This working paper brings together assessments of the trilateral relations between China, the EU und the US from the disciplines of political science and economics. The first paper primarily addresses the following three issues: a) China's current development and prospects b) EU-China relations,...

On a global scale, there has been a significant increase of ethnic conflicts in the last decade. They constitute one of the main sources of domestic political instability in multi-national countries. Recent opinion polls among Chinese citizens point to growing ethnic conflicts even in China....

This paper discusses the ideological contents, and the social background of Falungong, a sect suppressed and persecuted by the Chinese state since several years. It focuses not on violations of human rights and torture of sect members, but tries to identify the character and features of...

Die vorliegende Arbeit geht der Frage nach, ob sich in China eine Zivilgesellschaft in der Entstehung befindet. Die Autorinnen und Autoren widmen sich hierfür einer Reihe politischer und sozialer Entwicklungen und Phänomene, die auf ein sich änderndes Beziehungsgefüge zwischen Staat und...

This paper presents both a literature review on the issue of political representation and the preliminary framework of a sub-project on new political claims of representation in China. It is primarily concerned with portraying and typing diverse schools of thought in both a "Western" and a...

This paper examines why despite increasing corruption since the 1980s, China's development has advanced so rapidly. The author argues that a strong developmental state, the prevalence of "developmental corruption" over "predatory corruption" and a temporary and relative acceptance of leading...

This paper starts out from James C. Scott's seminal book "Weapons of the Weak" dealing with everyday forms of collective action by private entrepreneurs. It raises the question by what kind of formal and informal mechanisms Chinese entrepreneurs exert political influence in order to protect or...

This policy paper contributes to the topic of German-Chinese municipal partnerships, with a focus on the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). It first builds a bridge between the idea of town twinning and the future-oriented thematic complex of city diplomacy. Secondly, it looks at the...