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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Recently, China’s tourism performance sector has developed rapidly, yet the themes of most works still rely heavily on regional and ethnic cultural resources. How to expand new sources of content has emerged as a crucial issue for the sustainable development of tourism performing arts. This study analyzed how the classical literary work Dream of the Red Chamberhas been newly interpreted in tourism performing arts. Based on this analysis, the paper proposes three suggestions. First, in selecting themes for tourism performance works, it is necessary to broaden the perspective. Second, while respecting the original text, innovative adaptations should be emphasized to breathe new life into the classics. Third, through unique directing methods and diverse performance styles, the immersive experience and interaction of audiences should be enhanced. The integration of classical literature and tourism performance not only facilitates the contemporary transformation of culture but also offers important insights for the future development of China’s tourism performance sector.

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This paper analyzes the impact of the interaction between foreign direct investment and human capital on regional economic development. Based on panel data from 16 prefecturelevel cities in Shandong Province from 1990 to 2023, an extended model based on the Cobb-Douglas production function is constructed, introducing the interaction variable between foreign direct investment and human capital to analyze its impact on regional economic development. In this panel regression model, regional economic development is measured by GDP per capita, capital is represented by total fixed asset investment, labor force is the number of employed persons at the end of the year, and human capital is measured as the proportion of students with secondary education and higher to the total population. To further compare the phased characteristics of the interaction between foreign direct investment and human capital, this paper divides the analysis period into three periods: 1990-2023, 1990-2000, and 2001-2023, with China's accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001 as the boundary. Furthermore, regression analyses are conducted on three indicators: human capital at the middle education level, human capital at the high education level, and comprehensive human capital. The empirical results of this paper demonstrate that, first, the interaction between foreign direct investment and human capital exhibits a significant positive effect across all model settings, indicating that this interaction can effectively promote regional economic development. Second, phased results indicate that the interaction between foreign direct investment and human capital was more pronounced between 1990 and 2000. After 2001, despite the overall expansion of foreign direct investment, its interaction with human capital weakened, highlighting the importance of matching human capital structure with foreign direct investment quality. Third, comparing human capital education levels, the interaction between human capital with higher education and foreign direct investment has a stronger impact on regional economic development than that between human capital with middle education, indicating that human capital with higher education plays a more critical role in translating foreign direct investment effects into regional development. In summary, there is a significant complementary relationship between foreign direct investment and human capital, and their deep integration is a key path to enhancing regional economic development. Therefore, while promoting foreign direct investment inflows, regional development policies should also increase investment in human capital, particularly higher education resources, to enhance foreign direct investment absorption capacity and achieve regional economic development.

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Since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1992, Korea–China relations have developed rapidly in the political, security, and economic fields, becoming one of the most representative bilateral relationships in East Asia. However, despite experiencing multiple external shocks and internal frictions, the two countries have repeatedly managed to recover after crises and return to a relatively stable state — a phenomenon that can be understood as the “resilience” of Korea–China relations. Against this backdrop, this study aims to address two core questions: What are the specific manifestations of resilience in Korea–China relations during major periods of fluctuation? And what are the key factors that constitute this resilience? To answer these questions, this paper examines three representative bilateral crises since 2008 and constructs a dual-variable analytical framework of “interdependence–threat perception.” Through empirical analysis, it explores the characteristics and constitutive elements of resilience in the bilateral relationship. The findings indicate that the resilience of Korea–China relations is reflected in four dimensions: (1) the continuity of political interaction, (2) the closeness of economic interdependence, (3) the recoverability of social exchanges and (4) the robustness of defense and military exchanges. In terms of underlying factors, the “high interdependence–low threat perception” structure provides a strong foundation for stability and recovery. In the future, South Korea and China will need to continuously deepen mutual trust and expand cooperation, thereby injecting sustained momentum into the long-term stability and shared development of their bilateral relations and the broader region.

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