Chinese Special Economic Zones Research Articles

Affective atmospheres in Macau: from the sublime to the uncanny

This article examines the atmospheric identity of the Chinese city–state of Macau, which has a distinctive urban charisma owing to its 500-year history as a Portuguese colony and its contemporary development into a global tourist site. By analysing visual ethnographic data, the research understands Macau’s urban space with attention to its affective atmospheres. The research explores how visual analysis of urban atmospheres may enhance understanding of a city’s atmospheric identity. The article analyses the sublime and uncanny as two complementary affective fields exemplified by two unconventional locales: the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge and the adjacent Chinese Special Economic Zone of Hengqin Island. The article demonstrates that visual analysis of affective atmospheres can be instrumental in describing how people, emotions, objects and environments are reconstituted in a continuous process of urban change and development.

Belt and Road in Ethiopia and China’s African Ambition

China–Ethiopia economic cooperation in the period of 2000–2020 is marked by the convergence between the industrial policy of Ethiopia, the orientations of the Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), and the infrastructure development strategy which is the cornerstone of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). China, the largest foreign investor in Ethiopia during this period, has had a major role in terms of investment and financing in the energy sector and the transportation infrastructure: Addis Ababa Airport, roads, railway, seaport terminal, and gas pipeline. The flagship project — the Addis Ababa–Djibouti Railway — connecting Addis Ababa to Djibouti City and Djibouti’s Doraleh Container Terminal, inaugurated in 2018, provided landlocked Ethiopia with a good connection between the hinterland and the seaport: the economic corridor accounts for more than 95% of Ethiopia’s foreign trade. The development of Ethiopian Industrial Parks on the model of Chinese Special Economic Zones (SEZs) was the second pillar of the strategy of development of an export-oriented manufacturing sector. Chinese companies operating in Ethiopian Industrial Parks in the textile and leather industries have been pioneering this activity contributing to Ethiopia’s participation in the Global Value Chains (GVCs). Ethiopian government is also planning the development of agro-industrial parks specialized in added-value agricultural products such as coffee or cut flowers exported to Europe via Addis Ababa Airport and Ethiopian Airlines Cargo. Ethiopia’s main challenges in that direction are the necessity to go up the value chain to further penetrate European markets and, most likely, to identify the products or services which could be integrated into the African markets in the new context of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement that entered into force in January 2021.

Local Hegemony: China’s Special Economic Zones in Mauritius and Zambia

Chinese Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in Africa are part of the Belt and Road Initiative. They account for a fledgling research area in International Relations, with not much research on the topic. The authors regard traditional approaches in research of SEZs as incapable of grasping the difference between domestic (designed by the state on its own territory) and foreign (designed by a foreign state) SEZs. The concept of territoriality, though applicable only to foreign SEZs, has little to offer in terms of generating new knowledge. The research paper endeavours to offer new theoretical and conceptual frameworks for the study of foreign SEZs. The research is based on concepts of hegemony by different schools of thought, including Hegemonic Stability Theory, the three types of hegemony by Yan Xuetong and Neo-Gramscianism. The authors introduce the concept of “local hegemony”. The authors also highlight the fact that most foreign SEZs emerge in territories of limited statehood (or create them). In order to prove vitality of the concept, comparative research of China’s SEZs in Mauritius and Zambia is conducted. The authors point out relatively poor institutional development of Zambia and the existence of stable democratic institutions in Mauritius. The success of the Chinese SEZ in Zambia is also partially attributed to copper mining. Deriving from economic and institutional empirical data the authors try to detect success conditions of SEZs and analyze the related spillover effects that contribute to the development of African nations. The reasons behind the failure of the Chinese SEZ in Mauritius are traced. Authors conclude that the concept of local hegemony is suitable for studying foreign SEZs and suggest that zones of local hegemony could be sustainable and effective in terms of development.

Effects of Special Economic Zones on FDI in Emerging Economies: Does Institutional Quality Matter?

This study attempts to prove that emerging markets could partially improve institutional quality in a specific area and benefit the local economy despite the rest of the area having poor institutions. Interestingly, we observed that despite the presence of institutions of comparative disadvantage, emerging economies continue to constantly attract significant foreign direct investment. Hence, this study focuses on a type of place-based policy in China that provides a standard favorable institutional environment in a specific area. Using data from China’s Annual Survey of Industrial Firms and combining official lists of Chinese special economic zones (SEZs), we obtained a dataset of 2660 SEZs from 1998 to 2018, and a sample of 37,251 from 1998 to 2013. Then, we empirically examined the impact and mechanism of SEZs on foreign investment by using time-varying difference-in-difference specification. After a sequence of validity and robustness checks, we found that the establishment of SEZs significantly enhances foreign entry. We also found that partial institutional quality improvement of SEZs is a key mechanism in the location of foreign investment. We conclude that it is beneficial for the government to impose place-based policies such as SEZs that improve partial institutional quality efficiently and promote the local economy.

The Influence of Linguistic Landscape on English Learning: A Case Study of Shenzhen City

As an open social recourse and special language text, linguistic landscape, visibility and salience of languages on public and commercial signs in a given territory or region Landry and Bourhis (1997), and presented on various signs or billboards publicly, can be used as a useful recourse in language learning. Shenzhen, the first Chinese special economic zone, has developed into a fast-growing innovative city. Compared to other cities, Shenzhen has more frequent communications with worldwide visitors. Therefore, its education should be more international and advanced, especially English learning, since English, the most widely used language, is being used in linguistic landscapes increasingly. However, nowadays tedious English learning content and learning methods are unable to meet training requirements of students’ English level in society. Therefore, considering the significance of linguistic landscape in humanities construction and English learning, the government and schools give great importance to the construction of campus linguistic landscape. Through reference to representative research literatures and comparative analysis, this study intends to explore the importance of linguistic landscape in English learning by analyzing differences in campus linguistic landscape between middle schools and universities within Shenzhen from the form and content by introducing the way in which linguistic landscape is presented. And different purposes of its application are introduced in order to understand the application and design of linguistic landscape in different campuses more comprehensively. The research also explores the influence of campus linguistic landscape on students’ English learning, from the perspective of informal environmental penetration, learning material, stirring interest, broadening vocabulary and knowledge and its close relationship with life. This paper adopts the Constructivist learning theory of Piaget (1970). Students establish knowledge about the external world in the process of interaction with the surrounding environment to develop their cognitive structure. This paper concludes that the integration of linguistic landscape can benefit from its educational function to conduct a practice-oriented, teacher-led and student-centered pattern of English learning and improve students’ English learning ability.

Clemente Hernandez Rodriguez

This paper seeks to analyze the capital lessons learnt from the Chinese Special Eco-nomic Zones (sez) and its success factors useful for other countries, particularly the implications for the countries with sez projects. This research first conceptualizes the sez. Then, it summarizes the experiences of development of the sez in China. The analysis section identifies the lessons that planners of other sez can learn from China

La experiencia china con las Zonas Económicas Especiales y sus enseñanzas para el desarrollo regional del sureste mexicano

This paper seeks to analyze the key teachings to be learn from the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) in China and its success factors useful for other developing countries, particularly, the implications for the SEZ Project in South-Southeast Mexico. This research first conceptualizes the SEZ and presents their history. Next, it summarizes the experiences of development and lessons from the SEZ in China. Then, it characterizes the Mexican SEZ Project. The analysis section identifies the lessons that planners can learn from the Chinese SEZ. Although it may seem that economic policies, through enabling legislation to facilitate the foreign direct investment (FDI), will result in an improvement in the quality of life and in a reduction of poverty. Such a phenomenon does not work automatically and its impacts are not always clear and evident. The main challenges of the SEZ include a weak regulatory and institutional framework, the lack of effective strategic planning, weak governance and poor implementation capacity and inadequate infrastructure.

Negotiating post-resettlement livelihoods: the Chinese special economic zone and its impact in northwestern Laos

ABSTRACTSpecial economic zones (SEZs) are often employed by the state as a development mechanism to attract foreign direct investment and as a key engine for rural transformation. Drawing on fieldwork in northwestern Laos, this article examines the development impacts of the SEZ, the broker state and the development investor. Deprived of their lands, many post-resettlement villagers were not incorporated into the economy of the SEZ. Re-peasantisation is thus both a path to alternative livelihoods among the uprooted population and a strategy employed by the investor to contain the surplus labour.

Liquid Labourscape: Ad Hoc Experimentation in a Chinese Special Economic Zone in Laos

Liquid Labourscape: Ad Hoc Experimentation in a Chinese Special Economic Zone in Laos

Going global in groups: a relevant market entry strategy?

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify whether the new Chinese phenomenon of going global in groups represents a more advantageous market entry mode than the phenomena considered in previous studies.Design/methodology/approachIn this empirical research paper, the authors draw upon the literature in academic journals and books regarding the Chinese special economic zones overseas to analyze and compare collective internationalization (i.e. going global in groups) with traditional market entry modes as per the ownership, location and internalization paradigm (OLI) and transaction cost approach (TCA).FindingsThe authors identified that financial and diplomatic support provided by the Chinese Government has reinforced internationalization in groups, thereby minimizing some structural risks in host countries. Pre-operational and operating costs have been lowered or shared among group members, and weighted average cost of capital has dropped due to the availability of specific funding lines with subsidized interest rates.Research limitations/implicationsGiven the lack of available literature on the topic, the authors based their study of the collective internationalization of Chinese firms on very few cases, most of which represent market entry in African countries.Practical implicationsThe study calls attention to a new, more efficient and less risky characteristic of international entry modes, which implies that companies can reap multiple benefits by entering markets in global groups.Originality/valueAs literature addressing market entry modes focuses mostly on individual enterprises, this paper contributes to the identification of advantages in collective internationalization.

Особливості використання методу регресійного аналізу в дослідженні спеціальних економічних зон Китаю

Особливості використання методу регресійного аналізу в дослідженні спеціальних економічних зон Китаю

Land grab in new garb: Chinese special economic zones in Africa

At the 2006 Forum on China–Africa Cooperation, President Hu Jintao announced the establishment of Chinese Special Economic Zones in Africa (CSEZAs) in the spirit of mutual development and cooperation. The Chinese government launched seven such projects across Nigeria, Ethiopia, Egypt, Zambia and Mauritius. In most of these countries, there was social outcry over land expropriation for the construction of the CSEZAs and the resultant displacement of existing settlers. Seven years since their launch, the delayed CSEZA development only exacerbate the frustration of the host African communities as they contemplate whether the land they appropriated for the zone, at the expense of rural livelihoods, is getting an appropriate usage. The case of Mauritius is particularly salient considering its size, location and outward economic dependence.

Upgrading the Chinese Economy by Overhauling Special Economic Zones

In the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011–2015), the Chinese Committee of Science, Technology and Education, the main body for the central government's innovation policy, highlights the strengthening of the scientific–technological base and the upgrading of domestic innovative competences, and places the industrial focus on seven new strategic industries. Available data show that the transition is underway, from a Chinese growth model based on the availability of inexpensive land, investments, exports and a very large low-cost workforce to science-based and innovation-driven growth. However, the poor outcomes from public S&T expenditures suggest that future growth will depend on a different growth formula and that the greatest impact will come from an innovative innovation model. This paper focuses on an emerging Chinese innovation model that applies elements of cluster theory and the regional innovation systems approach to the next development stage of Chinese Special Economic Zones. The model also adopts features of the Triple Helix model of university–industry–government relations such as ‘systemness’ and entrepreneurial universities to enforce regional innovativeness. The author outlines the management and governance challenges associated with the policy objective of moving from imitation to innovation. The paper is based on a study on cluster management for the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) 2009–2013 and on empirical research in collaboration with the Chinese Association of Developmental Zones (CADZ) in 2012. The study used 15 expert interviews with managers of Tianjin Wuqing Development Zone in the Beijing–Tianjin Corridor and with senior officials of CADZ, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Science and Technology, at the Second China German Innovation Forum held in Berlin on 26 and 27 November 2012.

Chinese Special Economic Zones in Africa: a new species of globalisation?

Establishing 50 Chinese special economic zones (SEZs) is an integral part of the“Going Global” strategy promoted by the Chinese government (Gonzalez-Vicente, 2011). It is the latest addition to earlier pro-active economic internationalisation measures that comprised development aid and concessional loans, access to natural resources, export market development and outward foreign direct investment (OFDI). Africa became the most important host of the initially planned 19 SEZs worldwide with zones in Zambia (2), Nigeria (2), Ethiopia, Egypt, Mauritius, and Algeria. The developers of these zones were selected via two rounds of competitive tenders held by the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) in 2006 and2007 (Brautigam and Tang 2011, 2012). This guest editorial argues that Chinese SEZs in Africa involve at least three relevant research themes for political and economic geographers: 1) emergence of transnational governance and institutions in enclave spaces, 2) investment motives and location choice factors of Chinese actors in Africa, and 3) implications for development and power relations.

Special Economic Zones as Survival Strategy of North Korea

IntroductionNorth Korea has recently begun to develop two new projects: the Gaeseong Industrial project (hereafter Gaeseong SEZ) and the Mt. Kumgang tourism project (hereafter Mt. Kumgang SEZ). In terms of their levels of cooperation, partners and functions, these new projects were distinguished from the two earlier SEZs. The Rajin-Sunbong SEZ is a trade-oriented center that includes China, Russia and Japan. The Sinuiju SEZ has focused on the trade-oriented function in order to cooperate with countries in the Yellow Sea rim area including China. In contrast, Gaeseong is envisaged as a production-centered SEZ to attract small and medium-sized South Korean businesses. The Mt. Kumgang SEZ is also cooperating with the Hyundai Asan Corporation of South Korea in the development of an international tourism course.These two new projects were apparently an advanced step toward economic cooperation when compared with the previous level and form of interaction between the two Koreas. The projects have not only contributed to economic exchange, but also have demonstrated the possibility of advancing the two Koreas' political relations. South-North Korean economic cooperation is important in aiding the recovery of cultural and emotional homogeneity as well as promoting reciprocal economic development, development of infrastructure and building a harmonized structure between the two Koreas. Furthermore, such changes in the economic sector could lead to the political stability of North Korea, which, in turn, would contribute to the political and military stability of the entire Korean peninsula.Table 1 summarizes the economical and political effects of two new North Korean SEZs on both North and South Koreas. The effects of the success or failure of the North Korean SEZs will not be confined to the North Korean government; the result will affect the economic and political atmosphere of the entire Korean peninsula and all Northeast Asian countries.Therefore, this paper will address possible routes to success for the North Korean SEZs. The first section provides an analysis of the complicated features of North Korean SEZs. The second section offers an examination of a short-term and longterm development strategy of North Korean SEZs. The concluding section contains a discussion of the most appropriate way to achieve success for the SEZs through close economic cooperation between the two Koreas, with consideration of the eventual establishment of a future commonwealth.The Concept, Developmental Logic, and Type of a North Korean SEZThe Concept of the SEZ in North KoreaAccording to the Dictionary of Economics of North Korea, the Special Economic Zone (Open Zone for Foreigners) is defined as follows (p. 116):China, in 1979, announced some parts of four cities as the special economic zone. The purpose of establishing special economic zones was inducing foreign capital, technology, and management skills as well as increasing foreign trade and foreign currency holdings, accelerating economic development. The Chinese special economic zone is different from the industrial district in capitalist countries. While capitalist countries develop capitalist economies by inducing foreign capital in the industrial district, in the Chinese special economic zone, various economic systems coexist on condition that a socialist economy predominates. Foreign capitalists have the right to possess the means of production, a part of or whole rights of management, the right to employ and discharge workers, and particular privileges and special favors regulated by the Chinese government. However, foreign capitalists have to undertake economic activity in the special economic zone under the supervision and direction of the socialist country.In the same Dictionary of Economics, the so-called industrial district in capitalist countries is defined as follows (p. 176):The origin of the industrial district was the Manchester Industrial District in Britain in the late 19th century and this model has been diffused all around the world after World War I. …

The Yellow Man's Burden: Chinese Migrants on a Civilizing Mission

In the aftermath of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, both the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and "ordinary people" pledged donations to the afflicted regions.1 Triumphant headlines in the People's Daily likewise made a statement about China's rise from aid recipient to aid donor. Not coincidentally, the expanding scope of projects financed by China abroad, mainly in Africa and South America but also closer to home in Burma, Cambodia and Laos, attracted considerable attention from Western media in 2005.2 From Guyana to Nigeria, China has emerged as a key source of state-led investment in infrastructure projects without the good-governance and human-rights strings that are attached to financing through international development structures, and Chinese companies have become a visible presence as major builders of roads, pipelines, bridges, hospitals, harbors, stadiums, water-supply facilities and so on.3 In the Sudan, Chinese state-owned enterprises have invested US$3 billion in the oil industry and helped to build a 1,540-kilometre pipeline and a refinery.4 In July 2005, censured by the UN for evicting 700,000 people from their houses, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe traveled to China for a US$300 million loan (he was denied it). In Northern Laos, Golden Boten City, a new Chinese real estate development, with international airport included, is being advertised to investors as a "developing space beyond belief. The brochure of the Golden Boten City Group assures potential investors that Although now there are just 1500 people living in 3 villages in Golden Boten City, you should believe that thousands of people will gather here in a beautiful morning or an autumn evening. They [will] live and develop here with various occupations and identities, to form a huge community, and a modern society.5 Similar signs of Chinese architectural modernity are fast squeezing out British colonial memories from Pakistan's hill stations and Sierra Leone's coast. In the institutionalized world of international development, in which states earmark aid budgets to be channeled through institutions such as the World Bank, such projects would be classed as private investment or, at best, as private aid. Yet in China-where aid and debt relief, though increasing, are far less significant than state subsidies for overseas construction projects6-both officials and managers discuss them in the language of development. While the roots of development discourse in China and in international organizations are shared, as are their proclaimed goals of aiding the economic and human progress of recipient societies, their emphases are rather different. The discourse of international development has, in the past decade, veered away from the previous, strongly criticized, unilateral emphasis on economic indicators and structural models originating in the West, and towards a socially and culturally "sensitive" framework-though just how much difference that shift has made on the ground is a matter of debate.7 Chinese accounts of "contributing to development" abroad do not share these recent scruples: they typically remain purely economic and are set in contexts that, from the perspective of the now-professionalized "international development community", appear highly unusual. The idea of exporting development centering on investment, trade and migration (for Chinese road projects are built by Chinese workers, and Chinese-sponsored farming projects typically bring both Chinese workers and technical advisors) is quite different from that practiced by today's international organizations, though perhaps not that different from earlier, colonial projects, in which the ground-level agents of modernization tended to be indentured laborers and traders imported from India and, again, China. Central to Western-originated international discourse is the separation of aid from investment: the idea that development aid is a not-for-profit affair, and accusations of profit-making can discredit donors. …

DOING BUSINESS FOR SCIENCE'S SAKE

RUNNING A BUSINESS SEEMS TO come naturally to natives of Hong Kong. To finance his ambition to conduct world-class chiral chemistry research, Albert S. C. Chan has set up, on behalf of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, a lab that can be used for commercial as well as academic purposes. The lab is located in Shenzhen, a Chinese Special Economic Zone adjacent to Hong Kong and a mere two-hour drive from Chan's Kowloon office. No drug development laboratory in Hong Kong is as complete and well-equipped as this one, he said while proudly guiding a tour of the new lab. Chan, one of only 12 Hong Kong members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, heads the department of applied biology and chemical technology at Polytechnic University. The Shenzhen Research Institute, as the lab is known, was inaugurated in April at an event attended by the mayor of Shenzhen as well as Nobel Prize winners Ryoji Noyori ...

Strategic perspective on technology transfer: A call for collaborative research

Technology transfer should not be viewed as a single, “one shot” process. There are downstream strategic issues that must be dealt with if the technology-transfer process is to be well-integrated into a firm's activities. Too often these downstream issues are not apparent during the decisions leading to the actual transfer of the technology. Several key issues that should be weighed by managers are presented, their impact on competitive positioning is considered, and they are discussed in the contexts of maquiladora (twin-plant) factories in Mexico and investments in Chinese Special Economic Zones.

Environment and development in chinese special economic zones: The case of Shenzhen

Environmental protection has been emphasized in the development of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone. Guided by the Chinese principles of environmental protection and using the western technocratic methods, Shenzhen has been able to avoid the environmental problems that have troubled many Chinese cities. However, a new suite of environmental problems has been emerging. This paper discusses the forces which have combined to negate the strenuous efforts of the local authorities and highlights the complexities of environmental control in a mixed economic setting.

The Changing Industrial Geography of the Chinese Special Economic Zones

The creation of Special Economic Zones in China in the post-1979 period has attracted the interest of scholars both inside and outside China. This paper examines the role of the Special Economic Zones along China's coast zone and their place in the programs of modernization in Chinese industry. A special case study is made of Shenzhen SEZ where the Chinese government has attempted to promote the inflow of foreign capital and technology while at the same time maintaining control over the direction and type of development taking place. The state has deployed joint ventures and local firms as the platform into which new technology is injected and from which new industries in the interior of the country will be spawned.