Issue 2, 2022 

Freedom or Poverty: Chinese Youth at the Beginning of the Century

Contents

▍Overseas

Russia-Ukraine Relations in the Process of Restructuring the Eurasian Regional Order Wang Siyu

▍Crowed Space Calls for New Rules Hu Ling

▍Cover Story  Freedom or Meagerness: Chinese Youth at the Beginning of the Century

An Analysis on Social Mentality of Contemporary Youth —When the Affluent Generation Encounters Assets Society  Fu Yu, Gui Yong

For the contemporary youth in China, the “Affluent Generation” characterized by rapid economic growth and wealth accumulation has shaped their beliefs about individualization and spiritual pursuits; while the “Assets Society” characterized by different rates of return for income from asset and occupation, and the dominate role of assets in life chances and social stratification, has led to their feelings of futility and lower-class identification. The above historical backgrounds determine the core concept of the youth group, which is manifested in five aspects in the social mentality and action orientation, that may cause a series of potential challenges on social governance.

Generational Identity and Social Differentiation: Diversity of Contemporary Chinese Youth Li Chunling

The rapid economic and social changes have made remarkable differences between older and younger generations in today’s Chinese society. At the same time, the increasing socioeconomic inequality has also led to the prominent social differentiation inside the young generation, which has resulted in Chinese youth displaying unprecedented prominence in generational identity and social differentiation. The strong generational identity has failed to lessen the socioeconomic inequality inside the young generation. On the contrary, social differences among the young generation are more prominent than those of the old generation. 

China’s Millennials: Harnessing the Diversity and Difference of the Socioeconomic in the Digital Age  Li Cheng

The Decadent “Second-Generation Rural Migrant Worker” Dong Leiming, Li Jianmin

No Need to Wait For the Torch—The “Construction Site Literature” of a Young Engineer Stationed Abroad Cao Fengze

▍Policy

Beyond “Strong Regulation”—Reflections on Platform Economic Governance Policies Huang Yiping, Deng Feng, Shen Yan, Wang Hao

China’s platform economy has created important challenges such as anti-competition behavior and discriminatory pricing. Since the beginning of 2021, the authorities have undertaken a range of “strong regulation” polices to achieve orderly development. “Strong regulation”, however, has generated negative shocks to the platform economy, including shrinking workforce, declining investment, and slowing innovation. While it is necessary to establish a comprehensive regulatory framework for the healthy development of the platform economy, it needs to be done through well-coordinated efforts, and try to strike a balance between stability and development.

The “Impossible Triangle” of Digital Governanc Liu Dian

▍Forum: The New Cosmopolitanism of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games

The Transition of the World System over the Fourteen Years between the Two Olympic Games Yao Zhongqiu

Metaphors of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games: The Historical Clue of Chinese-style Modernization Li Xiaoyun

▍Focus 

Facing “Quasi-Stagflation”—China’s Economy in the Differential World Cao Yuanzheng

▍Governance Modernization

Difficult Implementation of Fault-tolerance Mechanisms: The Innovation Dilemma for the Local Government Li Zhen Wang Haoyu

▍The Paths of Late Developers

Independence or Dependence: The Triple-trap of Indonesia’s Development Sun Yunxiao

Indonesia’s modernization development has experienced the twists and turns of “delayed industrialization”, “premature deindustrialization”, and has fallen into the trap of dependent development amid foreign pressure and domestic turmoil. The reason is that Indonesia’s independent development faces the triple-trap of resource economic dividend and political immaturity, liberalization reform and loss of economic dominance, and national integration and political reform. Initiated in 2014, although the re-industrialization reforms intends to address fundamental problems of independent development, it has had uncertain prospects.

▍Academic Review

Stagnant China Can’t Modernize?—Karl August Wittfogel’s Journey to China and the Change of His Perception on Oriental Society Jiang Pei Zhang Liang

▍Re-explore the West

Population Aging and Populist Age: Challenges and Causes Meng Ke

Population aging has given rise to the current populist surge through two mechanisms. First, it means an increasing share in the society of elderly people, whose nostalgia for traditional values made them particularly attracted to populists who also seek to reshape, if not thwart, globalization. Secondly, population aging has led to an increase in labor costs, which has encouraged the process of industrial automation, increased the unemployment risks, especially for middle-aged and above workers in the manufacturing sector. Those workers are likely to support populism which promises to promote economic nationalism to reduce social risks in domestic markets.

The Reborn of Dayton: The Transformation of the American Rust Belt City Li Jiaju