Issue 6, 2022 

The Roots of America's Division

Contents

▍Overseas

Europe Flame Out? — The Difficult Energy Transition in Germany Hu Kun, Zhong Jiarui

Climb Over the “Small Yard, High Fence” Luo Yifu

The high-tech industry development of ROK has long benefited from and been bound by the US industrial hegemony and is highly dependent on China. As a result, ROK has been more sensitive to and deeply influenced by the China-US tech and industry war. Under the shadow of US hegemony, the industrial diplomacy of ROK has to focus more narrowly on the US currently. But the country is also striving to find a breakthrough in cooperation with China. In the case of increasing limitations in bilateral exchanges, the construction of East Asian industrial chains may become a new focus of China-ROK high-tech industrial cooperation.

▍Focus

On the Revival of Traditional Chinese Medicine Cheng Lu

▍Cover Story: Behind the Tearing of America

The Origin of Contemporary American Economic Inequality — The Long Shadow of the “New Economy” and the Information Technology Revolution

Li Yin

Drawing on a perspective of the co-evolution of technology and industrial organization, I argue that the source of economic inequality in the contemporary United States is the rise of the “new economy” in the 1980s. With the decline of the old mass-manufacturing economy under fierce international competition, the new economy of computer chips, software, and internet industries became the dominant economic sector in the US. This “new economy” revolution enabled the transition from flow production to platform production paradigms, transformed large businesses from managerial capitalism to shareholder capitalism, and resulted in a surge in inequality and deindustrialization in the US.

Is the US Supreme Court Still the “Guardian” of American Democracy? Wang Shaoguang

The Lost Ones in Deindustrialization: The Rise of American Conservatism and Its Voter Base Huang Qixuan

This article argues that the deindustrialization of the American economy was accompanied by the decline of the New Deal Coalition, which put many white workers out of work. The white working class is becoming the “key minority” in American politics, which is more and more decisive in the elections. Politicians such as Trump tactically resort to racism, xenophobia, and protectionism to mobilize these white workers. In the context of the rising income inequality in the United States, the absorption of white workers into their political coalition, no matter the Democratic or the Republican Party, will stir up conflicts within the party. 

What made America “Out of Control” — The Political and Economic Logic of the Resurgence of Conservatism Longway Foundation

▍Classic Revisited

How to “Organize” the “Mass” — From a Debate During China’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression Huang Daoxuan

▍Topic: Learning from the 20th CPC National Congress: Chinese Modernization’s Grassroots Experience 

The Millennium Change of China’s Grassroots Governance Xiong Wansheng, Li Yu

Government Behavior and Its Unintended Consequences in the Process of Service Sinking Fu Wei

Where does “County Directly Administrated by Province” Go? Wu Jiaji

As an exogenous variable, the reform of administrative divisions is a key issue to explore the development of county urbanization. “County Administrated by Province” has been carried out for several years. However, the effects are quite different between counties. This paper examined three types of reform. In practice, administrative provinces manage counties, financial provinces manage counties and comprehensive provinces manage counties and have different backgrounds and results. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out targeted classification reform according to the local reality.

▍Trend

Freudian Robot — The Spiritual World Associated with Robots Liu He

▍Observation·Society

How to Cultivate Effective Skills—Rethinking the Vocational Education in Contemporary China Liu He

Clarifying the formation process of effective skills is helpful to better understand the actions of vocational education schools. On the one hand, vocational education school is only a link in the formation of skills, but there is a “time lag” in the feedback of new skills demand brought by industrial upgrading and technological change to vocational school training and teaching. And it may lead to the situation that the skills supply cannot match the actual skills demand in time, which may be a normal state. However, the type of vocational education determines that it must take effective skill supply as the core mission. 

▍Overseas Ethnography

Why Is the Fight Space for the US Trade Unions Getting Narrower? Xu Zhun

The US trade union has seen some revival of its reputation among the social public in recent years. The actual unionization rate and political power of the unions, however, remain at a historic low. The recent Janus v. Afscme decision in the supreme court deals another blow to the exiting Union institutions. Based on the history of the US unions and my experiences in an important New York City union, Professional Staff Congress, I review the political economy of the trade unions in general and how the Janus decision will shape union politics in the US.

“Chinese Spirit” and the Compound Identity of Overseas Chinese Lin Hanzhang

▍In the Folk

The Vitality of the Wet Market Zhong Shuru