Environmental regulation has traditionally been perceived as a strategic constraint that increases compliance costs and weakens firm competitiveness. Recent sustainability and climate change concerns, however, raise the possibility that regulation can act as a catalyst for innovation rather than merely a burden. This study investigates whether environmental regulation promotes green innovation and under what organizational and institutional conditions this effect is amplified. We focus on how firms convert external regulatory pressures into internal innovation capabilities. Our emphasis is on the roles of ownership type, governance depth, and financing constraints. Drawing on a longitudinal panel of 1,500 publicly listed Chinese firms from 2010 to 2024, we integrate environmental, governance, and financial data at the firm-year level. Fixed-effects Poisson and negative binomial models with province×year and industry×year controls are employed to capture count-based patenting outcomes and spatial-policy shocks. Results show that stronger environmental regulation is positively associated with higher green invention patenting. This relationship is significantly stronger for state-owned enterprises, firms with larger boards, and industries with high pollution intensity. The effect is weaker for highly leveraged firms. Theoretically, this research refines the Porter Hypothesis by specifying boundary conditions under which regulation stimulates innovation rather than suppressing it.

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Article 1232 of the Civil Code establishes a liability system for punitive damages in environmental torts with distinctive Chinese characteristics. Possessing the dual legal interest characteristics of public and private interests and applicable to both environmental public interest litigation and environmental private interest litigation, it aims to impose multiple damages on environmental infringers to fully remedy damaged rights and interests, as well as to punish and deter environmental infringing acts. However, constrained by factors such as the ambiguity of the normative content itself and the complexity of environmental tort cases, numerous application dilemmas remain in the judicial practice of punitive damages for environmental torts, presenting a certain tension between the operational effectiveness of the system and the legislative presupposed goals. Adopting a functionalist perspective, this paper comprehensively employs research methods such as legal dogmatics and Law and Economics to examine the institutional dilemmas of punitive damages for environmental torts and proposes targeted legal pathways for resolving these application dilemmas. In terms of content, this paper defines the institutional functions of punitive damages for environmental torts, analyzing their multiple functions of punishment, deterrence, incentive, and environmental restoration. Secondly, applying functionalist analysis, this paper examines the application dilemmas of punitive damages for environmental torts. Specifically: (1) Regarding application rules, the scope of subjective elements is narrow, limited only to intentional torts while ignoring cases of gross negligence; (2) Regarding the calculation of damages, inconsistent calculation standards lead to insufficient incentives in private interest litigation and excessive deterrence in public interest litigation; (3) Regarding fund management, there are risks of "private appropriation" in the attribution of damages in private interest litigation and the dilemma of "fiscalization" in public interest litigation; (4) Regarding liability offset, the overlap between fines and penalties in public law and civil punishment causes an imbalance in the liability system. Finally, addressing the aforementioned application dilemmas, this paper proposes specific pathways for optimizing the punitive damages system for environmental torts: First, it is suggested to include gross negligence within the scope of application in private interest litigation to activate the incentive function of punitive damages. Second, based on the principles of Law and Economics, it is suggested to establish "illegal gains" as the priority base for calculation and to limit judicial discretion by introducing a quantitative model for multiplier discretion. Third, it is suggested to implement a diversion mechanism for private and public interests in fund management to ensure that punitive damages are genuinely used for environmental restoration. Fourth, it proposes establishing a sound liability offset mechanism to coordinate the relationship between fines and penalties in public law and civil damages, ensuring the priority of environmental restoration.

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The construction of an independent knowledge system is a crucial step in advancing the discourse of health law in China to reach the global stage and contributing to the creation of a new model of civilization. This article draws on the "local knowledge" embedded in health law in China and aims to integrate fragmented, scattered, and context-specific branch of legal norms into a coherent logical framework, guided by clear principles, theoretical foundations, and research paradigms, thereby forming a comprehensive independent knowledge system. This requires a rigorous understanding of the system's core categories and intrinsic values, while tracing its developmental trajectory through the evolution of legislative and disciplinary history. Besides, it should be noted that the essence of constructing the above independent knowledge system in China lies in using Chinese theory to address Chinese problems and forming a comprehensive legal theoretical framework. Such an independent knowledge system involves the integration, permeation, and synthesis of concepts, propositions, theories, logics, ideas, and methods in the field of law. Building on this foundation, while emphasizing problem awareness, a problem-oriented approach should be adopted to offer systematic, professional, and discipline-specific interpretations of both practical challenges in health law application and theoretical issues in academic research. Specifically, at the practical level, the focus should be on the issue of interests involved in citizens' health affairs, the profound changes currently reshaping medical and health activities in China, and the interaction between Chinese health law and international health affairs; at the theoretical level, the focus should be on the specific academic problems emerging from the evolution of health law, oriented toward major national strategies and frontier disciplinary issues. The construction of an independent knowledge system for health law in China has long been an autonomous theoretical development within the legal academic community. Therefore, it is essential to start from the historical transition in a risk society and use law to maintain proper medical order and achieve effective social governance. By extension, certain aspects must be clarified in this process: first, at the level of normative commands, health law consists of obligations to act or refrain from acting, as well as norms establishing or altering general behavioral standards or specific duties. Second, in terms of behavioral guidance, health law operates through voluntary compliance, social pressure, or the deterrent effect of procedural enforcement. Third, in terms of justice and order, beyond realizing justice, health law must also consider social stability. Additionally, safeguarding existential security should serve as the foundational logic of this knowledge system. By prioritizing the creation of a collaborative and efficient discourse in health law in China, the focus should be on fostering an integrated, shared-governance framework for a global community of health. It should also be pointed out that the effectiveness and influence of the contemporary discourse system in health law in China depend largely depend on whether the different discourses within it—namely, political discourse (directed toward policymakers), academic discourse (directed toward scholars), and public discourse (directed toward society)—can engage in coordinated dialogue and generate collective strength. Only through such efforts can traditional Chinese legal culture be revitalized for the contemporary era, offering indispensable Chinese wisdom and solutions to global health governance.

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While pursuing substantial justice in individual cases, the judicial balancing of interests also consistently faces the risk of devolving into subjective arbitrariness. In the era of China’s Civil Code, a systematic framework of standardized theory and practical path for interest balancing should be constructed. Interest balancing is not an unconstrained subjective act but a rational activity that objectifies subjective adjudicative reasoning. It should play a core role in close the legal loopholes, reconciling value conflicts, and realizing the transformation from “law in books” to “law in action.” Consequently, this aims to achieve the core objectives of unification in multiple dimensions of interest balancing, including: formal legality with substantial rationality, individualized justice with abstract justice, judicial activism with judicial restraint, and the subjectification of adjudicative reasoning with objectification of adjudicative reasoning. Currently, interest balancing in Chinese civil law practice faces a trilemma: (1) the transition from a traditional acquaintance society to a stranger society has led to the loss of value consensus and the intensification of conflicts of interest; (2) judicial transformations impact interest balancing, manifesting as inconsistent judgments in similar cases affecting the outcomes of balancing, the generalization of social public interest affecting the authority of balancing, and the lack of reasoning in adjudication affecting the recognition of balancing; emerging technologies also pose challenges to interest balancing, affecting its adjudication and fairness. To address these challenges, the appropriateness of interest balancing should serve as the cornerstone: at the value level, the core socialist values should coalesce modern consensus, constructing a hierarchy of values centered on rights such as the right to life and personal dignity; priority should be given to adhering to rules, applying legal principles to achieve a coherent legal order, and strengthening the duty of reasoning in adjudication; and a shift in mindset from rights attribution to interest enjoyment and risk allocation should be completed. By leveraging new auxiliary tools for judicial review, the appropriateness of interest balancing can be enhanced, ultimately achieving the unity of legal and social outcomes.

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The European Union (EU) has raised concerns about China's increasing dominance in the global electric vehicle (EV) and EV battery industries. As a response, the EU has implemented regulatory measures and imposed countervailing duties on Chinese-made EVs. However, as the EU speeds up its adoption of electric vehicles, the demand for Chinese EV batteries continues to grow. This situation creates both opportunities and challenges for China, leading to an increase in Chinese outward direct investment (ODI) and exports to the EU as a way to navigate trade restrictions. This study examines trade patterns and key export destinations in the EV and EV battery sectors based on the timing of China's ODI flows to the EU. Exports and investments related to complete EV sales are primarily concentrated in Western and Southern Europe, particularly in Belgium, Spain, and Germany, where EV consumption and automobile manufacturing are most advanced. In contrast, exports and investments in EV batteries are focused on Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain, reflecting China's strategy to supply local EV manufacturing plants and use Germany and Belgium as logistics and re-export hubs. Overall, China is strategically expanding its presence across the EU’s EV and battery industries, rather than just targeting select markets. As China's economic influence increases, internal divisions among EU member states have become more pronounced, undermining a unified approach to sanctions. This development highlights China's efforts to mitigate EU restrictions and suggests a potential for cooperation in areas such as carbon markets, climate change, and the circular economy.

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This study examines the impact of changes in U.S. presidential leadership on Washington’s policy toward China and the dynamics of bilateral relations, with the aim of drawing implications for the anticipated Trump–Xi 2.0 era. To this end, it adopts Margaret Archer’s morphogenetic perspective, which highlights the cyclical process through which existing structures and agents interact to generate new institutional configurations. It further employs Burns’s and Barber’s models of presidential leadership to analyze the contrasting leadership orientations of Donald Trump and Joseph Biden. Within this analytical framework, President Trump exhibited a passionate and assertive approach to governance. However, his frequent expressions of negative emotion and discontent—particularly his excessive preoccupation with and hostility toward critics and institutional checks—align him with a Hamiltonian leadership style characterized by dissatisfaction with the status quo. In contrast, President Biden has consistently demonstrated respect for constitutional norms and the separation of powers, maintaining cooperative relations with Congress. He has led primarily through institutional channels that emphasize compromise and bipartisanship. While his policies have occasionally faced opposition, Biden has generally responded with restraint and inclusiveness, seeking to integrate divergent perspectives through negotiation and adjustment. Accordingly, he exemplifies a Madisonian leadership style grounded in satisfaction with the existing political order. Although it remains difficult to determine precisely the extent to which these leadership shifts have influenced—or will influence—the trajectory of U.S.–China relations, the relative stability of domestic and international environments in recent years suggests that such a pronounced transformation in leadership is likely to have exerted a meaningful impact. These findings suggest that, in the forthcoming Trump–Xi 2.0 era, the international community—drawing on the lessons of the earlier phase—should take leadership as a critical variable in anticipating and responding to future shifts in U.S. policy and global behavior.

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This study systematically reviews empirical research conducted between 2018 and 2025 in order to analyse the impact of China's Emissions Trading System (ETS) on innovation, productivity, financial performance, and carbon emission reduction following its introduction in seven pilot regions in 2013, examining the manifestation and mechanisms of the Porter hypothesis. A comprehensive review of micro-level studies at the firm and regional levels was undertaken, and the weak Porter hypothesis was supported by multiple studies. However, the strong Porter hypothesis—whereby innovation translates into productivity gains and improved financial performance—received only limited empirical support. With regard to productivity, whilst the majority of studies report increases in total factor productivity (TFP), questions have been raised as to whether this constitutes a genuine Porter effect, as the pathways appear to be driven more by operational efficiency improvements and resource reallocation rather than technological innovation. Financial performance shows no significant improvement following short-term shocks, suggesting that market valuation of innovation remains limited. Mechanism analysis reveals that while market price signals and regulatory supervision pressures coexist, government intervention through regulatory and supervisory mechanisms operates relatively more dominantly in actual implementation. This is attributed to structural limitations in the institutional design of China's ETS, including free allocation, intensity-based quota systems, low market liquidity, and weaknesses in the monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) system. Furthermore, firm ownership structure, industry characteristics, regional marketisation levels, and government capacity were found to significantly mediate policy effects. Based on the analysis of empirical research on China's ETS effectiveness, the present study suggests that enhancing the effectiveness of market-based environmental policies in emerging economies requires institutional improvements—including expanded auctioning, transition to absolute cap-and-trade systems, and MRV standardisation—along with differentiated approaches tailored to regional institutional capacity and market infrastructure levels. Ultimately, recent empirical studies from China emphasise that environmental regulations can induce innovation effects even in emerging economy contexts, but that institutional preconditions are critical for translating these effects into economic value.

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This study analyzes the long-term structural transformation of the Chinese economy through sectoral financial balances and financial balance sheets, elucidating its macroeconomic transition from an integrated perspective of flows and stocks. Based on Wynne Godley’s New Cambridge Approach, the study employs a three-sector balance framework—private, government, and external—to empirically examine the structural reconfiguration of the Chinese economy. Comparative analysis with major economies and a comprehensive review of key macroeconomic indicators were conducted to identify China’s structural features and relative position. The results show that since the 1990s, China has maintained a persistent private-sector surplus. While this surplus was primarily supported by current account surpluses until the mid-2000s, since 2016 it has increasingly relied on expanding fiscal deficits. This indicates a shift from export- and manufacturing-led growth toward a domestic demand–driven model. The financial balance sheet analysis (1992–2022) reveals that the private sector holds net assets of RMB 201 trillion, while the government (-RMB 98 trillion) and external (-RMB 102 trillion) sectors record corresponding deficits, reflecting a structure similar to that of export-oriented Germany. Further, non-financial corporate debt reached 138% of GDP, exceeding the global average, with household and government debt also rising. The industrial structure is gradually shifting from manufacturing to services, accompanied by policies to stimulate domestic consumption. Externally, despite U.S.–China tensions and the slowdown in global trade, China is diversifying trade through deeper engagement with Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries and the Global South. Overall, China’s macroeconomic structure is characterized by “persistent private-sector surplus, a shift in the balance from external to fiscal surplus, and a transition toward domestic demand–led growth.” The prospects for China’s qualitative and sustainable economic growth depend on the rebalancing of intersectoral financial flows, industrial upgrading, fiscal and debt sustainability, and the diversification of real trade networks.

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This study analyzes China’s technology-based cultural strategy, which leverages artificial intelligence (AI), big data, and domestic platforms as its core pillars to control the entire process of cultural production, distribution, and consumption. AI is utilized not only for simple content recommendation but also to precisely analyze users’ psychology and emotions, thereby providing emotionally stimulating content that maximizes user engagement on platforms. Big data is employed to predict and segment cultural consumption patterns, enabling the dissemination of customized content to specific user groups. At the same time, a closed platform ecosystem combined with censorship technologies blocks the inflow of external culture and systematically induces the internalization of state ideology. This strategy is further reinforced through the cooperative structure among the government, platform enterprises, and content creators, evolving beyond cultural industry promotion into a digital soft power strategy. The international community responds in diverse ways. The United States strengthens regulations on TikTok due to concerns about security and political influence, while Europe pushes forward legislation focusing on personal data protection and youth protection. In contrast, Southeast Asian countries show a relatively high acceptance of Chinese content, yet political bias remains a concern. These dynamics indicate that cultural competition is no longer confined to content exchange but has expanded into new conflicts over data sovereignty, algorithmic control, and platform publicness. Against this backdrop, South Korea must protect its cultural sovereignty and build a sustainable digital cultural ecosystem by enhancing technological independence and domestic platform competitiveness, ensuring algorithmic transparency and publicness, globalizing unique cultural assets such as Hangul, traditional culture, history, and cuisine, and fostering ethical platform culture through international cooperation. This study highlights that 21st-century cultural hegemony unfolds not through military or economic power, but through the interplay of data, algorithms, and emotions. It suggests that culture should no longer be viewed merely as a diplomatic tool but as a strategic national asset requiring sophisticated state-level responses.

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