Australia-China Bilateral Relations:Mixed Messages

In April 2014, Prime Minister Tony Abbott visited the People＇s Republic of China （PRC） for the first time in his capacity as Australia＇s leader. He went with three key messages： to assure China that Australia was ＇ open for business＇; to affirm his commitment to finalizing the Australia-China Free Trade Agreement （FTA） by November 2014; and to offer Australia as a ＇ true friend＇ of China. In principle, these were excellent messages to send. Turning them into reality, however, is going to require some fundamental changes in Australian attitudes towards China, from the top levels of government to the public in general. Under the new leadership of Prime Minister Tumbull, the time is absolutely right to start driving that change.

Inequality in Intergenerational Mobility of Education in China

This paper investigates trends in intergenerational patterns of educational attainment of those born in China between 1941 and 1990. Employing the 2008 Rural-Urban Migration in China and Indonesia Survey, we find that intergenerational correlation is lower in rural and migrant than in urban populations. The higher mobility observed in rural and migrant populations stems from the fact that the majority of these children complete only junior high school with some children in the youngest cohorts moving down the education ladder relative to theirparents. In contrast, urban children seem to at least maintain their parents＂ education level The persistence of intergenerational transmission of education at high levels in urban areas combined with some mobility, upward or downward, in rural areas is likely to aggravate China ＂s rural-urban disparity. Policies should focus more on the underlying gaps in education opportunities and the improvement in education of the rural and migrant populations.

Inequality of Opportunity in China's Labor Earnings: The Gender Dimension

This paper investigates the inequality of opportunity in China's labor earnings,defined as the component of inequality determined by personal circumstances that lie beyond the control of an individual,of which gender is one,as opposed to the component determined by personal efforts.Using the Survey of Women's Social Status in China (2010),we measure the share of inequality of opportunity in the total inequality of individual labor earnings for people aged 26-55 years,and separately for six birth cohorts and for female and male subsamples.Gender is revealed as the single most important circumstance determining nationwide individual labor earnings,with one's region of residence, father's occupation,father's education,birth cohort and holding rural or urban hukou also playing significant roles.A further investigation into the roles of circumstances and personal efforts (including education level,occupation,Communist Party membership, migration and marital status)confirms that circumstances play.an alarmingly high role in shaping labor earnings distribution in China,and reveals notable gender differences that cannot be attributed to personal effort alone.These results provide the basis for recommending ways to improve gender equality of opportunity in the future.