This book deals with institutional reforms in response to a mounting environmental crisis in Vietnam. The author introduces the reader to the most important environmental problems that Vietnam is currently facing and shows how the emphasis on economic growth has come at the expense of the natural environment. Following an assessment of the still deteriorating environmental situation, the book develops a theoretical framework of institutional change within the political system seeking to ov...

Since World War II, students in East and Southeast Asia have led protest movements that toppled authoritarian regimes in countries such as Indonesia, South Korea, and Thailand. Elsewhere in the region, student protests have shaken regimes until they were brutally suppressed—most famously in China’s Tiananmen Square and in Burma. But despite their significance, these movements have received only a fraction of the notice that has been given to American and European student protests of the 19...

Ortmann, Lau, and Chan together with the contributors provide an innovative assessment of the impact of the National Security Law on Hong Kong politics. The law was introduced by the Chinese government in 2020 and has since fundamentally transformed the political landscape of the former British colony. The book explores how Hong Kong's transformation in governance, law, education, and civil society has amounted to one of the most significant episodes of autocratization in the world in rece...

There are only few discoveries and new technologies in physical sciences that have the potential to dramatically alter and revolutionize our electronic world. Topological insulators are one of them. The present book for the first time provides a full overview and in-depth knowledge about this hot topic in materials science and condensed matter physics. Techniques such as angle-resolved photoemission spectrometry (ARPES), advanced solid-state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) or scanning-tun...

We know everything and nothing about China. We know that China is changing so fast that the maps in Shanghai need to be redrawn every two weeks. We know that China has brought 300 million people from agricultural backwardness into modernity in just thirty years, and that its impact on the global economy is growing at unprecedented speed. We have an image of China as a dictatorship; a nationalist empire that threatens its neighbors and global peace.But how many people know about the...

More than two-thirds of the new airports under construction today are being built in China. Chinese airlines expect to triple their fleet size over the next decade and will account for the fastest-growing market for Boeing and Airbus. But the Chinese are determined to be more than customers. In 2011, China announced its Twelfth Five-Year Plan, which included the commitment to spend a quarter of a trillion dollars to jump-start its aerospace industry. Its goal is to produce the Boeings and ...

Soft power has become a very popular concept in international affairs, appearing in government policy papers, academic discussions, and the popular media. In China, soft power has become one of the most frequently used phrases among political leaders, leading academics, and journalists. Defined against hard power, which often involves threat and coercion, soft power applies attraction, persuasion, and cooperation, finding its sources in culture, political values, and foreign policies. Chin...

The European Union is increasingly being asked to manage crises inside and outside the Union. From terrorist attacks to financial crises, and natural disasters to international conflicts, many crises today generate pressures to collaborate across geographical and functional boundaries. What capacities does the EU have to manage such crises? Why and how have these capacities evolved? How do they work and are they effective? This book offers an holistic perspective on EU crisis management. I...

China's rapid economic growth, modernization and globalization have led to astounding social changes. Contemporary China provides a fascinating portrayal of society and social change in the contemporary People's Republic of China. This book introduces readers to key sociological perspectives, themes and debates about Chinese society. It explores topics such as family life, citizenship, gender, ethnicity, labour, religion, education, class and rural/urban inequalities. It considers China's ...

While, over the last 30 years, the global economy's center of gravity has shifted to East Asia, the region has remained surprisingly free of interstate military conflict. Yet this era of peace and growth has been punctuated by periodic reminders of enduring security problems in the region—from China's military modernization, to unresolved territorial disputes, to persistent tensions on the Korean peninsula.This volume is one of the first to treat these issues of economics and secur...

China is huge. China is growing more powerful. Yet China remains a great mystery to most people in the West. This contemporary history, based on the latest scholarly research, offers a balanced perspective of the continuing legacy of Maoism in the lives not only of China's leaders but China's working people. It outlines the ambitious economic reforms taken since the 1980s and shows the complex responses to the consequences of reform in China today.Cheek shows the domestic concerns ...

Since the global financial crisis of 2008–9, central-level, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in China have extended their reach into the Chinese economy. Some have interpreted this development as a turning point in Chinese economic development; a decision for state capitalism and a stand against slow but steady marketization. In The Advance of the State in Contemporary China, Sarah Eaton suggests that the shift is a much slower-moving process and that this particular aspect of state sector r...