Cooperation Zone Research Articles

The Growth of Cross‐Border Regions Toward “Two Countries, One Park”: A Case Study of the Mohan–Boten Cross‐Border Cooperation Zone

ABSTRACTCross‐border regions have been the frontier areas of regional and subregional cooperation, the development of which involves the interaction of multiple scales and various agents. Existing studies focus mainly on cross‐border economic cooperation but pay less attention to issues such as urban construction and community development, which may lead to the neglect of the interests of local communities in the development of cross‐border regions. Based on a case study of the Mohan–Boten Cross‐border Cooperation Zone (CCZ), this study argues for the integrated development toward “Two Countries, One Park” through the functional integration of urban planning, industrial investment, public services, and community development. The study finds that the success of the “Two Countries, One Park” pattern relies on the coordination of multi‐scalar governance and multi‐agent cooperation, whereas the “scale paradox” caused by the asymmetric distribution of power and responsibility among different governance scales and the relevant agents is a major hindrance to functional integration and cross‐border cooperation. Addressing the “scale paradox” is, therefore, crucial for successful cross‐border development.

Collective local liberalism: orchestrated local governments and the expansion of the BRI

ABSTRACT What drives the varied performance of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects? Can the central state’s role and the participating nations’ development needs fully account for the success or failure of individual BRI projects? This article challenges the dominant state-centric perspective, suggesting it falls short in elucidating the heterogeneous results of BRI projects. Through a comparative analysis of the Pan-Beibu Gulf Economic Cooperation Zone (PBGECZ) and the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor (ILSTC), the study reveals the impact of local government collaboration on the efficacy of China’s foreign policy. By proposing collective local liberalism, we argue that cooperative dynamics, rather than competitive, are crucial for the success of the BRI. This nuanced approach underscores the necessity of a collaborative framework among subnational actors to enhance the execution and outcomes of BRI projects, offering a more comprehensive understanding of Chinese foreign policy.

Impacts of Urbanization on Energy Consumption in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation Zone

Energy resources play a vital role in the process of urbanization, and the high level of energy consumption has significantly created an alarming situation for environmental degradation. Increased demand for energy consumption in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) zone is a core concern for decreasing the existing reserves of energy, especially nonrenewable energy, when the growth of urbanization is increasing also. This study investigates the impacts of urbanization on energy consumption in this region by identifying factors that influence energy use. We employed globally used econometric techniques to examine the relationship between energy use and urbanization. The results of the study indicate that all the independent variables used in the model (except urban population growth) were statistically significant with a 99% level of confidence. In addition, the findings of this study recognized three long-run causalities running from the GDP (gross domestic product) to energy consumption, energy consumption to GDP, and energy consumption to the industry’s share of the countries’ GDP. We recommend (i) taking the initiative to invest in renewable energy, (ii) implementing green energy-efficient technologies in the industrial sector, and (iii) raising public awareness of the negative effects of energy use on the environment through education.

The production of extended local territory: Topology and the spatial politics of city-region making in China

A new trend has been emerging in China’s urban and regional politics, as it is becoming prevalent to extend one municipal authority to another, transcending boundaries, often through the establishment of joint development zones. These newly produced subnational territories are worth further attention to clarify the underlying political dynamics of China’s changing state space. This paper examines the Shenzhen–Shanwei Special Cooperation Zone in Guangdong and analyses the political–spatial processes through which a certain area of Shanwei has been transformed into the ‘Eastern frontier of Shenzhen’. Looking into the relational power nexus that has also been inflected by trans-scalar and cross-boundary dynamics, as well as its manifestations in urban landscapes, we propose extended local territory as a key analytical concept to explore how and how far the rise of extensive territoriality has been articulated with intensive localities. Empirically, we elaborate on the ways in which the territorial ambition and authority of Shenzhen have been managing to traverse boundaries, while also recognising that Shenzhen’s aspiration of materialising its extensive territoriality is challenged by both scalar constraints and the grassroots politics rooted in local history and geography. Addressing the dialectics between the extensive territoriality and intensive locality, we attend to the inter-topological effects and trace the patterns of correlation that are involved in this process, which also turns out to be a critical approach to better understanding changing state spaces in and beyond China.

Construction and Comparative Analysis of Economic and Trade Cooperation Zones Outside China

China's construction of overseas economic and trade cooperation zones is one of the important measures for the Chinese government to promote opening up and strengthen international cooperation. The Chinese government supports powerful enterprises to carry out various forms of mutually beneficial cooperation abroad, so as to promote the common development with the host country. When Chinese enterprises invest in overseas economic and trade cooperation zones, they will attract more enterprises to invest and set up factories in the host countries, which will increase the employment and tax revenue of the host countries, increase foreign exchange earned through export, improve technological level and promote common economic development. This paper aims to explore the characteristics, models and similarities and differences of China's overseas economic and trade cooperation zone construction with similar mechanisms in other countries through comparative analysis, so as to deeply understand China's role in the global economy. The construction of China's overseas economic and trade cooperation zones will provide important opportunities for Chinese enterprises to expand the international market and improve their international competitiveness, and also make positive contributions to promoting global economic cooperation and development.

SWOT Analysis and Recommendations for Enhancing Sino-Russian Agricultural Trade Cooperation

With the outbreak of the Russian–Ukraine conflict, the changes in agricultural trade between China and Russia are receiving more and more attention. This study analyzes the current status of Sino-Russian agricultural trade and employs a SWOT analysis to explore the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats within their agricultural trading activities. The findings suggest there are opportunities for further optimization and enhancement in the Sino-Russian agricultural trade. Based on this, suggestions proposed include accelerating the development of transportation hubs, facilitating agricultural trade, refining legal frameworks for agricultural exports, and expediting the establishment of economic cooperation zones.

Automatic high-throughput and non-invasive selection of sperm at the biochemical level

Sperm selection, a key step in assisted reproductive technology(ART), has long been restrained at the preliminary physical level (morphology or motility); however, subsequent fertilization and embryogenesis are complicated biochemical processes. Such an enormous "gap" poses tough problems for couples dealing with infertility, especially patients with severe/total asthenozoospermia . We developed a biochemical-level, automatic-screening/separation, smart droplet-TO-hydrogel chip (BLASTO-chip) for sperm selection. The droplet can sense the pH change caused by sperm's respiration products and then transforms into a hydrogel to be selected out. The BLASTO-chip system can select biochemically active sperm with an accuracy of over 90%, and its selection efficiency can be flexibly tuned by nearly 10-fold. All the substances in the system were proven to be biosafe via evaluating mice fertilization and offspring health. Live sperm down to 1% could be enriched by over 76-fold to 76%. For clinical application to patients with severe/total asthenozoospermia, the BLASTO-chip could select live sperm from human semen samples containing 10% live but 100% immotile sperm. The rates of fertilization, cleavage, early embryos, and blastocysts were drastically elevated from 15% to 70.83%, 10% to 62.5%, 5% to 37.5%, and 0% to 16.67%, respectively. The BLASTO-chip represents a real biochemical-level technology for sperm selection that is completely independent of sperm's motility. It can be a powerful tool in ART, especially for patients with severe/total asthenozoospermia. This work was funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, the Ministry of Education of China, and the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Hetao Cooperation Zone.

China’s economic and trade cooperation zones in Africa: from static model emulation to dynamic learning

ABSTRACT This article explores the intricacies of replicating China’s structural economic transformation through special economic zones (SEZs) in Africa, with a focus on the Eastern Industry Zone (EIZ) in Ethiopia. Combining insights from empirical research and the literature on China’s development model, African SEZs and Chinese economic and trade cooperation zones (ETCZs) in Africa, we contend that while static industrialisation policies can be transposed more readily, the dynamic aspects that underpin China’s model face challenges due to differences in institutional capacity and contextual synergies (internal and external). This hampers the efficacy of ETCZs in steering structural economic transformation. The article advocates for a more creative adaptation process, urging dynamic learning and leadership level innovation to address institutional and structural weaknesses while reducing vulnerability to externalities.

A temporary soil dump settlement and landslide risk analysis using the improved small baseline subset-InSAR and continuous medium model

Abandoned soil disposal in China has become increasingly challenging, which may pose significant safety hazards such as soil settlement and landslides. Interferometry Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) is effective in surface deformation monitoring and Small Baseline Subset-InSAR (SBAS-InSAR) can obtain sufficient coherent point density from the bare soil surface. This study investigated Chishi soil dump in the Shenzhen-Shanwei Special Cooperation Zone (SSSCZ), and a total of 91 Sentinel-1 images from 2019 to 2022 was processed. Accordingly, an improved SBAS-InSAR method was utilized to analyze the soil dump’s time-series deformation, and multi-source remote sensing data were used for auxiliary interpretation. Our results indicate that precipitation, high temperature, and construction vibrations may cause instability of the soil dump. Therefore, a depth-integrated continuous medium model was introduced to analyze the potential landslide risk of the soil dump, which demonstrate that a landslide will likely occur, harm personnel, and damage the buildings surrounding the Chishi soil dump when it was saturated (λ ≥ 0.50). This research can provide a vital case reference for the analysis, interpretation, disaster prevention, and control evaluation of similar soil dumps.

Construction of model contract law for Guangdong-Macao intensive cooperation zone in Hengqin

The Guangdong-Macao Intensive Cooperation Zone in Hengqin (Intensive Cooperation Zone) has emerged as a pivotal economic hub, attracting Macao residents and enterprises. However, disparities in contract-related rules between the zone and Macao have led to legal challenges. This article delves into a comparative study of contract laws between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Macao. Analyzing key facets such as pacta sunt servanda, freedom of contract, principle of equity, contract form, principles of interpretation, and termination of contract, the study identifies nuanced differences. Recognizing the imperative of aligning contract laws for the Intensive Cooperation Zone’s development, the article advocates for a unified legal environment. To achieve this, the author proposes a model contract law that prioritises the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) as the basis. Notably, Macao’s contract-related rules should govern aspects not covered by the CISG given the policy trend in the Intensive Cooperation Zone. The proposed model law serves as a foundation for legislative reform, aiming to address the existing disparities and promote the Intensive Cooperation Zone’s economic growth.

Macao's academic book publishing industry: A SWOT and PEST analysis

AbstractMacao's academic book publishing industry has a rich history and has grown significantly over the past two decades. This study employs a semi‐structured in‐depth interview to evaluate the current and prospective state of Macao's academic book publishing industry. The SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis and the PEST (Political, Economic, Social, and Technological) analysis are used in this study. The strengths of Macao's academic book publishing industry include that requesting an ISBN in Macao is easy and quick under the principle of ‘One Country, Two Systems’ and financial support from the Macao SAR government. However, the industry faces several weaknesses, including an underdeveloped cultural industry, a small seller market and a talent shortage, and less copyright output. Opportunities for the industry exist through constructing a Culture‐based Bay Area in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area and developing an international hub for digital trade in the Guangdong–Macao In‐Depth Cooperation Zone–Hengqin. However, Macao's academic book publishing industry is threatened by emerging Internet technologies, such as augmented reality, the metaverse, and ChatGPT. This paper also proposes strategies for future practice, such as taking the initiative to encourage a group of top‐tier publishers to establish branches in Macao and improve publications’ cultural elements. The findings of this study provide valuable insights into the strategic management of Macao's academic book publishing industry and will be of interest to publishers, academic researchers, and policymakers.

Fintech Adoption: A Study of Users in the Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin (China)

Intended as an economic and development hub, the Hengqin Cooperation Zone aims to foster collaboration and integration between mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macao, serving as a platform for economic development and innovation among the three regions. The zone's development has increased demand for financial services, often offered through fintech. There is, however, a lack of interoperability between the fintech services currently used in Macao and Hengqin. This may hinder Macao users' adoption of the technology. Thus, our research objective is to identify the factors determining Macao residents' adoption of fintech services in the area and provide insights for service providers, developers, and policymakers. A framework based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was used for this purpose. The responses of 103 Macao residents provided evidence that ease of use significantly and positively impacts the usefulness of the technology. This in turn influences attitudes towards fintech usage. Subjective norms and perceived behavioral control positively impact fintech adoption intentions. The fintech industry and the governments of Macao and Hengqin can work on improving technology's ease of use and usefulness. They can also promote them to Macao users, and provide the resources required for better access to fintech in the zone.

Narrating regional coordinated development: Discursive practices in China's city-regions

Focusing on China's city-region building as a discursively power-laden process with a variety of contending and localized narratives, this article interrogates how and to what extent the strategy of Regional Coordinated Development, the top-down orchestrated initiative, is formulated and enacted to have the effects that it names. By constructing a conceptual framework of “selective discursive practices” and applying it to analyze two cross-jurisdictional cooperation cases—the Shenzhen–Shanwei Special Cooperation Zone and the Yizhuang-Yongqing Development Zone, key empirical findings and theoretical implications are as follows. First, a series of localized narratives, including pairing assistance, innovative reform, industrial integration, and de-territorialization, have diverged, to some degree, from the original win-win vision of Regional Coordinated Development. Second, unlike the formal administrative division deployed as a powerful political device for the central state, a new type of temporarily localized administrative division is being discursively produced and practiced by local states at the city-regional scale. To conclude, this article contributes to the academic discussion of China's state-spatial imaginaries from the discursive perspective and calls for more comparative studies on the discursive practices in relation to different institutional configurations.

The Impact of China’s Overseas Economic and Trade Cooperation Zones on Sustainable Trade of Host Countries

Under the concept of “government-guided, enterprise-led, and market-oriented” operation, the Chinese Overseas Economic and Trade Cooperation Zones (COCZs) have developed a new type of international production pattern, which has become an effective way for developing countries to integrate into the global production network sustainably. Based on the COCZ data collected manually and country-level panel data from 1997 to 2019, this study innovatively analyzes the sustainable trade effect of COCZs with the difference-in-differences method. The research finds that the establishment of COCZs significantly boosts the import and export of the host country in a sustainable manner. Further analysis finds that COCZs can promote the sustainable trade growth of the host country in three aspects: economic, societal, and environmental. This sustainable trade effect is closely related to the institutional improvement and infrastructure construction generated by COCZs. By providing a comprehensive and rigorous analysis of the impact of COCZs on the host country’s trade performance, the paper effectively responds to the criticisms on China’s “going out” strategy, which is often based on biased assumptions and a lack of empirical evidence. It also provides policy implications for both China and the host countries to enhance the cooperation and mutual benefits of COCZs.

SURFACE DISPLACEMENT MONITORING OF SUBURBAN EXPRESSWAY UNDER CONSTRUCTION BASED ON SENTINEL-1 SBAS-INSAR ANALYSIS

Abstract. The Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (InSAR) technique can quickly obtain millimeter-level surface deformation in urban areas with high coherence. However, expanding the application of time series InSAR in non-urban areas is an important research focus. An improved SBAS-InSAR analysis approach is applied in this study to present the surface displacement along two expressways under construction. Taking the Kejiao and Yicheng Highway in the Shenzhen Shanwei Special Cooperation Zone as examples, the deformation along the highways under construction and the surrounding ground objects is revealed. Moreover, the time series displacements and construction conditions are combined to explain the possible mechanisms behind the different displacements of various ground objects along the expressways. The results show that the climate, environment, and construction conditions of the cooperation zone had an impact on the deformation of various ground objects along the route. Compared to traditional PS-InSAR methods, the density and accuracy of coherence points are improved, which better overcomes the spatiotemporal incoherence effects in non-urban areas.

Commonalities and Differences of the Language Policy in Russian-speaking Countries along “The Belt and Road”

"Bel and Road Initiative"， which is also known as the “Silk Road Economic Belt” or the "21st Century Maritime Silk Road", is a new model of national cooperation advocated by China and is considered to be the economic cooperation zone with the widest coverage in the world today. The Russian-speaking countries along "Belt and Road Initiative" refer to the countries where "Russian" is recognized by the constitution as the national language, official language, interracial common language, or exists in the form of mother tongue, minority language, etc., thus forming a "language – state – group" with Russian as its link. Due to limited length, this paper mainly studies the "three East Slavic Countries", namely Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and the "Five Central Asian Countries", namely Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Russian-speaking countries along the "Belt and Road" have complicated historical, ethnic, political, religious, linguistic and other links. This also leads to the complexity of language governance in various countries under the background of global governance and shows commonalities and differences in the basic direction of language policy in various countries. The commonalities are mainly manifested in the hierarchy of forms of language policy, the stages in history, the politics of function and the multiplicity of objectives. The differences are mainly manifested in the language abilities of countries, the degree of national language policy and the guidance of dealing with the relationship with Russian on the premise of language policy. The commonalities and differences can help us fully understand the function of language in boosting economic exchanges, the positive and negative energy contained in language, the relationship between language and national security, and the relationship between language and cultural discourse power in the context of the "Belt and Road Initiative".The extraction of the commonalities and differences of language policy in Russian-speaking countries along the "Belt and Road "is conducive to promoting the transformation of language research from a Chinese perspective to a global perspective. The cooperation in the era of globalization is always multiple and non-unitary. In the context of the "Belt and Road Initiative", under the cooperation framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and in the process of the "Belt and Road Alliance", that is, the alliance of "Belt and Road" and the "Eurasian Economic Union", these Russian-speaking countries are not only important nodes along the "Belt and Road", but also important partners of China’s cooperation and exchanges in different frameworks of exchanges.The current prominent problems of Russian-speaking countries along the "Belt and Road" include the status of the national language and interracial common languages within the country, as well as the issues of language independence, cultural independence, and language sovereignty between countries. All these issues have essentially surpassed the basic function of language itself. In the vision of a community of shared future for mankind, the highest level of communication between sovereign countries is mutual communication and mutual learning based on mutual respect for culture. Only when we have a clear understanding of the rule of law in the countries along “the Belt and Road”, including their language policies, language plannings and language strategies, can the implementation of the "Belt and Road Initiative" be better and comprehensively supported.

A SURVEY OF FULL-TIME TEACHING INTERNSHIP FOR ENGLISH EDUCATION MAJORS AT LOCAL UNIVERSITIES: A CASE STUDY OF ZHAOQING UNIVERSITY

Teaching internship is a necessary part of teacher training. Zhaoqing University has jointly established Teacher Education Reform and Innovation Pilot Zones or Collaborative Education Cooperation Zones with seven counties. Some normal university students complete important pre-job training by interning at full-time teaching positions in these pilot zones. Through journal reviews, on-site visits, and focus group interviews, this study explores the problems encountered by English education majors during their full-time teaching internship in these zones and strategies to address them to provide references for the continuous improvement of full-time teaching internship. KEYWORDS: English education majors, full-time teaching internship, teacher education, promoting learning through competitions, Teacher Education Reform and Innovation Pilot Zones.

Prospects for the Creation of a Russian-Chinese Cross-Border Zone of Economic Cooperation Between Blagoveshchensk and Heihe

The article analyzes the history and prospects for the implementation of the project of a cross-border zone of economic cooperation between Russia and China. As the most promising site for the placement of such a zone, a "pre-bridge territory" is considered, adjacent to the Kanikurgan-Heihe bridge crossing in the immediate vicinity of the cities of Blagoveshchensk (Amur Region) and Heihe (Heilongjiang Province). At the same time, the author concludes that at present the Russian leadership is aimed at creating not a cross-border, but a border zone, which, nevertheless, should cooperate closely with the border zone of economic cooperation located on Chinese territory in Heihe. Bearing in mind that the subject matter under consideration is in many ways the subject of terminological and factual confusion, the author pays particular attention to the definition of what is meant by the cross-border and border zone of economic cooperation, which implies some preferential regime, etc.

Receding Horizon Optimization for Cooperation of Connected Vehicles at Signal-Free Intersections under Mixed-Automated Traffic

This paper proposes a distributed coordination scheme for connected vehicles, including automated vehicles (AVs) and manual vehicles (MVs), at signal-free intersections. The cooperation issue of vehicles at an intersection is formulated into a multi-objective optimization problem that aims to eliminate conflicts and improve traffic mobility and fuel economy. For this purpose, the future trajectories of AVs and MVs are predicted by the respective car-following models, and are shared with neighboring vehicles in conflict relationships. The proposed scheme optimizes the sum of the performance of AVs within the cooperative zone in a prediction horizon. A distributed optimization algorithm in the receding horizon is presented to obtain the local optimal solutions, and is tested in simulations with different demand levels and penetration rates of AVs. The results show that the proposed scheme reduces travel time by 29.7–45.5% and 34.5–49.2%, and decreases fuel consumption by 27.6–35.3% and 21.6–29.9% under 70–100% penetration rates of AVs, compared to the no-control operation and fixed-time signal control strategy. In addition, a comparison simulation with the strategy of jointly optimizing the vehicle trajectory and signal timing is conducted to evaluate the relative merits of the proposed scheme.

Study on the spatial distribution of urban carbon emissions at the micro level based on multisource data.

Global warming is currently an area of concern. Human activities are the leading cause of urban greenhouse gas intensification. Inversing the spatial distribution of carbon emissions at microscopic scales such as communities or controlling detailed planning plots can capture the critical emission areas of carbon emissions, thus providing scientific guidance for intracity low-carbon development planning. Using the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city as an example, this paper uses night-light images and statistical yearbooks to perform linear fitting within the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei city-county region and then uses fine-scale data such as points of interest, road networks, and mobile signaling data to construct spatial characteristic indicators of carbon emissions distribution and assign weights to each indicator through the analytic hierarchy process. As a result, the spatial distribution of carbon emissions based on detailed control planning plots is calculated. The results show that among the selected indicators, the population distribution significantly influences carbon emissions, with a weight of 0.384. The spatial distribution of carbon emissions is relatively distinctive. The primary carbon emissions are from the Sino-Singapore Cooperation Zone due to its rapid urban construction and development. In contrast, carbon emissions from other areas are sparse, as there is mostly unused land under construction.