In 2013, China introduced the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to enhance economic cooperation, connectivity, and development among participating nations. While extensive research has examined the economic and political dimensions of the BRI, its public diplomacy efforts have received comparatively less attention. This article explores the strategic objectives, functions, and challenges of China’s public diplomacy within the BRI framework, emphasizing its influence on international relations, mutual understanding, and cultural exchange. Adopting a qualitative approach, the study analyzes policy documents, official statements, and cultural initiatives to understand how China uses public diplomacy to shape its international image and support its economic and cultural goals in collaboration with BRI nations. The findings demonstrate that public diplomacy is an essential tool for China to expand its soft power. Initiatives within the scope of BRI such as cultural outreach programs, educational exchanges, and infrastructure collaborations aim to strengthen people-to-people connections and promote trust with partner countries. However, these efforts face significant challenges, including geopolitical rivalries, concerns over economic feasibility, and insufficient transparency in engaging local communities. Such issues risk undermining China’s public diplomacy effectiveness and its ability to sustain long-term partnerships under the BRI framework. To address these challenges, the article proposes actionable recommendations. These include developing a cohesive and consistent public diplomacy narrative, improving public relations strategies, and expanding efforts to facilitate cultural and interpersonal connections. By addressing these weaknesses, China can enhance the BRI’s potential for long-term success, fostering a global environment of sustainable development, mutual cooperation, and greater international understanding. Ultimately, effective public diplomacy can serve as a cornerstone for achieving the BRI’s ambitious goals.

Abstract Citations indexes play a crucial role for understanding how science is produced, disseminated, and used. However, these databases often face a critical trade‐off: those offering extensive and high‐quality coverage are typically proprietary, whereas publicly accessible datasets frequently exhibit fragmented coverage and inconsistent data quality. OpenAlex was developed to address this challenge, providing a freely available database with broad open coverage, with a particular emphasis on non‐English speaking countries. Yet, few studies have assessed the quality of the OpenAlex dataset. This paper assesses the coverage by OpenAlex of China's papers, which shows an abnormal trend, and compares it with other countries that do not have English as their main language. Our analysis reveals that while OpenAlex increases the coverage of China's publications, primarily those disseminated by a national database, this coverage is incomplete and discontinuous when compared to other countries' records in the database. We observe similar issues in other non‐English‐speaking countries, with coverage varying across regions. These findings indicate that although OpenAlex expands coverage of research outputs, continuity issues persist and disproportionately affect certain countries. We emphasize the need for researchers to use OpenAlex data cautiously, being mindful of its potential limitations in cross‐national analyses.

In 2019, the Chinese government initiated a National Performance Appraisal for Tertiary Public Hospitals (the 'National Appraisal'), but limited study has been conducted on its appraisal indicators and its implementation effects. This study aims to assess how well this system balances the interests of key stakeholders in Chinese public hospitals and examines the positive changes and concurrent challenges it has brought to hospital operations. Utilising stakeholder theory and the balanced scorecard, we conducted two rounds of Delphi consultations with experts (N1=46, N2=29). We also analysed archival data from three hospitals' 'National Appraisal' records covering 2018 to 2020. Additionally, we conducted semi-structured interviews (N=41) with key stakeholders from these hospitals. Kendall's coefficient of concordance was employed in both rounds to gauge the agreement among experts and thematic analysis was applied to analyse data from in-depth interviews with the key stakeholders of the three sampled hospitals. The results show that: (1) The key stakeholders of Chinese public hospitals include patients, hospital executives, health care workers, health authorities, and the public, but the 'National Appraisal' indicators only cover the first three stakeholders; (2) The 'National Appraisal' system adopted a balanced scorecard approach, patient-centre and with emphases on internal process; (3) The 'National Appraisal' had positive impacts on hospitals, clarifying hospital strategy and prioritising the public roles, enhancing health care quality, safety, and efficiency, as well as patient and health care worker satisfaction. However, implementation challenges arise from resource constraints, discrepancy between appraisal indicators and patient needs, misalignment between appraisal indicators and doctor's patient care practices, and the tension between nationwide standardized appraisal and local context. This study significantly contributes to the literature by empirically examining performance appraisal implementation in an under-researched country's public hospitals, offering practical implications and policy recommendations for practitioners, managers, and policymakers.

Brain science research is considered the crown jewel of 21st-century scientific research; the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan have elevated brain science research to a national strategic level. This study employs bibliometric analysis and knowledge graph visualization to map global trends, research hotspots, and collaborative networks in brain science, providing insights into the field's evolving landscape and future directions. We analyzed 13,590 articles (1990-2023) from the Web of Science Core Collection using CiteSpace and VOSviewer. Metrics included publication volume, co-authorship networks, citation patterns, keyword co-occurrence, and burst detection. Analytical tools such as VOSviewer, CiteSpace, and online bibliometric platforms were employed to facilitate this investigation. The United States, China, and Germany dominated research output, with China's publications rising from sixth to second globally post-2016, driven by national initiatives like the China Brain Project. However, China exhibited limited international collaboration compared to the United States and European Union. Key journals included Human Brain Mapping and Journal of Neural Engineering, while emergent themes centered on "task analysis," "deep learning," and "brain-computer interfaces" (BCIs). Research clusters revealed three focal areas: (1) Brain Exploration (e.g., fMRI, diffusion tensor imaging), (2) Brain Protection (e.g., stroke rehabilitation, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis therapies), and (3) Brain Creation (e.g., neuromorphic computing, BCIs integrated with AR/VR). Despite China's high output, its influence lagged in highly cited scholars, reflecting a "quantity-over-quality" challenge. Brain science research is in a golden period of development. This bibliometric analysis offers the first comprehensive review, encapsulating research trends and progress in brain science. It reveals current research frontiers and crucial directions, offering a strategic roadmap for researchers and policymakers to navigate countries when planning research layouts.

Against the backdrop of rapid global urbanization, housing issues have become an important challenge facing all countries. This paper explores China's public rental housing system and Singapore's public housing system as two core strategies for addressing urban housing challenges. China's public rental housing, which seeks to give security to middle-class and low-income families, has undergone multiple developmental stages since the 1980s and eventually formed a comprehensive system covering basic housing security. In contrast, Singapore's public housing system has emphasized the goal of Home Ownership for All, promoted high homeownership rates, and covered a wider range of income groups since its implementation in the 1960s. This paper points out the key differences between the two systems regarding policy objectives, coverage, funding sources, and management efficiency.The paper concludes by examining the achievements and difficulties of Singapores public housing scheme and drawing inspiration for improving China's public rental housing system in combination with China's actual situation. It also provides recommendations for addressing Chinas housing crisis and looking forward to Chinas future.

Objective：With the deepening of globalization and information technology, the international public opinion effects of China's emergency events are becoming increasingly prominent. Systematically reviewing the research progress in this field is crucial for countering Western media biases and enhancing national discourse power. Method: This study retrieves relevant CSSCI literature from the CNKI database and employs CiteSpace to create knowledge maps of research power, research hotspots, and their evolution. Conclusion: The year 2020 marked a turning point, where the COVID-19 pandemic drove an overall increase in research and led to a shift from focusing on Weibo public opinion analysis and emergency management to emphasizing the guidance of international public opinion and enhancing discourse power. This also spurred innovations in theoretical perspectives and research methods. The study also reveals issues such as dispersed research efforts and insufficient academic accumulation, with limited numbers of core authors and institutions, and the lack of a clear research community. Interdisciplinary collaboration needs to be strengthened. Future research should focus on interdisciplinary empirical exploration, methodological innovation, and promoting the construction of China's discourse system to enhance the ability to guide international public opinion.

Developments in China's Public Opinion from Hu to Xi: Corruption, Activism and Regime Legitimacy – CORRIGENDUM

Typhoid and paratyphoid fever epidemiological indicators and spatiotemporal analysis in China from 2004 to 2019

In the context of digitalization, the construction of public cultural services in China is of great significance. It is an inevitable choice to promote the development of an information-based society and an important force to meet the cultural needs of the masses. In recent years, the digitization construction of China's public cultural services has made remarkable progress. However, in this process, there are still some constraints: a low level of legal protection services, a low level of platform co-construction and sharing, an obvious singularity of the main body of resource supply, and a need to improve governance capacity. In order to promote the high-quality development of the digitalization of public cultural services, we should focus on overall awareness and strengthen the construction of the digital legal system, platforms, resources and governance capacity, so as to give full play to its role in the provision of public cultural services and the satisfaction of people's spiritual and cultural needs.

Objective: The aim of this bibliometric study was to review the scientific outputs published between 2000 and 2022 on osteoblastoma, a benign aggressive bone tumor. Methods: Scientific research articles on osteoblastoma published between 2000 and 2022 were targeted and data were obtained from the Web of Science database. The data obtained were analyzed and visualized using bibliometric programs. Results: A total of 679 articles about osteoblastoma published between 2000-2022 met our inclusion criteria. Most of the articles on osteoblastoma (n=48) were published in 2020. There was no noteworthy peak in the trend of the number of publications between 2000 and 2022. These articles cited 10366 times in total and 15.27 times per article. At least 62 various countries and regions took part in osteoblastoma publishing research over the past 22 years. The United States (192) was the largest contributor to osteoblastoma publications followed by China (60), India (51), Italy (50), and Turkey (46). The United States was the country that published the most publications in all years between 2000 and 2022. Especially China's publications increased in 2022. The United States was also the country with the highest level of publication collaboration (such as citation and co-authorship) among countries. Conclusion: The number of published articles is well below the expected level. Although the number of scientific publications from China has increased in recent years, the United States still ranks first.

Abstract Anti-China protests have posed challenges to China's ambition to further expand its political and economic influence globally. How does Beijing respond to anti-China protests? And how do anti-China protests affect Beijing's use of public diplomatic resources? We address these questions by examining the effect of anti-China protests on China's public diplomatic engagement across low- and middle-income countries in Asia. We argue that anti-China protests lead to an increased level of non-financial public diplomatic engagement (e.g., elite visits) as well as financial engagement through foreign aid. We further argue that the effect of anti-China protests on increasing public diplomatic engagement is contingent on regime type. This is because China takes the anti-China message from autocracies more seriously given the higher political costs of participating in public protests in autocracies. Compared to democracies, autocracies are also in a better position to use anti-China protests as a means to signal their political constraints, compelling China to invest more public diplomatic resources for the countries.

Assessing the impact of geopolitics on international scientific cooperation - The case of US-China marine pollution research

The report of the Twentieth National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to “guide and support willing and capable enterprises, social organizations, and individuals to actively participate in public welfare and philanthropy”, in order to change the state funding of public welfare foundations in China, change the operation mode of “relief” public welfare foundations, and introduce a commercial operation mechanism for public welfare foundations. It is proposed that public welfare charity organizations with new business types integrating public welfare and business attributes rise rapidly so that public welfare and business can be deeply integrated. Social enterprises driven by social value can accelerate their development. Public welfare foundations can accelerate their development by forming a sustainable business model of "self-hemopoiesis," based on the opportunity of China's economic system reform and rapid economic development, using the method of cross-cooperation in multiple fields and platforms, analyzing the feasibility of the commercialization model innovation of public welfare funds and the importance of risk control, and analyzing how to create corporate social influence through the innovation of the commercialization model of public welfare projects and the good marketing strategy, as well as by encouraging individuals to actively and sustainably participate in various public welfare projects.

Abstract This original analysis of the World Values Survey waves of 2007, 2012 and 2018 reveals important relationships among political trust and satisfaction, happiness, views of corruption, local elections and activism from the last half of the Hu Jintao administration through the first five years of Xi Jinping's rule. These data shed new light on the deeper dynamics underlying the high and growing levels of trust in government documented in other studies. Among this report's more novel findings, we find increased trust in government coincides with decreased local electoral participation, suggesting that participation in local elections is not key to perceptions of regime legitimacy. Views of corruption and a sense of personal efficacy through non-institutionalized forms of political participation such as peaceful demonstrations appear more relevant. Thus, constraints on people's ability to engage in peaceful demonstrations are likely to negatively impact views of regime legitimacy. In addition, the report uncovers demographic variations in these dynamics, indicating that regime legitimacy is more precarious among citizens at the bottom of the socioeconomic hierarchy and among younger Chinese. Overall, these findings complicate existing explanations of regime legitimacy centring on economic performance, nationalism, responsiveness/adaptiveness and efforts to combat corruption.

The Mandarin in the Machine William J. Dobson (bio) Surveillance State: Inside China's Quest to Launch a New Era of Social Control. By Josh Chin and Liza Lin. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2022. 320 pp. China's leaders have always been preoccupied with their demise. For them, the only thing harder than coming to power is keeping it. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), judging by word and deed, is obsessed with "stability maintenance" and the frailties that riddle its political system. When Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauºescu's brutal Communist regime collapsed on Christmas Day in 1989, security was tightened around Zhongnanhai, the compound that houses the CCP's central headquarters. After the Soviet "Big Brother" drew its last breath, the Party dispatched teams of experts to Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia to autopsy the Soviet Union and determine the weaknesses and errors that had caused its collapse. In February 2011, I witnessed China's paranoid party-state firsthand when truckloads of security officers swarmed the swank Wangfujing shopping street and other upscale Beijing spots in anticipation of protests—the so-called Jasmine Rallies—triggered by the Arab Spring uprisings. Days earlier, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak had been ousted, and China's Public Security Bureau was on edge. The authorities banned jasmines from Beijing florists, and vendors were told to report anyone intent on buying the flower (a symbol borrowed from Tunisia's revolution of the month before). Even now, nearly two decades since the start of the "color revolutions," Party officials still regularly warn that they must steel themselves [End Page 176] against possible popular uprisings that can sweep across the land. It is no small wonder that the budget for domestic security outstripped China's military budget years ago. Josh Chin and Liza Lin, two veteran Wall Street Journal reporters, tell the story of the newest and most terrifying turn in the CCP's mission to maintain its grip on power. Their deeply valuable book, Surveillance State: Inside China's Quest to Launch a New Era of Social Control, details in chilling fashion how China has traded old-style, shoe-leather surveillance tools for Silicon Valley sophistication. The Stasi-style methods of workplace informants and neighbor spying on neighbor have given way to a massive data-harvesting enterprise that feeds artificial intelligence–driven technologies. China's citizens are effectively imprisoned inside an algorithmic bubble. In this vision, no more does the Party need to content itself with chasing dissidents before they inspire thousands or go to ground. Rather the goal is to harness the power of big data to predict and identify those people most likely to pose a threat to the Party—before they act. China's people are reduced to "a digital lineup of more than a billion people," and the whole of human society exists as a massive engineering problem where behavior can be "standardized." In this real-life, tech-fueled dystopia, the CCP seeks nothing less than the reprogramming of society. It is almost as though Beijing has reimagined its citizens as customers of China, Inc. The Party has placed itself in the role of an amalgamated Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Venmo, and Google, but with the overweening repressive power of the largest, wealthiest, and most powerful political organization in the world. If the regime can hoover up enough data on everyone—their habits, histories, and hopes—then it can anticipate the demands of its citizens ahead of time. If you know what people want even before they do, then why would they ever desire a say in their own governance? Behaviors can be rewarded or penalized based on how they align with the Party's priorities. The tug-of-war between freedom and repression dissolves with optimization, and dissent becomes a nonsensical glitch to be deleted. The CCP's algorithmic-driven formula produces two very different worlds, and Chin and Lin chart a course into each. The first is the prison state, the Panopticon of social theorist Jeremy Bentham's vision, where the many are under the surveillance of the few. Today this is most terrifyingly brought to life in the northwest province of Xinjiang, where the Party, in its...

With the advent of the era of globalization and the rise of the wave of the information revolution, international public opinion and national image have become necessary considerations for a country to realize its national interests in the international community. The outbreak of the global epidemic in the past two years has pushed China to the center of public opinion again, threatening China's national image. This once again reminds us that we should use public diplomacy to carry out the long-term strategic task of building an excellent national image. My country has used national image propaganda films to shape the image of a peaceful, open, and friendly big country. Some of these experiences are worth learning from, and some problems are worth reflecting on and discussing. Taking the Chinese national image propaganda films "Character" and "Angle" as examples, combined with Lasswell's 5W theory, this paper discusses the advantages and difficulties of using national image propaganda films to shape national image in China's public diplomacy. We provide some constructive solutions to the difficulties and problems encountered by our predecessors, look to the future, and look forward to the development direction of shaping China's national image.

To carry out economic and political expansion in various countries, China has also exerted various public diplomacy efforts to maintain its image. Indonesia as one of the most important destinations is not an exception. This research aims to analyze various strategies adopted by China to sustain its positive image among Muslims in Indonesia. This study uses a qualitative method using the conceptual framework of public diplomacy. Data were collected from primary and secondary sources on the Indonesian government, the Chinese government, as well as Muslim groups in Indonesia from 2000 to 2019. This research shows that China, during the Xi Jinping era, has actively been carrying out public diplomacy activities specifically directed toward Muslims in Indonesia through official representatives, educational and cultural institutions, and Confucius Institutes.

The development and take-off of China's economy cannot be achieved without Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). At present, with the increasingly fierce competition on the global economic stage and the constraints of resources, environment and other multiple factors, adjusting the economic structure and promoting industrial transformation and upgrading have become the general trend of economic development. The way to take the pulse of growth, supporting and promoting the sustainable and healthy development of various types of SMEs have become one of the key concerns of local governments. This paper carries on elementary research on the relationship between the industrial upgrading of SMEs and the public policies of government by taking Huishan District, Wuxi City, China, as an example. This paper describes the basic theories related to the industrial upgrading of SMEs and discusses the necessity of government support for the industrial upgrading of SMEs through public policies. Based on the empirical analysis of the current situation and problems of SMEs in Huishan District, Wuxi City, the principles to be followed in supporting the industrial upgrading of SMEs in Huishan District, Wuxi City from the perspective of government public policy are proposed by comparing and learning from the experience of foreign developed countries, and the basic framework of the public policy support system for SMEs in Huishan District, Wuxi City is constructed.

Aging is a global trend and China is no exception. Older people in China mostly rely on their adult children for old-age support. This traditional provision pattern of old-age support, however, is challenged by hundreds of millions of internal migrant workers. They relocate from rural to urban regions for better employment and are no longer able to provide old-age support to their older parents in rural areas. The aim of this study was to determine the impacts of China’s public pension program expansion in rural areas on older people’s expectations for old-age support. Utilizing the natural experiment of program expansion, this study identified an instrumental variable as the county adoption of the pension program. In addition, the study analyzed a nationally representative longitudinal dataset CHARLS with fixed effects model. Results from the statistical model showed that given the participation in the pension program, older adults reported more reliance on pension for old-age support financially and less reliance on children. Heterogeneous effects were found for older adults living together with children and older adults living independently. These important findings suggest that the government partially assumes the responsibility for the old-age support of adult children in the traditional sense. The potential benefits of this study provide a policy implication for developing countries to alleviate old-age support problems and enable internal migration for economic development.

Background: China is generally regarded internationally as an “authoritarian” state. Traditional definitions have assigned many negative connotations surrounding the term of authoritarian. We realize that it might not be considered value-neutral in other countries. But authoritarian in the Chinese context emphasizes more on centralized decision making, collectivism, coordinating all activities of the nation, and public support, which is considered a value-neutral term. Therefore, it is adopted in this paper. We would like to clarify this. Authoritarian governance is considered an important mechanism for developing China's economy and solving social problems. The COVID-19 crisis is no exception. Most of the current research on crisis management and government crises focuses on advanced, democratic countries. However, the consequences of crisis management by authoritarian governments have not been fully appreciated. Although prior research has addressed authoritarian initiatives to manage crises in China, authoritarian interventions have rarely been theorized in public health emergencies.Methods: Based on a literature review and theoretical analysis, we use a descriptive and qualitative approach to assess public health policies and mechanisms from an authoritarian perspective in China. In light of the key events and intervention measures of China's government in response to COVID-19, the strategic practices of the Communist Party of China (CPC) to construct, embody, or set political goals through authoritarian intervention in public health crisis management are discussed.Results: China's government responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with a comprehensive authoritarian intervention, notably by establishing a top-down leadership mechanism, implementing a resolute lockdown, rapidly establishing square cabin hospitals, enhancing cooperation between different government departments, mobilizing a wide range of volunteer resources, enforcing the use of health codes, imposing mandatory quarantine on those returning from abroad, and implementing city-wide nucleic acid testing. These measures ensured that China was able to contain the outbreak quickly and reflect on the unique role of the Chinese authoritarian system in responding to public health crises.Conclusions: Our paper contributes to expanding the existing understanding of the relationship between crisis management and authoritarian system. China's response to COVID-19 exemplifies the unique strengths of authoritarian institutions in public health crisis management, which is a helpful and practical tool to further enhance the CPC's political legitimacy. As a socialist model of crisis management with Chinese characteristics, it may offer desirable experiences and lessons for other countries still ravaged by the epidemic.