Chinese Rule Research Articles

Space for Play: A History of Hong Kong Playgrounds

This article explores playgrounds in Hong Kong over a century and a half of the city’s history. Drawing on media publications, governmental resources, and past and present accounts of the history of the city, we document how the planning, design, and construction of playgrounds in Hong Kong have been fundamentally influenced by political, bureaucratic, and pedagogical practices, as well as by the class, ethnic, and cultural composition of the city. We sketch the broader political shifts in Hong Kong’s evolution under British and more recently Chinese rule bringing specific attention to how these forces have shaped spaces of play in the city. Through this text, we use playgrounds as a lens through which to explore Hong Kong’s past, politics, and urban space, as well as its cultural and socio-political consciousness.

Understanding the Geopolitical Implications of the Impending Religious Power Vacuum in Tibet

Abstract Despite being the smallest branch of Buddhism worldwide, Vajrayana Buddhism is the majority religion in Tibet, Mongolia, and Bhutan, where it wields significant religious and political power. This power has traditionally been concentrated among a small number of lamas, most notably the Dalai Lama, who upon their passing are replaced by a successor in accordance with traditional rituals. Since Tibet came under control of China in 1950, the Chinese Communist Party has sought to gain complete control over Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism, coopting these leadership institutions by installing its own puppet lamas. However, the flight of the current Dalai Lama from the Tibetan capital Lhasa in 1959 led to the exodus of Tibetans to India, where a government-in- exile was established in Dharamsala. This government, which derives its legitimacy from the Dalai Lama, represents the interests of the Tibetan people, including challenging Chinese rule over Tibet. The current Dalai Lama is now an octogenarian, and his passing will create a religious power vacuum at the core of Vajrayana Buddhism. This paper explores several possible outcomes of this religious power vacuum, and whether Vajrayana Buddhism can maintain its integrity and autonomy moving forward.

The Value of Islamic Religiosity in the Migration of Admiral Cheng Ho in Archipelago, Indonesia

This research aims to explain the value of Islamic religiosity in Admiral Cheng Ho's migration to Nusantara, Indonesia. This research uses library research. The descriptive analysis method collects, compiles, analyzes, and draws conclusions. The results showed that China communicated Islamic culture as an effective way to be accepted in the archipelago. The migration step of Chinese diplomacy through Admiral Cheng Ho is said to have reflected the "Clean Diplomacy" diplomacy theory by emphasizing that diplomacy focuses not only on the ends but also on the means, and all negotiation processes are equally important. The value of religiosity in life practiced by Admiral Cheng Ho, believing in Allah SWT, appreciating, and respecting the people in the archipelago, illustrates the behavior of loyalty to the Chinese ruler by spreading Islam in the archipelago through trade routes.

Introduction: Why ‘Decolonizing Chinese History?’

It is commonly stated that China has 5,000 years of continuous history. It is a claim repeated in textbooks, mini-dramas, and tourist sites across the People’s Republic of China (PRC, also commonly referred to as ‘China’). It formed the narrative foundation for the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It is also a ubiquitous claim internationally, recited by global political leaders, in foreign media, and in children’s books. Ironically, it even serves as the tag line for the highly political and anti-communist global dance show ‘Shen Yun’, its posters promising a celebration of ‘5,000 years of civilization reborn’.1 This millennia-long history, often short-handed as ‘Yao-to-Mao’ – the Yao referring to Emperor Yao, one of five founding Chinese rulers who is said to have lived in the third millennium BC, the Mao referring to Mao Zedong, the founder of the PRC – is a story of civilizational continuity in which a politically and culturally unified ‘China’ maintains its fundamental cohesion despite a range of challengers, invasions, and upheavals.2

The Innovation and Contemporary Value of the Compilation of Chinese Civil Code

The compilation of the Civil Code has realized the systematization of our country's civil laws and regulations, and has established a unique chapter with the general rules as the command and the property rights, contracts, personal rights, marriage and family, inheritance, and tort liability structure. The Civil Code adopts a step-by-step compilation mode, which effectively coordinates the relationship between different divisions, breaks through the compilation style of the traditional civil code in the civil law system, takes the general principle of contract compilation as the general principle of debt law, and sets up a new compilation style of the civil code by independent compilation of personality rights. The Civil Code draws on public opinions, upholds legislation for the people, and establishes the principle of equal protection of property rights of all types of civil subjects. The Civil Code highlights the uniqueness of Chinese rule of law system, provides legal resources for Chinese economic system, and effectively enhances the concept of the rule of law of the whole people.

Firm Responses to Nonprescriptive Pollution Regulation: Evidence from China’s Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting Mandate

ABSTRACT We employ China’s mandatory corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting requirement as a natural experiment to evaluate firm-level responses to a Chinese rule that required public firms to issue CSR reports beginning in 2009. Our difference-in-differences analyses of firm-level data indicate that firms required to issue CSR reports decreased overall pollution levels after the mandate. Conventional wisdom (the “Traditional View”) argues that pollution reductions cannot be achieved without profit sacrifice. Conversely, under the Porter Hypothesis, non-prescriptive regulations can stimulate innovations that improve process efficiency and lead to both pollution reductions and improved long-term shareholder returns. Our results reveal evidence of reduced asset returns among firms required to issue CSR reports after 2008, consistent with both hypotheses. However, consistent with the Porter Hypothesis and not the Traditional View, positive three-day stock returns surrounding the release of CSR report information suggest that shareholders favorably view the overall long-term effects of required CSR reports.

Rule of Law History and Development in China: in Comparison of Australia

The article discusses the rule of law development and application in China compared with Australia. In August 2021, the Chinese Central Government issued the Implementation Outline for the Construction of a Government Under the Rule of Law (2021-2025), which indicated the general plan to improve rule of law for the next five years. In the past few years, the Chinese government has made great efforts to promote the rule of law theory. China enforced judicial reform, which improves the judicial independence and professional ability of legal practitioners. Chinese rule of law formation has been influenced by western countries due to previous foreign legal aid and Australian judicial practice has also been influenced by Chinese theory. In Australia, people are encouraged to solve civil disputes via mediation and other alternative dispute resolution (ADR) methods, which may be influenced by Chinese theory of “Fengqiao Experience”. It is important to continue increasing rule of law in China, but it is improper to transplant the Australian theory to China directly due to the different legal culture and history between two countries. Generally, more efforts need to be made for strengthening rule of law in China.

Reflection on and construction of the legal regimes of nuclear damage compensation in China: a policy analysis perspective

This paper explores the legal policy of nuclear damage compensation laws. As a specialised sector of nuclear law, the legal regimes on nuclear civil liability aim to provide timely and effective compensation to third parties, while also addressing the special policy concern of ensuring the sustainable development of the global or national nuclear industry. The paper examines the international methods of establishing major principles of liability with the corresponding rules and regimes to balance the interests of the parties involved. Comparatively, there is great uncertainty surrounding Chinese rules and principles of nuclear liability. Therefore, this paper suggests accelerating the enactment of a Chinese law specifically addressing nuclear damage compensation, aligning it with the national strategy and prospects of civil nuclear energy in China. Additionally, issues closely related to nuclear damage compensation, such as nuclear insurance policies, operation and supervision of national public funds and the use of alternative dispute resolution to settle nuclear disputes, are also discussed.

Discussing the Relationship between Father and Son, Ruler and Subjects in the Xiaojing: Based on the Dunhuang Manuscripts

It has long been accepted that the ancient Chinese ruler–subjects relationship was a metaphorical extension of the father–son relationship, where loyalty and family reverence were considered synonymous. The Confucian classic the Xiaojing is taken as a significant piece of evidence supporting this view. However, based on the annotated version of the Xiaojing discovered in Dunhuang, it is evident that during the Han Dynasty and the Six Dynasties period, Confucian scholars made clear distinctions between father–son relationships and ruler–subjects relationships. They also made a clear differentiation between the moral connotations of loyalty and family reverence. The father–son relationship is a bond of blood, while the ruler–subjects relationship is a bond of duty and appropriateness, meaning that the ethical requirements for the father–son relationship and ruler–subjects relationship are fundamentally different. Therefore, expressions such as “service to ruler with family reverence is loyalty” does not mean to unify loyalty and family reverence, but means that the governor should select people who have already cultivated the virtue of family reverence to become officials because they have learnt how to show respect in their family life.

Creating a New Form of Rule of Law Civilization: A Historical Narrative of the Communist Party of China

The modernization path of the Chinese rule of law reflects the glorious process of the Communist Party of China (CPC)’s continuous exploration of the rule of law development. It has created a new form of rule of law civilization for humanity, one that has not only profoundly changed China but is also deeply influencing the world historical process. Under the leadership of the CPC, the Chinese people have achieved the innovation of legal mechanisms, text, and discourse in their century-long endeavor for the rule of law. This highlights the distinctive features of the Chinese rule of law civilization. The innovation of legal mechanisms is the foundation of the modernization of the Chinese rule of law, indicating that through the Party’s century-long endeavor for the rule of law, a legal leadership mechanism has been formed, in which the Party exercises overall leadership and coordinates the efforts of all sides; the innovation of legal text is the manifestation of modernization of the Chinese rule of law, indicating that through the Party’s century-long endeavor for the rule of law, the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics is gradually moving toward a new stage of codification in which the promulgation and implementation of the Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China is a milestone; and the innovation of legal discourse is the core of modernization of the Chinese rule of law, indicating that through the Party’s century-long endeavor for the rule of law, the continuous refinement of the Chinese legal discourse system is playing a key role in providing theoretical support and legal reasoning.

City on the Edge: Hong Kong under Chinese Rule

City on the Edge: Hong Kong under Chinese Rule

Shaking Legitimacy: The Impact of Earthquakes on Conflict in Historical China

Abstract This paper examines the causal effect of political legitimacy on stability, using the historical case of Imperial China. Chinese rulers ascribed their legitimacy to a heavenly mandate. Calamities like earthquakes were considered to be a sign of weakened approval, making quakes a proxy for a negative legitimacy shock. I use quake-induced minor shaking (i.e., strong enough to be felt, but too weak to cause material damage) to demonstrate that legitimacy shocks cause more conflicts. I examine whether quakes serve as a coordination device to overcome collective action problems.

Իդեալական հասարակարգի դաոսական մոդելը / The Taoist Model of an Ideal Society

Dao De Jing (DaoD Tsin) holds a pivotal place in Taoism, ranking as one of its most significant texts and boasting the distinction of being the most translated book worldwide after the Bible. Surprisingly, within the Armenian context, there exists no translation of this seminal work from its original Chinese. The primary objective of this article is twofold: to introduce the Armenian translation of the 80th chapter of Dao De Jing and to offer interpretations of key expressions within that chapter based on Chinese commentaries on Dao De Jing. Additionally, this work embarks on an examination of the concept of an ideal society or utopia as presented in various Taoist writings. This exploration is rooted in a comprehensive study encompassing the original texts, their English translations, and contributions from various scholars in the field. The study culminates in the recognition that the vision of a "small country with few people," as described in chapter 80, stood in stark contrast to the ambitious pursuits of contemporary Chinese rulers and was deemed unfeasible. Notably, prominent Taoist figures, Laozi and Chuangzi, both regarded a return to a simpler, original social order as a prerequisite for fostering peaceful and contented lives. One of the most necessary conditions of the Taoist utopia was that people should go back to the old way of making notes by knotting ropes, live a very simple life, but most importantly, there should be no communication between the inhabitants of neighboring countries.

Designing Controlled Chinese Rules for MT Pre-Editing of Product Description Text

The study aims to investigate how pre-editing based on controlled Chinese rules can be an effective approach to improving Chinese-to-English machine translation (MT) output. Based on the analysis of comparable texts, and by considering the rules of modern business writing and the differences in sentence structure between Chinese and English languages, four controlled Chinese rules for product description text are proposed: 1. Every sentence should have an explicit subject; 2. There are no repetitive complimentary expressions; 3. Sentences should be short; and 4. The Chinese sentence structure should be complete, with clear logical relationships within and between sentences. In accordance with the four rules, five corresponding pre-editing methods are introduced. Then, taking Xiaomi Air2 SE earphones' product description as an experimental text, the study examines the influence of pre-editing in accordance with controlled Chinese rules on MT output quality. The results show that such pre-editing can significantly improve MT output in dimensions of adequacy, fluency, and style.

Industrial and cultural heritage of the Ma On Shan Iron Mine landscape and the making of industrious Hong Kong

Ma On Shan (MOS, literally ‘Saddle Hill’) is an extension of Shatin new town in Hong Kong. This area embeds the site of the now closed MOS Iron Mine and several related settlements at the Peak, Mid‐Level and Pier Districts. The history of the MOS Iron Mine landscape sheds important light on the city's post‐WWII development. The MOS is a typical historic urban landscape, a product of transnational urbanism, a joint‐venture of local and Japanese investments made possible by the Cold War, and the retreat of faith‐based organisations and poor refugees fleeing Chinese rule after 1949 practicing mutual support in a laissez‐faire colonial city. The Japanese trained miners, explosive operators, mechanics and construction workers of the MOS Iron Mine contributed to infrastructure developments of modern Hong Kong. The associated settlements also epitomise the industrious spirit of Hong Kongers in the face of international and regional political volatilities, absence of government support, material shortage and economic hardship. Embedded in the MOS Iron Mine landscape is not only valuable industrial heritage bequeathed by multi‐scalar transnational socio‐economic and political developments but also the cultural heritage of reciprocity and mutuality among community members in local economic development, knowledge with continuing relevance for city‐building today.

Dr. Boymirza Hayit's book "Turkestan: Between Russia and China" is an important source

This article describes the “dark days” of Turkestan in the past, the Russian invasion, followed by the various policies of the former Soviet government led by the Communist Party, and Dr. Boymira Hayit’s work it is about the historical information given in “Turkestan: Between Russia and China”, an important source. The authentic history covering several centuries presented in the book is a great source of information about the difficult times of our nation. This work, created during the study of important documents and archival data, has retained its relevance even today, as it shows the life of Turkestan and East Turkestan in the 20th century under Russian and Chinese rule based on original historical data. Among them, the real situation in the country is shown in the context of the changes that have occurred in Central Asia, the colonial policy of Czarist Russia. Dr. Boymirza Hayit's book "Turkestan: Between Russia and China" provides researchers with dozens of information about the 20th century. It can be seen from the information in the book that in order to show the history of Turkestan in all colors, the author was able to put aside various stereotypes and tell the real truth clearly, unlike the Soviet historians of that time. In addition, the largest studies in world historiography dedicated to the history of the struggle for the independence of Turkestan in the years 1918-1934 were created in Turkish and German, while Dr. Boymirza Hayit created a blessing in these two languages ​​and left important sources to the generations. It is the historical completeness, and the facts presented on the basis of the sources that increased the value of this book.

반의 공기(共現) 사자격 성어의 구조 형식에 대한 연구

This paper selects 730 four-character idioms with antonymy co-occurrence in the form of combination from ChengYu Da Cidian (Chinese Idiom Dictionary) and then classifies all the forms of combining the morphemes’ parts of speech in these 730 idioms. First, there are 43 types of combination forms of the morphemes’ parts of speech, and most of them are “verb + noun ⋅ verb + noun” or “noun + verb ⋅ noun + verb”. Second, the largest number of combinations are composed of “real words + real words”, and most of them are symmetrical combinations, which fully verify the symmetry of four-character idioms with antonymy co-occurrence. In addition, the grammatical functions of the morphemes under this context are much more complicated than those of the morphemes in modern Chinese phrases. Meanwhile, many uses of morphemes in four-character idioms with antonymy co-occurrence do not conform to the grammatical rules of modern Chinese, which are mainly the following cases: noun as gerund, noun converted to verb as predicate, adjective converted to noun as object, adjective converted to verb as predicate, verb converted to noun as object, verb as a gerund, count word converted to noun as subject, count word converted to adjective or adverb.

After He Jiankui's Case: Chinese Legislative Modifications in Human Embryo Gene Editing.

This article systematically discusses Chinese current legal status and rules for human embryo gene editing in both administrative law and criminal law after several legislative modifications, and further systematically evaluates the values and the defects of these modifications. After He Jiankui's case, Chinese legislators devoted themselves to improve human embryo gene editing legislation. As a result, human embryo gene editing's legal status becomes more determined. Rules for human embryo gene editing in Chinese administrative law have gradually become a complete system centering on "CBL-regulation," and the promulgation of Amendment (XI) to the Criminal Law reconciles the controversy existed in academic circles. Chinese rules for human embryo gene editing are moving from "doubtful development" to "complete legal system."

Worldly Saviors and Imperial Authority in Medieval Chinese Buddhism by April D. Hughes

Reviewed by: Worldly Saviors and Imperial Authority in Medieval Chinese Buddhism by April D. Hughes Yu Xuan Tay April D. Hughes, Worldly Saviors and Imperial Authority in Medieval Chinese Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2021. xiii, 181 pp. US$148.00 (pdf). ISBN 978-0-824-88870-1 An essential aspect of imperial authority in premodern China was providing sufficient legitimation for its political rule over culturally and socially diverse regions. The essen-tialized understanding of such political legitimation revolves primarily around the concept of the “Mandate of Heaven.”1 However, scholars in the field for the past few decades have complicated this simplistic portrayal by analyzing a multitude of different legitimation strategies employed by various rulers according to their respective social milieu.2 April D. Hughes’s first book, revised from her doctoral dissertation, titled Worldly Saviors and Imperial Authority in Medieval Chinese Buddhism, delves into a distinct set of approaches to political legitimation during the Sui and early Tang periods. Her book analyzes the historical development and popularization of the image of “worldly saviors.” Emperor Wen (Wendi 文帝) of Sui and emperor Wu Zhao 武曌 (also known as Empress Wu Zetian 武則天) of Zhou both utilized this image to legitimize their rule.3 Hughes begins her book in the introductory chapter by surveying a few of the legitimization strategies undertaken by some Chinese rulers. This brief survey includes claiming the “Mandate of Heaven,” beckoning to the concept of “Great Peace,” or taip-ing 太平, or styling themselves together with their state as the successor to the previous unified Han empire (p. 4). Hughes then introduces the concept of “worldly saviors,” who are beings that appear in this current world, destined to save everyone by quelling chaos and dispensing proper rule over their territory (pp. 4–5). This concept had to be underlaid by a Buddhist soteriological understanding of how the Buddha’s teaching or dharma will inevitably deteriorate throughout time, also known as the age of the Final Dharma or mofa 末法. Therefore, one or many “worldly saviors” are expected to rise during such a [End Page 149] trying time and create a terrestrial utopia for the believers, protecting them from a general apocalypse and the wrath of the unfaithful. Hughes specifically notes that this concept of “worldly saviors” also heavily overlaps with canonical Buddhist concepts such as the far future arrival of the next Buddha, Maitreya, and the pious Buddhist universal king known as the “Wheel-Turning King” or cakravartin, the zhuanlun wang 轉輪王. The difference lies in the fact that these canonical concepts usually espouse a singular identity of either a Buddha or a sovereign, whereas a “worldly savior” is both a Buddha and a sovereign simultaneously (pp. 8–7). It is, however, important to note that some of these “worldly saviors” were not strictly limited to a “Buddhist” portrayal, but were also characterized as a “Daoist” savior such as a “True Lord” or zhenjun 真君. Hughes thus argues that such a concept of “worldly saviors” primarily derived from apocalyptic extracanonical scriptures, and served as a political legitimation for Chinese rulers. The first chapter of the book is a general survey of the scriptures that contain figures that satisfy the concept of a “worldly savior.” Some of these saviors, such as Maitreya Buddha 彌勒佛 and Prince Moonlight 月光童子, commanded supernatural, moral, and political power, capable of saving the faithful from apocalypses and politically ruling these faithful in utopias that could one day exist in this material world. A pertinent feature of these utopias is that they imagine an idealized society that affirms proper social hierarchy and gender roles, one that would have been unfamiliar to readers who lived during the fifth and sixth centuries CE (p. 32). The utopias preached by these scriptures must have resonated with contemporary readers. Thus in the second chapter, Hughes further asserts that numerous monastic rebellions within that same period drew their justification and mass support from similar apocalyptic scriptures. Some rebel leaders styled their names in an apparent reference to the “worldly saviors” in these apocalyptic scriptures, such as “Luminous King of Dharma” or mingfawang 明法王 (pp. 46–47). At the same time, some rebel leaders used the expected imminent arrival of Maitreya Buddha as a...

Chinese court rules for the first time that it has jurisdiction over SEP global licensing disputes

Abstract OPPO v Sharp Corporation: Jurisdictional Objection in Global Rate Setting of Standard Essential Patent ((2020) Zui Gao Fa Zhi Min Xia Zhong No. 517), 19 August 2021 The Intellectual Property Court of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) of China ruled that Chinese courts have jurisdiction over global licensing terms disputes for standard essential patent (SEP) in the communications sector.