Issue 4, 2023

Confronting the Era of "Technology-Power"

Contents

▍Overseas

How Did India Become a “Twitter P5”? Zhan Danni

The Rapidly Growing Young Left in America Du Zehu

▍Cover Story: Facing the Era of “Technology-Power”

Platform Subcontracting System: The Internal Logic of Platform Governance in Contemporary China Hu Ling

From the experience of the development of China’s platform economy, the rapid and effective formation of a digital mode of production cannot be achieved without a fully developed productive organization and a coordinated external environment, a process that is in fact achieved through some kind of“subcontracting”governance mechanism, i.e. the state consciously adopts an inclusive and prudent strategy in the process of the rise of the Internet, allowing platform enterprises to explore processes that are consistent with the development of their own production methods, without restricting market and investment access, while requiring more platform enterprises to adopt various types of self-regulatory tools and assume responsibility for platform activities and risk management. The platform subcontracting system as a historical process is the inevitable result of the development of the platform economy in China.

When Artificial Intelligence Learns to Weave “the Web of Meaning” Li Sheng

Reinventing “Digital Post-Fordism” Jia Kai

Beware of “Techno-chauvinism” — Rethinking Digitalization and Intelligentization in Urban Governance Xu Sisu

China’s urban construction and governance activities have begun to take digital intelligence as their values and goals. with the increasing of technocracy, urban governance is in danger of falling into “technological chauvinism”, it is necessary and urgent to maintain a cautious attitude towards the myth of digitalization and intelligentization and to review and re-evaluate some already solid ways of thinking and governance concepts. At present, the “governance of technology” obviously lags behind the “governance with technology”, while the governance of “technical governance” needs to be strengthened even more. The deep ideological dilemma that needs to be solved is to equate the modernization of governance systems and governance capabilities with digitalization and intelligentization. Future urban governance needs to uphold a kind of “technological humbleness” under the rule of limited technical governance.

▍Focus

How Far Can the U.S. Economic Decoupling From China Go? Cao Yuanzheng

▍The Wealth of Nations

A Sample of the Rise of a Super Enterprise — COMAC’s Road to a Strong Take-Off Li Wei

▍Social Structure Transition

Peasants : Ballast for China's Modernization Yang Hua

A Perspective on Cadre Groups in Contemporary China Feng Jungong

State-owned Enterprise Workers Between Market and Administrative System Zang Leizhen, Gai Jianze

▍World View

Why the Great Reconciliation was Reached in the Middle East Wu Bingbing

Iran and Saudi Arabia signed an agreement to reestablish formal relations in Beijing through the mediation efforts of China, which strengthened the trend of peace in the Middle East. China repositioning its policy in the Middle East, the strategic adjustment of the US in the region, and the impact of the Ukraine Crisis, contribute to shaping a new Middle East, although haven’t made a fundamental change in the geo-strategic structure of the region. The comprehensive competition between Iran and Saudi Arabia and cross-Gulf security talks, the “Asia on priority” policy adopted by the Raisi administration in Iran, new economic-social development patterns of Saudi Arabia and UAE, as well as a new situation of the Palestinian issue and Israeli politics, are reshaping the Middle East.

Fragmented Authority: The Institutional Crisis of the U.S. Immigration Governance You Tianlong, Nie Zhongsi

This article explores the refugee crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border and identifies three institutional deficits of the U.S. immigration management, which jointly contribute to this crisis. We discover that: (1) the disjointed governance over immigration matters with multiple, inconsistent institutional logics which create room for stakeholders to maneuver the system, (2) the highly fragmented institutional arrangements between three branches of the U.S. government which is featured the inconclusive veto politics, and (3) the overloaded and capricious U.S. hegemony in the globalization age which continuously bring waves of refugees from foreign soils to the southern U.S. borders, are responsible to the mismanagement of this crisis. 

▍County Research

Taking County as Home: County-level Practice of Rooted Urbanization Dong Leiming, Xie Meijie

▍Policy

Why is it Difficult to Break the “Five-Only” in Universities? Sun Xi, Liu Yuyan

Despite clear policy orientation nowadays, the overall promotion of breaking the “Five-Only” in universities hasn’t been satisfactory. In order to understand the root of such difficulty, this paper reviews the evolutionary process of university governance and discipline construction in the new China after 1949, from the perspective of the evolution of the sci-tech system and national innovation system. We identify two kinds of the logic of discipline construction, namely “task-oriented” and “quantity-oriented” while breaking the “Five-Only” reflects the revival of “task-oriented” logic and its reaction to the “quantity-oriented” one. Based on the views above, this paper gives policy suggestions.

▍Historical View

Rambling about the “Two Movements” in the 1980s — Socialist Reform and “New Enlightenment” in the “Post-Cultural Revolution” Period (Part 2) Li Tuo