Security In China Research Articles

Food and nutrition security in China from the perspective of land-ocean coordination

Food and nutrition security in China from the perspective of land-ocean coordination

Security, Stability, Prosperity: Strategic Role of Security in China's Belt and Road Initiative

Security, Stability, Prosperity: Strategic Role of Security in China's Belt and Road Initiative

The network characteristics and driving mechanism of the spatial correlation of forest ecological security in China

The network characteristics and driving mechanism of the spatial correlation of forest ecological security in China

Countermeasures for Assuring Water Ecological Environment Security in China

Countermeasures for Assuring Water Ecological Environment Security in China

Public Security and Police law in China

The Chinese police performs a wide spectrum of social functions. The first part of this paper presents a daily routine of a district police station in the city of Kunming, Yunnan Province, and the various social functions they perform. Mediation among members of the local community in solving minor conflicts is one of the police’s main functions. Police officers are highly motivated in their work. Their success is measured by the degree of satisfaction of their local community. The methods of Chinese police are unique. Its force lies not so much in the extensiveness of governmental control over the life of ordinary citizens as in the wide network of personal relationships between the police and the members of the Chinese public. This network as well as the variety of functions has a single ultimate goal: public security. The second part of the paper examines the concept of public security in Chinese law. It is impossible to understand the whole of the Chinese legal system in its dynamic without taking into account the normative importance of the concept of public security or public order. In China, public order and public security are synonymous. They are understood differently from the Western legal tradition. In the West, public order is a delineation of freedom of private individuals to act pursuing their own interests. It exists to secure the individual rights and liberties. In China, it is the condition for the stability, greatness and prosperity of the Chinese nation. The third part of the paper examines the relationship between public security and human rights. It is argued that the criticism of China by the Western human rights activists fails to understand the Chinese perspective. The Chinese police’s measures restricting individual freedoms should not be understood as the violation of human rights, on the contrary, it is a protection of the majority’s essential right to public order. The idea of public security in the work of Chinese police is not simply an ideological slogan, it is an essential principle of the Chinese legal system which invigorates and innerves the work of the Chinese police.

Some results of the food strategy of Russia, China and Japan

The article presents a comparative macroeconomic analysis of the results of agricultural policy in the field of food security in Russia, China and Japan. Russia is significantly more provided with agricultural land — a factor of basic importance in food production than its eastern neighbors — China and Japan. In terms of gross agricultural production, China is the leader, especially in cereals and legumes, fruits, berries, citrus fruits and grapes, vegetables and melons, as well as eggs. For these products, China has full self-sufficiency, but at the same time it lacks its own production for potatoes, meat and milk. Japan is not provided with its own fruits, berries, citrus fruits and grapes, vegetables and melons, as well as meat and milk. Russia also lacks its own production of these products, with the exception of meat, with which it is fully provided. The average Russian citizen does not fully consume vegetables and melons, as well as milk and dairy products, for which there is a low level of self-sufficiency and economic accessibility in the country. The food strategies of the studied states testify to the importance of food supply in the system of national security and improving the quality of life of the population, combining their interests in organizing large agricultural organizations, state support for the development of agriculture with its full financial support, the formation of an economically sound agricultural policy for the development of agriculture as the basis of social stability, equating its products with the most important strategic resources.

Research Status and Prospects of Natural Gas Hydrate Exploitation Technology

Natural gas hydrate (NGH) is regarded worldwide as the most promising clean energy. Research on the exploration and exploitation of NGH has come to a stage of breakthrough in China. However, the accumulation mechanism and occurrence regularity of NGH from muddy silt in the South China Sea remain unclear, and the hydrate decomposition and phase transformation mechanisms during exploitation as well as safe and efficient technologies require further study. This study reviewed the research and application status of NGH exploitation technologies including depressurization and solid fluidization. Moreover, corresponding suggestions were proposed considering the existing problems regarding current NGH exploitation technologies. Specifically, basic research and major engineering should be promoted for multi-gas exploitation of NGH and deep oil and gas; technology innovation and integration should be strengthened to promote synergy between theory and practice; a numerical simulation big science platform should be established for pilot scale tests and multi-field coupling; and relevant standards need to be established and improved. This can improve the research level and technical maturity of NGH exploitation in China, facilitate its large-scale commercial development, and ensure energy security of China.

Cybercrime and legal support of information security of China in the XX century

The legal protection of computer and information systems, prevention and counteraction to cybercrimes becomes a relevant problem for society and the state. In one or another way, the computer-related crimes, infringement of the interests of users, and intentional distribution of false or harmful information, pose a serious threat to the information system security, as well as interests of the state, rights and freedoms of citizens. The dependence of people and society as a whole on computer and information systems is higher with each year. Generation Y cannot imagine their life without digital technologies. Cybercrime (intellectual crime) implies the unauthorized access to computer systems and databases, infliction of damage, and commission of criminal offense via computer. Such crimes are characterized by being difficult to detect, intellectualism, wide variety, duration and serious threat to the society. The scholars distinguish two types of cybercrimes: in the first instance, computer is viewed as the object of crime, while in the second — the instrument of crime. The first case suggest theft of the computer and its parts, hacker attacks and various types of sabotage, spread of computer viruses, etc.; the second case suggests the distribution of pornography and pirated software, Internet fraud for the purpose of embezzlement, as well as money laundering.

Potential Analysis and Technical Conception of Exploitation and Utilization of Tar-Rich Coal in Western China

The resources of tar-rich coal in Western China are abundant and are available for large-scale development. Understanding the oil and gas resource properties of tar-rich coal and promoting the development and transformation of tar-rich coal to produce oil and gas are crucial for increasing domestic oil and gas supply, relieving external dependence on oil and gas, and ensuring national energy security of China. This study estimated the potential of tar-rich coal resources in Western China based on the current exploration results of coal resources, reviewed the current status and existing problems, and proposed the basic concept and technical conception for the development and utilization of tar-rich coal in Western China considering the new requirements for carbon reduction, intelligent green development, and compensation for oil and gas shortage. The study concluded that the development and utilization of tar-rich coal needs to focus on key technologies, including high-precision comprehensive exploration, high-recovery-rate mining, underground in-situ pyrolysis, pyrolysis and gasification integration, and in-situ pyrolysis char CO₂ storage. Furthermore, we suggest that the tar-rich coal should be included in the management of unconventional oil and gas resources, scientific and technological research on the development and utilization of tar-rich coal should be strengthened, a national demonstration area should be established, and development of new energy and tar-rich coal in Western China should be coordinated, so as to maximize the special advantages of tar-rich coal as coal-based oil and gas resources and realize the low-carbon and high-value utilization of coal resources.

Business Failure Prediction Based on a Cost-Sensitive Extreme Gradient Boosting Machine

Business failure prediction is very important for the sustainable development of enterprises. Machine learning algorithms, especially ensemble algorithms, have shown great economic benefits in enterprise financial early warning. However, the highly imbalanced class distribution of financial risk data and the inexplainable of most machine learning-based early distress warning models limit their commercial application. To address the above limitations, we enhance the business failure prediction performance by tree-ensemble in a boosting manner. Moreover, to solve the class imbalanced issue in business failure datasets, a weighted objective function, weighted cross-entropy, is embedded into the boosted tree framework, making the weighted XGBoost a cost-sensitive business failure prediction model. Besides, to tackle the second issue, we explore the intrinsic interpretability of the proposed method by visualizing the feature importance and incorporating a partial dependence plot technique to locally interpret the individual business failure event. Experimental results on business failure datasets with different predictive horizons collected from China Security Market Accounting Research (CSMAR) database show the proposed weighted XGBoost is a good solution to reduce the error on recognizing firms in business failure. Furthermore, the visualized feature importance score and partial dependence plot result both demonstrate that the cost-sensitive tree-based ensemble can be a good tool to guide the investors in making rational as well as provide interpretable business prediction results as a reference for the policy-making of the regulators.

New open burning policy reshaped the aerosol characteristics of agricultural fire episodes in Northeast China

The massive agricultural sector in the Northeast Plain, which is of great importance for the food security in China, results in a huge amount of crop residues and thus substantial concern on haze pollution due to biomass burning (BB). To seek for effective control measures on BB emissions, a dramatic transition of open burning policy occurred in Heilongjiang Province, from the “legitimate burning” policy released in 2018 to the “strict prohibition” policy implemented in 2019 and beyond. Here we explored the BB aerosols during 2020–2021 in Harbin, the capital city of Heilongjiang. Although open burning was strictly prohibited by mandatory bans, agricultural fires were not actually eliminated, as indicated by the levoglucosan levels and fire count results. In general, the BB aerosols in Harbin were attributed to the overlaying of household burning and agricultural fire emissions. The former factor laid the foundation of biomass burning impacts, with BB contributions to organic carbon and elemental carbon (fBBOC and fBBEC) of 35 and 47%, respectively. The latter further enhanced the BB impacts during specific episodes breaking out in the spring of 2021 as well as the fall of 2020, when fBBOC and fBBEC increased to 64 and 57%, respectively. In addition, comparing to the fires of 2018–2019 which occurred in winter (in response to the “legitimate burning” policy), the agricultural fires were shifted to spring and fall in the 2020–2021 campaign, accompanied with an increase of combustion efficiency. This study illustrated how the agricultural fire emissions were influenced by the transition of open burning policy.

Contributions made by rain-fed potato with mulching to food security in China

Food security is an important issue globally and securing food supplies is the core mission of agricultural development in the world. Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) has been proposed as the fourth major staple food crop, following rice, wheat and maize by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs to further improve China's food security. Plastic film mulching (PM) can significantly increase potato yield and has been widely used in potato production. Although many researchers have studied the effects of PM on potato yield and water use efficiency (WUE) in China, there have been few studies on the effects of the PM on potato food energy supply improved from CK (without mulching), as well as the spatial distribution feasible for PM. In this study, we addressed these issues by process-based DNDC model and cost-benefit analysis. The results showed that PM could increase total potato food energy and WUE by 41.7% and 53.4% respectively across China, compared to CK. The results also suggested that the PM technology would be most beneficial to potato food energy in regions where the aridity index was between 0.15 and 0.45. The suitable areas of rain-fed potato with PM are mainly distributed in the northeast, northwest and southwest of China, where potato with PM could obtain high net economic benefits. However, PM is not suggested to be applied to rain-fed potato crops in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and southern China because the tradeoff between the economic rewards and the environmental risks associated with plastic film was low. In the major producing areas for traditional staple food crops, potato reduce food energy per capita compared to conventional staple crops, however the results also showed that 64% and 40% of the regions that are suitable for potato cropping with PM significantly increased food energy per capita compared to wheat and maize. Therefore, the potato as a staple food supplement is feasible in PM suitable regions.

Forest ecological security in China: A quantitative analysis of twenty five years

Forest Ecological Security (FES) is an essential component of ecological security and plays an important role in national security. In this study, the Delphi method was used to construct a multi-index comprehensive evaluation system, and indicators were weighted using the entropy weight method. Based on data from 31 provinces, this study evaluated the status of FES in China from 1994 to 2018 and identified the influencing factors of FES. The results showed that indicators such as forest stock volume per unit land area, forest coverage rate, population density, and population per unit forest area contributed the most to the evaluation indicator system. Forest quantity and quality, as well as population pressure, were especially important factors affecting FES. In terms of spatial distribution, FES varied greatly between regions and the developments were unbalanced. Provinces in the northeast, southern and southwest forest regions, such as Jilin, Heilongjiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Yunnan, etc., had better FES due to their rich forest resources. The provinces in northwest China (Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, and Ningxia) and north China (Shanxi, Hebei, Beijing, and Tianjin) had worse FES than other provinces. With the reference of temporal variation, the national average FES increased from 0.543 (1994–1998) to 0.593 (2014–2018). Furthermore, 51.6% of the provinces (Hainan, Fujian, Heilongjiang, Beijing, etc.) had continuous upward trends in their evaluation value of FES ( V FES ) during the study period, while the other provinces (Inner Mongolia, Shanghai, Shandong, etc.) exhibited fluctuating V FES . In general, the V FES of all provinces increased during the whole study period, and the average level of FES improved significantly, which indicated that China’s FES situation has shown continued improvement.

The Chinese Factor in the Baltic States’ Security

Abstract Based on representative primary sources as well as authoritative academic and think tank analyses, this article aims to evaluate the role that Asia's emerging superpower came to play in the Baltic trio's security, with particular emphasis on its harder aspects and most recent developments, which marked a certain shift in the respective bilateral relationships. Structured according to the conventional levels of international relations analysis and rough chronological order, the qualitative study tracks the more or less direct impact of China for the comprehensive security of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania ranging from the systemic (global) to purely bilateral domains. The results show that China has indeed become a security factor to be reckoned with there, particularly since roughly 2017–2019 and primarily due to its deepening strategic partnership with Russia. Some of its security effects, however, are even older, more nuanced, yet still significant. Since roughly 2019, however, China's security factor has increasingly acquired challenging and even threatening characteristics as is most clearly demonstrated by its relationship dynamics with Lithuania.

Replacing Synthetic Nitrogen Fertilizer with Different Types of Organic Materials Improves Grain Yield in China: A Meta-Analysis

Synthetic nitrogen fertilizer substitution (NSS) with different types of organic material is a cleaner agricultural practice for reducing the application of synthetic N input in farmlands while also relieving the environmental issues caused by the discharge of organic wastes. However, the effects of the NSS practice on crop yields, being the primary objective of agricultural activity, is still uncertain in China. This study conducted a meta-analysis to assess the impacts of the NSS practices with different types of organic materials on crop yields. Results showed that the average crop yield was increased by 3.4%, with significant differences under NSS, thereby demonstrating that this practice contributed to improving crop yields, especially of rice and maize. According to published reports, the NSS practices involving chicken manure, pig manure, and crop straw increased crop yields by 4.79, 7.68, and 3.28%, respectively, with significant differences, thus demonstrating the superior effects needed for replacing synthetic N fertilizer. Moreover, substitution ratios (SR) between 0% and 60% could be suggested when using the NSS practice, with the high SR recommended when the original soil fertility was adequate for crops. Considering the long-term effects of applied organic materials, improving the grain yield with the NSS practice should be expected in the long-term. By effectively applying the NSS, this study attempted to scientifically decide on the type of organic materials and the appropriate SR based on the conditions of the soil and the crop. The results provide research information for the development of clean agricultural production and food security in China.

Impact of Cropland Reclamation on Ecological Security in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, China

Ecological security is important both for maintaining the function of an ecosystem and for providing ecosystem services to the human wellbeing. The impact of land use change/cover on ecological security has attracted considerable attention, whereas the role of cropland reclamation remains unclear. The indirect loss of ecological land that occurs upon the request of cropland requisition-compensation policies offer further changes to ecological security. In order to ascertain the impact of cropland reclamation on ecological security, in this study three scenarios are established, addressing cropland returning to ecological lands without a slope limitation, with a slope <25°, and with a reclaimed cropland slope ≥25°. This study was conducted in the Yangtze River economic belt (YREB) due to its important contribution to ecological security in China. Land uses in different scenarios in 2030 are projected using the land use simulation model LANDSCAPE. Accordingly, ecological security in each scenario was evaluated using the contribution–vigour–organization–resilience framework, comprising the variables carbon storage, water purification, water yield, habitat quality, net primary productivity, mean patch area, Shannon’s diversity index, largest patch index and contagion, as well as the normalized difference vegetation index. The results indicate that about 62% of YREB land is projected to remain stable in terms of ecological security, while about 21% will deteriorate and 17% will improve between 2015–2030. Land where ecological security is projected to improve is concentrated in areas where broad and connected croplands are distributed. The fact that a higher proportion of areas will deteriorate than improve suggests that the negative impact of cropland change on ecological security should not be ignored. Comparing different scenarios, croplands returning to ecological lands pose a particularly significant impact on ecological security, particularly in the upper reaches of the YREB, where steep croplands are concentrated.

Land Use Evolution and Land Ecological Security Evaluation Based on AHP-FCE Model: Evidence from China.

China experienced rapid urbanization and socioeconomic development at an unusual rate during the past four decades. Against such background, land use evolution and land ecological security have both been affected in a volatile way. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the land use and the land ecological security in China. However, the traditional assessment approaches have paid more attention to the environmental and economic factors than the sustainable development of ecology, which cannot comprehensively assess the land ecological security. From the perspective of ecological sustainable development, this study identifies 3 main factors and 17 sub-factors. We also construct a model to integrate the FCE approach with the AHP. The results show that from 2004 to 2017, China’s land use structure was unbalanced. The construction land, mining land, and cultivated land increased rapidly, leading to the shrinkage of ecological land. Moreover, the weight of the sustainable development of resources and the environment, economic sustainable development, social sustainable development are 0.3341, 0.3780, and 0.2879, respectively, demonstrating that economic sustainable development is the most important factor affecting land ecological security. Finally, although the value of comprehensive land ecological security in China has been on the rise from 2004 to 2017, it remains at an unsecured level. Moreover, the value of the sustainable development of resources and the environment has been declining since 2011 and is lower than the values of economic sustainable development and social sustainable development. This study demonstrates that more attention should be paid to enhancing land ecological security, especially promoting the sustainable development of resources and the environment.

Large spatial variation and stagnation of cropland gross primary production increases the challenges of sustainable grain production and food security in China

Sustainable crop grain production and food security is a grand societal challenge. Substantial investments in China's agriculture have been made in the past decades, but our knowledge on cropland gross primary production in China remains limited. Here we analyzed gross primary production (GPP), solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF), terrestrial water storage, crop grain production, and agricultural investment and policy during 2000–2018. We found that based on croplands in 2000, approximately 52 × 106 ha (~37%) had continuous increasing trends in GPP during 2000–2018, which were mainly located in northern China. GPP for 63% of croplands was stagnant, declined, or had no significant change. At the national scale, annual cropland GPP increased during 2000–2008 but became stagnant in 2009–2018, which was inconsistent with the interannual trend in the crop grain production data for 2009–2018. The spatial mismatch between crop production and water availability became worse. The major grain exporting provinces, mostly located in water-stressed regions, experienced increased water resource constraints, which posed a challenge for sustainable grain production. The stagnant cropland GPP and increasing water resource constraints highlight the urgent need for sustainable management for crop production and food security in China.

The Seventh Population Census in the PRC: Results and Prospects of the Country's Demographic Development.

This article is dedicated to a comprehensive analysis of the data of the Seventh Census in China, conducted in 2020 and to the identification of the most important demographic and socioeconomic trends in the development of the population of the People’s Republic of China. The relevance of this study is due to the impact that demographic changes have on the world’s largest economy. Given the current high level of globalization and the scale of the PRC population, any risks and threats of a demographic nature have a direct impact not only on China’s security but potentially on the situation in the Asia–Pacific region and the world as a whole. The practical significance of this work for Russia is obvious, in particular, from the point of view of improving the migration policy of the Russian Federation. This study is based on a large array of statistical data, including from the PRC National Bureau of Statistics. The quantitative and qualitative changes in the Chinese population are analyzed, including the ratio of birthrates, mortality, natural increase and fertility, gender and age imbalances, and internal migration.

Making China Modern: From the Great Qing to Xi Jinping

Making China Modern: From the Great Qing to Xi Jinping