Understanding Policy Process

The Global South – both as a concept and loosely defined collection of countries – has gained increasing traction in public and policy discourse. The ten BRICS+ countries are increasingly big players in economics, trade, and finance, as well as on geopolitical matters, climate change, and in multilateral institutions. Since its expansion to include five new countries, questions have arisen over the tenability and coherence of the grouping, as well as the extent to which divergences can be managed. Many non-BRICS+ nations and observers question whether BRICS+ can counterbalance the G7 countries. Though the impact of the BRICS+ as a geopolitical force remains to be seen, understanding BRICS+ is vital for policymakers and businesses across the world. Amid the growing role these powers play across the globe, academics must examine the past, present, and future of the BRICS+ countries. This compendium draws upon scholars across numerous continents, spheres, and disciplines, examining th

In Redefining Heresy and Tolerance, Hung Tak Wai examines how the Qing empire governed Muslims and Christians under its rule with a non-interventionist policy. Manchu emperors adopted a tolerant attitude towards Islam and Christianity as long as political stability and loyalty remained unthreatened. However, Hung argues that such tolerance had its limitations. Since the mid-eighteenth century, the Qing court intentionally minimised the importance of the Islamic identity. Restrictions were imposed on the Muslims’ external connections with Western Asia. The Christian minority was kept distant from politics and the Han majority. At the same time, Confucian scholars began to acquire a new understanding of religion, but they were not encouraged to get in touch with the Muslims and Christians. This book demonstrates how, from the late eighteenth to the early nineteenth century, the Qing government prevented Confucian scholar-bureaucrats from interfering in the religious life of Christians an

In the third edition of Contemporary Hong Kong Government and Politics, Lam Wai-man, Percy Luen-tim Lui, Wilson Wong, and various contributors provide the latest analyses in many aspects of Hong Kong’s government and politics, such as political institutions, mediating institutions, and political actors. They also discuss specific policy areas such as political parties and elections, civil society, political identity and political culture, the mass media, and public opinions after the Umbrella Movement in 2014. The book also evaluates the latest developments in Hong Kong’s relationship with Mainland China and the international community. This new edition offers an up-to-date and comprehensive analysis of the main continuities and changes in the above aspects since 2014. This volume will help its readers grasp a basic understanding of Hong Kong’s political developments in the last ten years.

The official unveiling of Taiwan’s National Park Service indicates that Taiwan’s nature conservation and cultural heritage protection are about to reach new heights. This issue’s cover story invites readers to probe into the meaning of the three verbs: See, Build, and Achieve. First, see the vision and direction of the NPS’s future development, then learn how national park staff creatively build mutual understanding and collaboration between parks and the public. Lastly, through stories shared by national park senior staff, readers can visualize the process of happiness and bitterness through which national parks endeavored to achieve the ideals of safeguarding Taiwan’s mountains and seas over the past 40 years. The spirit contained within shall serve as an important road sign on the journey toward the future.

The official unveiling of Taiwan’s National Park Service indicates that Taiwan’s nature conservation and cultural heritage protection are about to reach new heights. This issue’s cover story invites readers to probe into the meaning of the three verbs: See, Build, and Achieve. First, see the vision and direction of the NPS’s future development, then learn how national park staff creatively build mutual understanding and collaboration between parks and the public. Lastly, through stories shared by national park senior staff, readers can visualize the process of happiness and bitterness through which national parks endeavored to achieve the ideals of safeguarding Taiwan’s mountains and seas over the past 40 years. The spirit contained within shall serve as an important road sign on the journey toward the future.

In Hong Kong Public and Squatter Housing: Geopolitics and Informality, 1963–1985, Alan Smart and Fung Chi Keung Charles trace two decades of development of squatting in Hong Kong. The authors reconstruct the government policy on squatting through both ethnographic and archival research. The book sheds new light on the consequences of various attempts to control encroachment on scarce urban space. It argues that intersecting policy agendas resulted in decisions that were often not desired, but which emerged as practical solutions from prior failures. The authors address the challenges of explaining confidential policy decisions and offer new approaches applicable in other contexts. Overall, Smart and Fung make an important contribution to the understanding of how public housing and squatting interacted in influential ways that have been poorly understood and offer new perspectives on the challenges of urban governance and housing problems.

Frontiers of Memory in the Asia-Pacific explores the making and consumption of conflict-related heritage throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Contributing to a growing literature on ‘difficult heritage’, this collection advances our understanding of how places of pain, shame, oppression, and trauma have been appropriated and refashioned as ‘heritage’ in a number of societies in contemporary East and Southeast Asia and Oceania. The authors analyse how the repackaging of difficult pasts as heritage can serve either to reinforce borders, transcend them, or even achieve both simultaneously, depending on the political agendas that inform the heritage-making process. They also examine the ways in which these processes respond to colonialism, decolonization, and nationalism. The volume shows how efforts to preserve various sites of ‘difficult heritage’ can involve the construction of new borders in the mind between what is commemorated and what is often deliberately obscured or forgotten. Tak

The First Estates shows the impact on Hong Kong’s urban history of Fairview Park and Hong Lok Yuen, the earliest examples of private estates provided in the New Territories of Hong Kong. Completed in the 1970s and 1980s, both are examples of land development projects built as low-density, American-style suburban house living, the first true alternative to the typical high-rise urban living of Hong Kong. In this book, Roger Nissim traces their evolution—from retreats for urban dwellers to family residences—that followed the expansion of Hong Kong’s public transportation system. The book draws heavily on the original documents that are reproduced in the book. These unearthed documents detail land acquisition process and the negotiations with the government, financiers, local villagers, contractors, and new residents. Read together, this collection of key primary sources—concerning government approvals, site selection, planning and implementation, layout plan, and sales policy—provide the

China stands as a major “Red Swan” challenge to the social sciences. The resilience of the Communist party-state, in combination with a rapidly expanding and internationally competitive economy, challenges conventional models of economic development and political change. This book focuses on crucial governmental action programs and examines the manner in which they were developed, formulated, implemented, adjusted, and revised. It finds that Chinese policy making has been driven by a distinctive political methodology—an unusual combination of long-term national agendas with versatile local policy experimentation—that serves as an effective mechanism for policy innovation and correction, and thus provides strong adaptive capabilities in a perpetually shifting economic, technological and international context. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ An original and persuasive book by one of the leading scholars of China’s policy-making process. The paradox of China’s successful market reforms is that they wer

Eclectic and experimental in style this poetry collection and its stylistic range reflects the diversity of research in the field of medicine. The topics examined range from health economics and specific diseases to biological mechanisms and technology platforms used in research. Some also provide a lens to the feelings and pressures of patients and doctors, whilst others delve into the workings of the mind. Several have layers and patterns for the reader to discover as an allusion to the process of research itself. It starts with the key to successful research—collaboration and fellowship and ends on a reflection of humanity and the humbling of mankind gained through service to others. As such the collection epitomizes the path that transforms passion into perfection and enshrines the drive of the Faculty of Medicine at The Chinese University of Hong Kong to gain and apply knowledge and understanding for the benefit of all.

At a time when there is a developing ideological gap among generations and a degradation of trust between people and the institution of government, there are concerns whether young people’s political participation activities will continue to radicalize. This volume in 15 chapters serves as a useful overview of various significant aspects of the new trends of political participation in Hong Kong. Written by a team of experts who have been astute observers of Hong Kong Politics, the book covers a wide spectrum of topics ranging from a conventional understanding of political participation (e.g., the activities of political parties and interest groups) to a more specialized form of participation (e.g., the relationships between government and legislators in policy-making). The study of the rise of new social movements by the Post-80s generation would be of particular interest to those who are keen to comprehend the sharpening inter-generational differences. There will be a readership am

Economic integration between Hong Kong and Mainland China is a topic of great interest among both policy circles and the academia. This book is a collection of relevant research papers of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority in the past two years, which study the economic integration process between Hong Kong and the Mainland from different perspectives, including linkages through both the trade and financial market channels. This volume sheds light on the important policy issues facing both Hong Kong and the Mainland, including how resilient the Hong Kong economy is against external shocks, how large portfolio capital outflows from China will be once its capital account is liberalized, and in what ways fund flows between Hong Kong and the Mainland affect Hong Kong’s monetary and financial conditions. With 11 essays, this monograph can be divided into 2 parts. Part I studies the “real” linkages between Hong Kong and the Mainland, while Part II focuses on the financial linkages. A detailed