International and Domestic Discourses of China's Special Economic Zones

Abstract

Although China's Special Economic Zones (SEZs) have already been widely known, they are under-studied, and the existing literature is missing certain topics such as the study of official discourses on these SEZs. What this study attempts to address are these questions: Does the Chinese political discourse on SEZ development change in both the domestic and international contexts? How does the Chinese discourse adapt to the domestic and international audiences and adjust to their conjuncture? The authors search and analyze official five-year plans for discrepancies between discourses and interpretations from ministry to ministry, and between the Chinese and English versions of the official discourse. The aim is to introduce discourse analysis to this topic, contributing to the discussion a broader description and analysis of SEZ dynamics, as well as an overview of their adjustments in accordance with the ever-evolving Chinese political and economic projects.

China and European Union countries: Do Chinese partnerships boost cooperation results?

“…Meanwhile, the different types and specificities of partnerships between China and the EU countries add complexity and difficulty to a comparative study of all partnerships, as each nation's economy and market have individual specificities. This process demonstrates the creativity on China's part in adapting models to specific situations, which we have demonstrated in a previous study concerning the development of different types of special economic zones (SEZs) in China (Li & Costa, 2021). Trade in goods, services and FDI between China and all EU countries have been growing over the years, whether or not those EU countries have established Chinese partnerships.…”

Untitled

“…Meanwhile, the different types and specificities of partnerships between China and the EU countries add complexity and difficulty to a comparative study of all partnerships, as each nation's economy and market have individual specificities. This process demonstrates the creativity on China's part in adapting models to specific situations, which we have demonstrated in a previous study concerning the development of different types of special economic zones (SEZs) in China (Li & Costa, 2021). Trade in goods, services and FDI between China and all EU countries have been growing over the years, whether or not those EU countries have established Chinese partnerships.…”