The Tenth Anniversary of Free Trade Pilot Zones in China:Fundamental Experiences and Enhancement Strategies

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China,the country has established 21 Free Trade Pilot Zones(FTZs),achieving significant pioneering results in reform and opening up and creating a strong demonstrative effect nationwide.The basic experience from a decade of FTZs includes:adhering to the centralized and unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee;combining top-level design with encouragement of grassroots innovation;leveraging the distinct characteristics and strengths of FTZs to form a differentiated development pattern;maintaining the integration of opening up with domestic reforms;using openness to drive reforms;and organically combining openness with national security assurance.Under the current and future new circumstances,China’s FTZs face new challenges and tasks.In accordance with the directives of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China,an enhancement strategy for the FTZs needs to be implemented.This involves the following:First,accurately understanding and responding to the changing situation to create strategic opportunities.Second,shifting paradigms to implement innovation-driven strategies,using the new development pattern concept to guide the reform experiments and construction of the FTZs.Third,granting more autonomy to FTZs for reforms,pursuing progress while maintaining stability,and solidly advancing the reform experiments in the FTZs.Fourth,orderly expanding the opening up of the service sector and cautiously advancing the internationalization of the renminbi.Fifth,promoting innovative development in trade to build a strong trade nation.Sixth,establishing synergy with bilateral FTZs,Belt and Road cooperation,and national diplomatic strategies to enhance the linkage effect.

The Securitization of US Trade Policy and Its Impact on the World Trade System

Since Biden took office,the US’foreign trade policy has demonstrated a dual focus.On the one side,it continued and stepped up the trade restriction policies against China under the Trump administration,particularly the crackdown on Chinese technology enterprises;on the other hand,it eased the strained economic and trade relations during the Trump era with its allies and partner countries.

Human Rights and Human Dignity

Economic and social progress and better quality of life are crucial to the human rights situation.WHEN I talk to German friends who have lived in China for a long time-one of them has been in the country for almost 50 years-they confirm what my Chinese friends also tell me:China has become safer,better educated,and more and more open and prosperous.The increase in security also indicates an improvement in legal certainty and progress in the field of human rights.

The Implications of Urbanization Processes in Developed Countries for Africa

Urbanization is the inevitable path of national economic development,and the level of urbanization development in most African countries is still low.By analyzing five typical developed countries in the United States,Britain,France,Germany,and Japan,this paper discusses the promoting factors and problems of the rapid urbanization development in their specific years,as well as the experiences and lessons that Africa can learn,so as to prevent Africa from taking the detour in the urbanization process of Western developed countries and promote the balanced regional development of various African countries.

A Brief Analysis of the Key Points to Avoid Misunderstanding and Inappropriate Language Expressions in Business Communication

Opportunities for business cooperation have been increased dramatically in the new environment, and under such circumstance, language usage in business communication places a significant role, particularly in oral business language. To promote harmonious conversations, certain factors and manners of communication like paying attention to the cultural differences, the proper use of humor, mutual understanding, and the avoidance of misunderstanding ambiguity should be taken into consideration to avoid an unsuccessful result.

CO2 emission driving forces and corresponding mitigation strategies under low-carbon economy mode:evidence from China's Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region

On account of the background of China's "new normal" characterized by slower economic growth, this paper analyses the low-carbon economy status quo in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and empirically investigates the relationship between carbon dioxide(CO_2) emissions and its various factors for China's Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region using panel data econometric technique. We find evidence of existence of Environmental Kuznets Curve. Results also show that economic scale, industrial structure, and urbanization rate are crucial factors to promote CO_2emissions. However, technological progress, especially the domestic independent research and development, plays a key role in C0_2 emissions abatement. Next, we further analyze the correlation between each subregion and various factors according to Grey Relation Analysis. Thereby,our findings provide important implications for policymakers in air pollution control and C0_2 emissions reduction for this region.

Urban natural gas demand and factors analysis in China:Perspectives of price and income elasticities

Urban natural gas is becoming the main sector driving China’s natural gas consumption growth in recent years.This study explores the impacts of urban natural gas price,wage,socioeconomic determinants,and meteorological conditions on urban natural gas demand in China over 2006-2017.Furthermore,this study also analyzes the potential regional heterogeneity and asymmetry in the impacts of gas price and income on China’s urban gas demand.Empirical results reveal that:(1)The increased gas price can significantly reduce the urban gas demand,and the average income level may effectively promote the gas demand,also,a strong switching effect exists between electricity and natural gas in urban China;(2)these impacts are heterogeneous in regions among China,urban natural gas demand is largely affected by the gas price in regions with high-gas-price and by income in regions with low-gas-price;and(3)the impact of gas price on urban gas consumption is consistent in regions with different urban natural gas consumption,while the impact of income is asymmetric.This study further provides several policy implications for improving the urban natural gas industry in China.

How did the price and income elasticities of natural gas demand in China evolve from 1999 to 2015? The role of natural gas price reform

As a cleaner,high-efficiency,and low-carbon fuel,natural gas has been an important fuel resource for China.To achieve a substantial increase in natural gas demand,China has sought to reform its natural gas pricing mechanism.Employing a set of unbalanced panel data for China’s 30 provinces covering 1999-2015,this study aims to estimate the evolving price and income elasticities of natural gas demand and explore the effect of natural gas price reform in China.For this purpose,a series of econometric techniques allowing for cross-sectional dependence and slope homogeneity is utilized.The results suggest that although natural gas demand in China still lacks negative price elasticity,the phenomenon is improving.Moreover,the estimates suggest that natural gas demand in China is indeed becoming increasingly sensitive to income changes.Our estimates also provide strong evidence in favor of the effect of natural gas price reform on the change in price elasticity as the price elasticity decreases in five of the seven regions.In addition,the results indicate large variations in the change in price and income elasticities of natural gas demand across China’s regions.Natural gas demand is becoming more price inelastic in Southwest China and Northwest China,while such demand in North China and East China responds less sensitively to income changes.These findings offer several policy suggestions for the reform of China’s natural gas market at the national and regional levels.

Review of Carbon Emissions Trading Production Model and Research on Its Applications in China

With the Kyoto Protocol entering into effect in many countries one after another,carbon trading has come into being and developed quickly.China is the main supplier of carbon emissions rights in the world,but such transactions are still in the stage of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects without its own trading system,which is not conducive for China to win the rights of carbon pricing in the international market.Low-carbon and emissions reduction is the international trend nowadays,and therefore,it is particularly necessary and urgent to investigate the issue of carbon trading in China.In this paper,the authors have reviewed Putty-Clay Vintage,which is a model of production function for carbon trading,revealing the main points,contributions and shortcomings of the model.Combined with China's national conditions,the authors have investigated the application of this model in China's carbon trading from four different angles,including enterprise production optimization,financial market development,national macro-economy,and the allocation of emission quota.This study aims to provide China's enterprises with an analytical framework when participating in carbon trading in the future and it is beneficial for them to make optimal production planning when considering the cost of carbon emissions reduction.

Sustainable Development of Export: Theoretical Meaning, Evaluation Model, and Empirical Research

With the effect of the human trade doctrine in the international trade field, almost all the countries have paid more attention to the sustainable development of international trade. This article chose the export sustainable development as the research object. On the basis of the analysis of the theoretical connotation of the export sustainable development, this article tried to establish an evaluation indices system and set up an evaluation model of the export sustainable development level, and finally made some empirical research on China. The result indicates that the comprehensive level of the export sustainable development in China showed a tendency to rise from 1985 to 2003 and the export sustainable development level of China in these years can be divided into four grades: excellent, good, moderate and poor. In most years, the social economic benefits of export was obtained at the cost of the deterioration of environment and the depletion of resources, and the economic profit of export did not increase with the enlargement of the export scale because of the deterioration of the terms of trade. Therefore, China should be careful about the problem of poverty accompanied by the increase of export.

Transboundary inflow of solid waste:Governance and improvement path in China

In order to promote the sound development of circular economy,strengthen the construction of ecological environment,and deal with the negative environmental externalities caused by the transboundary inflow of solid waste(TISW),China has been gradually tightened up the supervision of TISW.In recent years,although TISW in China has slowed down,the‘hidden’inflow is still relatively prominent by our comparison of the data between the major outflow countries/regions and that of China.Based on China’s institutional environment and evolution path,this study has identified the government as the main body of the TISW governance in China,and the classified supervision of TISW as its basis,with relevant government departments being empowered and coordinated by the law to constantly optimize the governance procedures by promoting the pre-entry checking,port supervising and the self-disciplined compliance of stakeholders.Based on the gravity model and the unbalanced short panel data of 41 kinds of TISW with 6-digit HS coding from 12 major outflow countries/regions in the period of 2012-2017,this empirical analysis by the two-way fixed effect static panel data model and the GMM dynamic panel data model respectively shows that the governance from the Chinese government has a significant impact on the reduction of the volume of TISW.Besides,the significant positive coefficient of GDP also shows that China’s economic growth results in a certain demand for recyclable solid waste,but the variables of TISW catalogue adjustment and international cooperation are not significant.Therefore,in order to further enhance the efficiency of TISW governance,it is suggested that:①The classified supervision of TISW should be up-graded and the identification standards and procedures of TISW should also be scientifically optimized by the cooperation of relevant functional departments.②The TISW governance system at China Customs should be continuously improved by focusing on the pre-and post-entry checking and credit management of stakeholders.③Multi-channel international cooperation and information exchange should be promoted to achieve timely risk prevention and more effective post-entry supervision.

Statistical Inference in Generalized Linear Mixed Models by Joint Modelling Mean and Covariance of Non-Normal Random Effects

Generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) are typically constructed by incorporating random effects into the linear predictor. The random effects are usually assumed to be normally distributed with mean zero and variance-covariance identity matrix. In this paper, we propose to release random effects to non-normal distributions and discuss how to model the mean and covariance structures in GLMMs simultaneously. Parameter estimation is solved by using Quasi-Monte Carlo (QMC) method through iterative Newton-Raphson (NR) algorithm very well in terms of accuracy and stabilization, which is demonstrated by real binary salamander mating data analysis and simulation studies.

Opportunities and Risk Assessment of BRICs New Development Bank——New Big Powers Coordination Perspective

Under the background of counter economic globalization,the Group of Twenty(G20)has become the primary platform for the east and west powers to seek consultation and dialogue.And the coordination mechanism of the new global powers has come into being slowly.As a multilateral regional bank,the BRICsBank takes the interests of developing countries as the leading factor.Based on international economic cooperation ground,it will broaden the South-South cooperation to create more convenient conditions for foreign direct investment,as well as bilateral and multilateral financial cooperation.From new power coordination perspective,with global economy governance structure transformation as the starting point,this research accurately defines the concept of coordination mechanism,systematically analyzes the evolution of global economic governance structure,intensively interprets the current characteristics of big power coordination mode in global economic governance structure,and objective assesses trends of global political and economic pattern.It is of important policy reference implications for the BRICS member countries to effectively promote the BRICs Bank institutionalization and global governance of new power coordination nature.

Operation Efficiency Analysis of Commercial Hull Insurance Business——Based on DEA model

Hull insurance is a kind of Marine insurance,which takes various types of ships as the subject matter of insurance and covers all or part of the losses caused by natural disasters and accidents and the possible liability compensation incurred by them when they are sailing on the sea or berthing in the harbor.A time policy or a voyage policy shall be adopted for Hull insurance.Its characteristic is insurance liability is limited to water only.With the development of economy and the expansion of shipping,China’s Hull insurance industry has developed rapidly.However,no one has studied the operating efficiency of China’s commercial Hull insurance.This paper analyzes the operating efficiency of Hull insurance through DEA analysis method and puts forward relevant suggestions.

Effect of periodic wide atmospheric pressure change on CO emission in closed goaf

Atmospheric pressure fuctuation is one of the most important factors afecting the climate environment and gas emission in the fre area.To obtain the infuence rule of the surface atmospheric pressure change on the gas sampling and abnormal emission in the mine closed goaf,the No.1 coal mine in Dananhu was taken as the research object.Using Fourier transform and Fisher harmonic analysis and other statistical methods,the infuence of the periodic variation of atmospheric pressure on the gas leakage and outfow in the closed goaf was studied.The results showed that there were three atmospheric pressure periods of 15.2 d,1 d and 182.2 d,and the probability was greater than 95%.The time period with the highest number of atmospheric pressure peaks was 7:00–8:00,which accounted for 20.2%of total occurrence number in a day.And the time periods with the highest number of atmospheric pressure trough were 2:00,15:00 and 16:00,accounting for 27.4%.The peak-to-trough transition time was mainly concentrated around 6 h,and the diurnal variation curve of atmospheric pressure was mainly bimodal.The atmospheric pressure change rate was mostly concentrated in 10–50 Pa/h.It was determined that the distance that the gas sampling pipe was pre-laid into the inner side of the closed wall should be greater than 44.4 m,and the CO concentration and atmospheric pressure in the closed goaf were both periodic and negative with atmospheric pressure.The research results have important guiding signifcance for the monitoring,early warning and environmental protection of the goaf.

Development Status, Causes of Risks, and Risk Supervision Suggestions on Internet Finance in China

As a useful supplement to China's financial system,the development of internet finance has promoted the innovation of financial model and injected strong vitality into the financial market.Internet finance provides customers with more convenient and fast financial services,effectively alleviates financial exclusion,and reduces information asymmetry.It is of great significance to promote the marketization of interest rate and the development of inclusive finance in China.However,internet financial risk events occur frequently,posing a serious challenge.Therefore,this research analyzes the causes of internet financial risks,and provides suggestions on internet financial risk supervision,so as to promote a healthy development of the internet financial industry in China.

Nexus between air travel and environmental degradation in BRICS Countries:A tourism perspective

International tourism is highly dependent on air travel,which enhances destination countries’economic growth and living standards while causing environmental degradation.This study investigates the effect of air travel on environmental degradation in BRICS nations.The study used feasible generalized least squares(FGLS)to evaluate the environmental Kuznets curve using data spanning 1995 to 2018.The study finds evidence of N-shaped EKC in the economies of the BRICS nations.We also find a positive relationship between tourism,urbanization,and environmental degradation(as measured by CO_(2) and SO_(2) emissions from civil aviation)and a negative relationship between economic development and environmental degradation.To achieve sustainable growth and environmental protection and promote green technology,the BRICS governments should devise policies that address the aviation industry’s short-and long-term needs.