Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper focuses on the role increasingly played by the People?s Republic of China in Central Asia as well as the convenience of taking into account such role in order to do an accurate analysis of the recent developments in the region. Contrary to many authors who consider the PRC as exclusively East oriented, I argue that the PRC has stronger and stronger security, political, energy and economic interests which make it look West.Thus, in my point of view, the People?s Republic of China tries to project a greater influence on a region with which it has both historical and present links (part of Central Asia belonged to the Chinese Empire in the past centuries and the Eastern Turkistan or Xinjiang is still under Chinese sovereignty). Nowadays, however, Central Asia is a region where the interests of a number of different powers coincide. Thus, the relations of China with some major powers like Russia or the United States are also taken into account to some extent. In this sense, the strong presence of the United States in Central Asia seems to be of particular concern for China; the PRC seeks to prevent what it sees as US attempts to ?encircle China? and set the basis for a more multipolar international system.Despite all these obstacles, the People?s Republic of China has managed to increase its influence in Central Asia and develop a stronger relation with the countries of the region, especially in the trade and investment fields but also in the political and security ones. Thus, the importance of the role currently played by China in the Central Asian scenario becomes undeniable.The contribution will be based on published materials related to Chinese Foreign Policy, Chinese relations with Central Asian countries and Central Asia and expert interviews.

Publication Type: Invited Paper
Abstract: Employing a content analysis approach, this study examined the portrayals of grandparents and their grandparenting styles in Laotongzhi Zhiyou (Friend of Old Comrades), a national monthly magazine in China with a current circulation of 450, 000. The magazine’s target audience is retirees as well as organizations and governmental departments engaged in work related to the elderly. Results were discussed in light of cultivation theory and intergenerational communication research literature in both Eastern and Western cultural contexts.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The problem of drug addiction has been of increasing concern to the Chinese authorities. Whilst drug addiction itself is not characterized as a criminal offence, it is seen as causing serious social harm and as being closely related to a range of criminal activities. To date, the authorities have used a range of measures to cure drug addiction including the police detention powers of coercive drug rehabilitation and, for recidivist drug addicts, re-education through labour. These strategies have not been very effective. In 2007 the Drug Prohibition Law, passed by the NPC Standing Committee, introduced a more comprehensive approach to addressing problems of drug use and addiction. This paper examines the extent to which this law reflects a change in attitude about how to address problems of drug addiction and gives a preliminary evaluation of the implementation of the law.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper examines the rise of Project Hope, one of China’s first and most successful donative-type charities. The organization, which solicits donations for poor rural schoolchildren to help them finish their educations, was founded in 1989 and paved the way for a new wave of charities and NGO’s in the PRC. The success of Project Hope and the subsequent growth of the non-profit sector is especially surprising given that China arguably has no history of an organizational form much like the Western donative-style charity. This paper draws upon new institutionalist and social capital theoretical approaches to explicate the challenges faced by emerging Chinese charities, and to make sense of the strategies used by Project Hope in response to those challenges. Specifically, it examines two strategies and their consequences: 1) blurring the distinction between charitable organizations and the state, and 2) building personal relationships between donors and recipients.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This study provides a unique perspective of how institutional structures in PRC affect individual ethnic options and ethnic relations in the society. With an analysis of the 1% sample of 1990 census data, we examine the trend and patterns of choosing ethnicity among offspring of minority-Han intermarriage. We explain how the institutional factors, including the fixed ethnic categorization, ethnicity more as a political status, strong advantages associated with minority status, and strong ethnic consciousness among ethnic minorities, have made choosing ethnic minority a more favored option among offspring of almost all types of minority-Han intermarriages and thus has led to a process of reverse assimilations. That is, in the country, not that ethnic minorities are assimilated to the majority Han, like what usually happens in pluralist societies; rather, the majority Han are being assimilated by ethnic minorities.