China's global shipping connectivity had been somewhat overlooked as the bulk of related studies predominantly focused on the throughput volume of its own port cities. This article tackles such lacunae by providin...China's global shipping connectivity had been somewhat overlooked as the bulk of related studies predominantly focused on the throughput volume of its own port cities. This article tackles such lacunae by providing a relational perspective based on the extraction of vessel movement archives from the Lloyd's List corpus. Two complementary analyses are proposed: long-term dynamics with all ships included(1890–2008) and medium-term dynamics focusing on container flows(1978–2016). Each analysis examines China's maritime connectivity in various ways and on different spatial scales, from the global to the local, in terms of concentration, vulnerability, and expansion. The main results underline the influence of technological, economic, and political factors on the changing distribution of connectivity internally and externally. In particular, China has managed to reduce its dependence upon external transit hubs, to increase the internal connectivity of its own port system, and to strengthen its dominance towards an increasing number of foreign nodes and trade partners through the maritime network.展开更多
The segmentation of the social protection system in China renders the system not only inequitable but inefficient.Those employed in the public sector,particularly civil servants,are＂overprotected＂,while workers in t...The segmentation of the social protection system in China renders the system not only inequitable but inefficient.Those employed in the public sector,particularly civil servants,are＂overprotected＂,while workers in the non-public sector,especially farmers and rural migrant workers,are＂under-protected＂.The segmented pension system impedes labor mobility while increasing administrative costs.Policies aimed at developing the new rural cooperative medical system and new rural old-age insurance scheme,as well as policies aimed at encouraging migrant workers to participate in urban social insurance programs,help improve the equity of social protection.Howere,competition between different local governments to win the ＂welfae crown＂ and the heavy brden placed on local finance caused by welface overspending has been hurting the sustainability of social protection programs.The following measures are suggested to address these problems;First,cease using social insurance coverage as an indicator of work performance for government officials;second,enhance the responsibility of the central government in social expenditure while increasing public transfers to less-developed regions in order to improve social assistance and merit goods provision;third,integrate or reorganized various sgements into one entity under each insurance program,with the purpose of eventually eliminating the segmentation problem in China＇s social protection system.展开更多
基金Under the auspice of European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme(FP/2007-2013)/ERC(313847)‘World Seastems’National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.41371140)National Social Science Foundation of China(No.16ZDA016)
文摘China's global shipping connectivity had been somewhat overlooked as the bulk of related studies predominantly focused on the throughput volume of its own port cities. This article tackles such lacunae by providing a relational perspective based on the extraction of vessel movement archives from the Lloyd's List corpus. Two complementary analyses are proposed: long-term dynamics with all ships included(1890–2008) and medium-term dynamics focusing on container flows(1978–2016). Each analysis examines China's maritime connectivity in various ways and on different spatial scales, from the global to the local, in terms of concentration, vulnerability, and expansion. The main results underline the influence of technological, economic, and political factors on the changing distribution of connectivity internally and externally. In particular, China has managed to reduce its dependence upon external transit hubs, to increase the internal connectivity of its own port system, and to strengthen its dominance towards an increasing number of foreign nodes and trade partners through the maritime network.
文摘The segmentation of the social protection system in China renders the system not only inequitable but inefficient.Those employed in the public sector,particularly civil servants,are＂overprotected＂,while workers in the non-public sector,especially farmers and rural migrant workers,are＂under-protected＂.The segmented pension system impedes labor mobility while increasing administrative costs.Policies aimed at developing the new rural cooperative medical system and new rural old-age insurance scheme,as well as policies aimed at encouraging migrant workers to participate in urban social insurance programs,help improve the equity of social protection.Howere,competition between different local governments to win the ＂welfae crown＂ and the heavy brden placed on local finance caused by welface overspending has been hurting the sustainability of social protection programs.The following measures are suggested to address these problems;First,cease using social insurance coverage as an indicator of work performance for government officials;second,enhance the responsibility of the central government in social expenditure while increasing public transfers to less-developed regions in order to improve social assistance and merit goods provision;third,integrate or reorganized various sgements into one entity under each insurance program,with the purpose of eventually eliminating the segmentation problem in China＇s social protection system.
