Transparency In China Research Articles

Managed transparency: Chinese government transparency

There are few questions about the fact that China has achieved substantial strides in economic development over the last four decades. Nonetheless, many have cast doubts on its path of increasing transparency. Previous analyses on Chinese transparency have shed light on this issue in isolation. For this reason, we attempt to offer an integrated account of Chinese government transparency. Moreover, transparency involves various dimensions and types. For a complete understanding of transparency, therefore, considering diverse measures is critical. This article aims to provide a condensed overview of government transparency in China by considering various measures of transparency. To a certain extent, China has been successful in bringing greater transparency. Still, in many accounts, it cannot be said that the Chinese government has achieved sufficient progress in promoting transparency.

The Chinese Communist Party and regulatory transparency in China's food industry.

While it is widely accepted that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) occupies a dominant position in the Chinese political system, few studies have demonstrated CCP's dominant position based on rigorous statistical analysis. Our paper presents the first such analysis using an innovative measure of regulatory transparency in the food industry across nearly 300 prefectures in China over 10 years. We show that actions by the CCP, while broadly scoped and not targeting the food industry, significantly improved regulatory transparency in the industry. In sharp contrast, food-industry-specific interventions by the State Council, which exercises direct regulatory supervision of the industry, had no impact on regulatory transparency. These results hold in various specifications and robustness checks. Our research contributes to research in China's political system by empirically and explicitly demonstrating the dominating power of the CCP.

Managerial Ownership and Stock Price Volatility: The Moderating Role of Corporate Transparency in China

This paper aims to investigate the impact of managerial ownership on the stock price volatility in China by considering corporate transparency as a mediator. By analyzing data from 558 Chinese listed companies between 2016 and 2020, empirical results from a multiple linear regression model show a positive correlation between managerial ownership and corporate transparency. The results also provide the evidence that the negative correlation between managerial ownership and stock volatility is more (less) pronounced in companies with less (more) transparency. Enterprises should cooperate with financial analysts to increase corporate transparency. Individual investors can analyze the market performance by examining the company’s equity structure, the number of cooperative analysts, and the number of research reports so as to provide more reliable basis for investment.

Observations of water transparency in China’s lakes from space

Water transparency, usually denoted by Secchi disk depth (SSD), represents the first-order description of water quality and has important implications for the diversity and productivity of aquatic life. In China, lakes supply freshwater and ecosystem services to nearly a billion people. Therefore, real time monitoring of lake transparency is of great significance. Moreover, understanding how and why transparency varies in space and time in response to different driving forces is needed to understand, manage, and predict lake water quality. Based on the time-saving and low-cost Google Earth Engine cloud platform, this study developed a new algorithm for quickly mapping SDDs in Chinese lakes. SDDs were retrieved for 412 Chinese lakes (> 20 km2) for the period 2000–2018. Results demonstrated that lake water depth spatially differentiated transparency. Deep lakes usually had high transparency and water depth explained 88.81 % of the spatial variations. With increasing catchment vegetation coverage and lake water depth, 70.15 % of lakes witnessed increasing transparency during 2000–2018. Of these 42.72 % were significant (p < 0.05). Transparency of deep lakes was generally determined by phytoplankton density not sediment resuspension. Minimum transparency occurred in summer. Future increases in lake water levels in response to factors such as climate change may contribute to further improvements in transparency. Management should focus on controlling eutrophication and increasing vegetation cover in catchments.

External environmental change and transparency in grassroots organizations in China

As the nonprofit sector emerges in China, so too do the concerns about nonprofit transparency. In response to calls for increased nonprofit information disclosure and the lack of related research, this study examines changes in transparency of Chinese grassroots nonprofit organizations. Using the first national Survey of Transparency on Grassroots Organizations (2013–2015), this study finds that Chinese grassroots nonprofit transparency has increased in the past few years. Applying resource dependence theory in China‐specific social contexts, this study highlights the importance of external resource to nonprofit transparency. These findings contribute empirical evidence to the nascent literature on nonprofit transparency and provide implications for enhancing nonprofit transparency in China and beyond.

Developing Meaningful Higher Education Evaluation Systems: Putting China in Context

This paper firstly reviews how issues of accountability and transparency have become some of the key drivers of government policy over recent years. It finds that the drive for greater higher education accountability and transparency has encouraged the growth of an international evaluation industry. It secondly discusses issues related to different types of policy and evaluation instruments across Europe, as well as the importance of rankings. It finds that traditional approaches have relied on collegiality, expert judgment, and peer review, and there is a growing focus on indicator-led systems in the belief that indicators are value-free and statistically robust so that leads to rankings have a significant part of development. The paper finally discusses and compares trends and developments of accountability and transparency in China’s higher education. It finds that China is now pursuing “World-class Universities” (WCUs) establishment and China’s experience reflect the challenges and tensions around quality and accountability.

Institutional ownership and corporate transparency in China

This letter examines the effect of institutional ownership on corporate information transparency in Chinese listed firms. We find strong evidence that mutual fund and qualified foreign institutional investors significantly improve corporate transparency. Our results suggest that institutional shareholders play an important role in improving both corporate governance and accounting transparency and are consistent with the view that institutional investors monitor and protect the interests of minority shareholders.

Towards judicial transparency in China: The new public access database for court decisions

Since 2013 judicial reforms in China have intensified. While recent studies of the Chinese judiciary have focused on structural reforms concerning the jurisdiction of courts and internal court management, it has largely gone unnoticed that the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) has established an open-access database archiving the decisions of every court in China. On the basis of legal documents, secondary literature and interviews with experts, this study investigates the implications of the new database. We find that the database establishes new channels of communication that affect the relationship between the courts and the public, and the position of judges within the judiciary. Further, the open-access database facilitates changes in the structure of communication among legal experts, which in turn promotes legal professionalism. We argue that the SPC made use of the party policy on the direct accountability of the courts towards the people in order to pursue its institutional interest in a professional judiciary.

Artificial Momentum, Native Contrarian, and Transparency in China

The Chinese stock market has a large ratio of retail investors, which is significantly different from the stock markets in the US and Europe. We have known that momentum profits exist in the latter by applying Jegadeesh and Titman’s (J Financ 48:65–91, 1993) model with 6-month formation and holding periods. However, there are only a few studies on momentum profits in China. Therefore, this study examines whether the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets produce momentum profits. We find that these two markets have significant contrarian but not momentum profits. We also create an “artificial momentum” portfolio and follow Bhattacharya et al. (Account Rev 78:641–678, 2003) to compute the transparency indices. Our outcomes show that the corporate transparencies of the winners (losers) in the artificial momentum portfolios are close to those in the commonly-defined momentum portfolios. The averages of the decile transparencies are between 4.5 and 6.5, not only for the top 10% of winners but also for the bottom 10% of losers. According to these results, we suggest that financial transparency is irrelevant to the inertia and reversal of stock prices in the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets.

Multimodality, Transparency, and Food Safety in China

In September 2008, revelation of melamine‐contaminated milk supplies in China's dairy industry rocked its manufacturing sector still reeling from highly publicized food and safety scandals in 2007. Despite state and corporate interventions, regulatory and quality management issues highlighted in these earlier scandals remained. Local government and corporate actors’ attempts to suppress information about the scandal highlighted concerns about transparency, accountability, and corruption. This article is based on ethnographic research conducted in 2009 and 2010 in Beijing and Shanghai and across 2012 and 2013 in Beijing and China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. My goals are twofold. First, I seek to move forward discussions of transparency in China, which often suffer from easy dismissals by academics, the media and the public alike. Second, I aim to broaden our understanding of transparency as not just fulfilling multiple functions but also as multimodal in that it is actively produced across different scales of experience and through diverse mechanisms. Using data focused on the production and monitoring of food safety, I describe the structural challenges that led to the 2008 scandal, the measures implemented in the industry to prevent future problems, and the broader discussions and interventions designed to improve China's overall food safety record.

Book Review: Media Transparency in China: Rethinking Rhetoric and Reality by Baohui Xie

Book Review: <i>Media Transparency in China: Rethinking Rhetoric and Reality</i> by Baohui Xie

Transparency of Grassroots Human Service Organizations in China: Does Transparency Affect Donation and Grants?

Grassroots human service organizations in China are experiencing fast development yet facing inadequate public trust. In this study, we analyze Chinese grassroots human service organizations’ level of transparency regarding basic information, governance, finance, and activity transparency. We identify factors that may influence transparency and examine the effects of transparency on donation and grant income. Our findings suggest that Chinese grassroots human service organizations had low transparency in 2011. Organizations’ donation income is positively related to their transparency, especially financial transparency. Based on our findings, we suggest how to improve grassroots human service organizations’ transparency in China and beyond.

Media Transparency in China: Rethinking Rhetoric and Reality, by Baohui Xie. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2014. xxii + 195 pp. $85.00/£51.95 (hardcover), $84.99/£51.95 (eBook).

Previous articleNext article No AccessReviewsMedia Transparency in China: Rethinking Rhetoric and Reality, by Baohui Xie. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2014. xxii + 195 pp. $85.00/£51.95 (hardcover), $84.99/£51.95 (eBook).Judy PolumbaumJudy PolumbaumUniversity of Iowa Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The China Journal Volume 74July 2015 Published on behalf of the Australian Centre on China in the World at the Australian National University Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/681742 Views: 81Total views on this site Copyright 2015 by The Australian National University. All rights reserved. For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Does Analyst coverage Affect Corporate Transparency in China?

This paper examines the impact of analyst coverage on the financial reporting quality of firms as reflected by modified audit opinions (MAOs). Using a sample of Chinese listed firms between 2003 and 2009, we find that analyst coverage, which serves as an external governance mechanism, helps to enhance the financial reporting quality of Chinese listed firms. Such effect is more pronounced for non-state-owned enterprises (i.e. private firms), in that they are more dependent on external equity capital and therefore under greater pressure from analysts to provide high-quality accounting information. Furthermore, analysts plays a more effective role for firms with stronger incentives to manipulate financial reports. Our findings are robust to the control of endogeneity issue.

How China's Crackdown on Corruption Has Led to Less Transparency in Its Enforcement of Its Anti-Bribery Laws

China’s recent crackdown on government corruption and commercial bribery by multinational companies is widely known. As part of this campaign against bribery, the Chinese government has promulgated a number of new laws against corruption and bribery as well as lengthy and binding interpretations of existing laws. The Chinese state-controlled media is also full of reports of convictions of corrupt officials and hefty fines imposed on greedy multinationals trying to bribe their way to business success in China. Although these developments may indicate an increase in transparency in the enforcement climate against corruption and commercial bribery, ironically the crackdown on corruption has led to less transparency in China’s enforcement of its anti-bribery laws. The reason is that as cases of government corruption and commercial bribery become more important and the stakes become higher, the Communist Party believes that it must take a more hands on approach to these cases by directing their outcomes from behind the scenes. Since the Party controls all government enforcement authorities and the courts, the Party is able to dictate the outcome of cases in secrecy. As these cases have grown in number and importance, the role of the Party has also grown adding to the political intrigue, bargaining between rival factions of the Party, and the settling of old scores playing out behind the scenes in these cases in secretive Party proceedings. Once the Party makes a decision, it will then direct a public entity, a government enforcement authority or a court, on how to dispose of the case. But the real reasons for the disposition of the case by the Party are never revealed to the public or to the parties leading to less transparency in the enforcement of China’s anti-bribery laws.

Labour under threat: The rise and (possible) fall of ‘collective bargaining in South China

INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 3 Volume 22 Issue 4 2015 FOCUS ❐ LABOUR SITUATION IN CHINA Labour under threat: The rise and (possible) fall of ‘collective bargaining’ in South China After at least three years of delay, the Guangdong Regulation on Collective Consultation and Collective Contract came into force in 1 January 2015 in this phenomenon has been on-going labour militancy and its role as a driver of state policy. Consequently, state policy has not been static in recent years. After at least three years of delay, the Guangdong Regulation on Collective Consultation and Collective Contract came into force in 1 January 2015. The ILO described the new regulation as heralding a ‘good year for business in Guangdong’ and argued that the new regulations provided a framework for collective bargaining. After years of lobbying aimed at reducing the impact of the regulations on Hong Kong business interests in Guangdong, The Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce congratulated itself on getting all references to sector- and industry-level bargaining removed from the Regulations and raising the trigger threshold for demands for collective bargaining from a third to a half of all workers in an enterprise. The ACFTU has also been under pressure to react to labour unrest. Following the watershed 2010 strike by auto-parts workers employed in a Honda factory in Foshan, provincial and city levels of the organisation in Guangdong announced a willingness to experiment with various reforms with the potential to facilitate limited forms of collective bargaining. The two most important were pilots in the election of enterprise trade union committees that are largely appointed by management or higher trade unions; and the cautious emergence of annual collective bargaining in key industries, notably the auto industry and to a lesser extent at port terminals. Results to date have been mixed. In October 2013, university student researchers working undercover in factories wrote an open letter to the Shenzhen Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU) claiming that only two out the five factories they had worked in had effective elected union branches. Annual collective bargaining in Guangdong’s auto sector has been more interesting . Former chairman of the Guangzhou Federation of Trade Unions Chen Weiguang reported that the median negotiated pay rise in six Guangzhou-based wholly-owned auto parts factories was 15 percent for the period 2011-2012 and an average wage of RMB 3256 for frontline shop floor workers – excluding deputy supervisors and above – in 2013. In larger, more capital-intensive joint venture auto assembly plants, the median wage increase over the same period was 19 percent – but with higher differentials – and an average wage of RMB 5834. However, something of a stalemate has emerged over the last two years as state policy has swung back towards prioritising stability in the face of a generalised economic slowdown. On the one hand, the more repressive organs of the state have launched campaigns of intimidation and arrests against civil society actors such as the O n 3 December 2015, police began raiding the homes and offices of labour rights activists across the city of Guangzhou and the Pearl River Delta in China’s southernmost province of Guangdong. At least 21 people were taken in for questioning. Six have since been charged with gathering crowds to disrupt public order and one with embezzlement. They are facing prison sentences. Worse, there are rumours of the accusations being ‘upgraded’ to the much more serious charge of ‘threatening state security’. It carries a sentence of up to fifteen years in prison. In response, trade unionists, labour organisations , activists and academics have written articles and signed petitions calling for the release of the detainees. National union federations, Global Union Federations and the ITUC have contacted the party-led All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) expressing concern and calling for the organisation to intervene on behalf of the labour activists. Given the absence of transparency in China’s judiciary, the denial of regular access to lawyers and general climate of fear that this and previous crackdowns on lawyers and human rights defenders has created, on-going international solidarity is going to be a key resource for both detained activists and operational labour NGOs (LNGOs) in coming...

Book Review: Media Transparency in China: Rethinking Rhetoric and Reality

Book Review: Media Transparency in China: Rethinking Rhetoric and Reality

FRAND in China

This Essay discusses antitrust-related FRAND issues in China. In Part I, the Essay provides an overview of China’s antitrust regime and its interaction with intellectual property rights. In doing so, the Essay offers an explanation of the nature of the Chinese antitrust regime that builds upon both the industrial organization and the political economy literatures. In Part II, this Essay discusses standard setting in China, and how FRAND-related issues are handled under Chinese standard-setting laws and regulations. In Part III, the Essay explores recent developments in Chinese courts that impact FRAND. In particular, it discusses the Huawei v. InterDigital case and its implications for global FRAND licensing. In Part IV, the Essay offers thoughts on the lack of transparency in China’s antitrust regime as well as the use of industry policy in the FRAND setting and how these issues may negatively impact consumer welfare.

New development: Fiscal transparency in China—government policy and the role of social media

Despite a reputation for secrecy, the Chinese government recently adopted a policy of publishing official financial information. The policy applies to all levels of government in China. The information released is being amplified by the media, particularly the internet-based social media, and has triggered unprecedented public discussion about corruption in government and financial management practices. This article describes the evolution and impact of this new fiscal transparency in China, and the role of social media in transmitting government financial information and providing feedback to government. Since this information is available only in Chinese, this article also discusses its general contents.

China's Compliance with WTO Transparency Requirement: Institution-Related Impediments

This article examines the institution-related impediments to China’s compliance with WTO transparency requirements provided in GATT Article X. The problem of transparency in China’s national trade administration was not only the centre of focus in the negotiations before its accession to the WTO, but is one of remaining obstacles and sources of complaints after the accession. It argues that the strategy of imposing WTO-plus obligations on China would not be rational or more effective at promoting compliance in the sense that it requires weaker members to undertake more. For a possible solution of better compliance, an in-depth analysis of those impediments would be a crucial and necessary step. This provides an essential point to be considered for the discussion on the extent to which GATT Article X, as one of the most abstract and intrusive obligations, should be applied in the WTO case law.