copyright competition reflects a novel market paradigm where licensing mechanisms constitute competitive advantages, with monopolistic risks arising from the alienation of copyright exclusivity rather than traditional market scale effects. Secondly, the mechanical integration of administrative intervention and antitrust regulation has caused misalignment in legal evaluation systems, necessitating a reorientation of licensing functions within competition law. Thirdly, both the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) and China’s Anti-Monopoly Law signal a shift toward procedural governance paradigms, demanding a dual-track system combining dynamic restraints and innovative remedies. To this end, fostering innovative and diversified reforms in copyright licensing models can synergize the private law values and competition law functions of licensing mechanisms, balancing creator incentives with dissemination efficiency while cultivating endogenous fair competition mechanisms. Firstly, establish a tiered-trigger dynamic restraint mechanism, deploying substantive copyright share monitoring models and scatter-diagram analyses of licensing durations to enable intelligent early warnings for threshold breaches. Secondly, introduce a competitive collective management model, conditionally granting digital platforms limited collective management authority under a competition declaration, differentiated fee, and blockchain revenue distribution regime. Finally, design a dual remedial toolkit comprising compulsory sublicensing and licensing right prohibitions to establish a gradated legal governance framework. In conclusion, the innovation of copyright licensing mechanisms aims to activate their behavioral remedy function in governing digital platform copyright competition, thereby advancing the sustainable optimization of digital copyright ecosystems and high-caliber development of copyright industries.

Abstract:The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee explicitly proposed to foster new industries and new forms of business in rural areas and to expand county industries that benefit local people. As a matter of fact, most of the new rural industries at the current stage are rooted in the integrated development of the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries in rural areas under the background of digital economy. Therefore, this article investigates the people-enriching effect of new rural three-industry integration in the context of digital economy. Based on panel data of 30 provinces and cities in China from 2011 to 2021, the article measures the development of the digital economy and the income growth level of rural households, and portrays the development level of rural three-industry integration through the extension of the agricultural industry chain, the play of agriculture’s multifunction, and the integration with the service industry. On this basis, a two-way fixed effect model is used to systematically examine the effect of the digital economy on increasing the income of rural households and the mechanisms behind it. The study finds that, first, the development of rural digital economy significantly increases the income of rural households due to their participation in division of labor specialization and cooperation, and this conclusion still holds after a series of robustness tests. Second, in the context of digital economy, the new rural three-industry integration promotes the income increase of farm households through three channels of action: reuse of land resources, increase in non-farm employment opportunities, and farmers’ innovation and entrepreneurship. Finally, further analysis reveals that the higher the level of economic development, the more significant the effect of the digital economy is, but the effect of the digital economy and the wealth gap has an inverted “U” type relationship. The findings of the study provide a new understanding of the development of rural enrichment industry from the theoretical point of view, and provide empirical evidence for the realization of common prosperity in rural areas from the practical point of view. Accordingly, the following policy insights have been obtained: first, improve rural digital governance, consolidate and expand the income-generating effect of the digital economy for farmers on the basis of efforts to bridge the digital divide between urban and rural areas. Second, based on a more efficient specialized division of labor, incentivize the chain master enterprises, and make efforts to prolong the agricultural industry chain and refine the division of labor, while striving to contribute to the construction of a unified national market that includes the vast rural areas and unimpede domestic and international development. Third, provide top-level design at the right time, update the cultivation mechanism for innovation and entrepreneurship, and stimulate greater enthusiasm for innovation and entrepreneurship. Fourth, emphasize the heterogeneous characteristics of digital economic development in promoting farmers’ income growth, and strive to link digital economic development with farmers’ income growth at a higher level through the integration of industries on the basis of improving the construction of digital infrastructures in rural and underdeveloped areas.

Abstract:The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China explicitly proposed to strengthen the integration and organization of innovation resources and forces, and promote the integrated development of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation. This provides a fundamental guideline for the integrated development of new quality productivity in sports and the sports industry in the new era. From the perspective of scientific and technological innovation, new quality productivity in sports provides impetus for sports industry development, while the sports industry offers the necessary elements for the emergence of new quality productivity in sports. The two are in a highly coupled relationship. This study employs research methods such as literature review and logical analysis to deeply explore the coupling mechanism between new quality productivity in sports and the sports industry from the perspective of scientific and technological innovation. The research finds that the coupling logic between new quality productivity in sports and sports industry development includes theoretical logic: an inevitable choice in the face of the great changes unseen in a century; historical logic: a response to the new technological revolution and development; practical logic: an inherent requirement for the modernization of the sports industry. The research holds that the coupling process between new quality productivity in sports and sports industry development is confronted with the following predicaments: shortage of disruptive innovation technologies in the sports industry, insufficient supply of sports technology content elements; high concentration of the sports industry, imbalance between resource allocation and market demand; insufficient policy support, lack of guiding details and regulatory systems; shortage of new sports talents, and the need to strengthen the adaptive adjustment of industrial elements. In response to the above predicaments, a coupling mechanism between new quality productivity in sports and sports industry development is constructed, specifically including the collaborative innovation of coupling element mechanism, the interactive supply and demand of talents in the coupling process mechanism, the symbiotic supply of data in the coupling power mechanism, and the co-creation of labor objects in the coupling structure mechanism. Moreover, targeted realization paths for the coupling of new quality productivity in sports and the sports industry are proposed, mainly including deepening technological integration to stimulate the innovation vitality of new quality productivity in sports and the sports industry, leading with technological innovation to build a new pattern of integrated development between new quality productivity in sports and the sports industry, improving policy guarantees to optimize the technological innovation environment of the sports industry, and cultivating innovative talents to establish a talent support system for the coupling of new quality productivity in sports and the sports industry.