25 July 2025, Volume 47 Issue 7

    

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  Political Communication and Community-Building in the Unified Multi-ethnic State from the Perspective of Mediology: Focusing on the Communication Practices of the Gaocheng Stele in the Confucius Temple in the Qing Dynasty

  ZHANG Bingjuan, LI Yang

  Jinan Journal. 2025, 47(7): 1-15. https://doi.org/10.11778/j.jnxb.20242286

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  With the deepening of social informatization, “mediatization” has gradually become a key topic in academic discourse. Mediatization aims to explore the relationship between media and socio-culture from a broader perspective. From the perspective of mediology, Confucian temples function as spatial media, materializing the spiritual culture of Confucianism. Stele inscriptions, using stone as their medium, have been important communication vehicles in China and abroad since ancient times. The Qing Dynasty's Manchu minority regime actively utilized the Confucian temple as a mediated space to disseminate its cultural identity. The erection of Pingding Gaocheng Steles within Confucian temples represented a development and innovation of two longstanding Chinese political-cultural traditions: commemorating achievements through stone inscriptions and Confucian temple rituals. Existing study on Pingding Gaocheng Steles is primarily concentrated in the field of history, with no dedicated study in communication or media studies.
  Based on a detailed review of historical documents, this paper conducts a holistic study of eight Qing Pingding Gaocheng Steles located in Confucian temples. It seeks to explore, from the perspective of mediology, why these steles were placed within Confucian temples, and what communicative media attributes and political communication functions they possessed. This paper finds that the Confucian temple, as a medium, served as one of the core arenas for rulers to implement “political mediatization”, providing political actors with a field of “visibility” for political communication. The Qing rulers leveraged the publicity, commonality, and cultural characteristics of the temple's mediated communication. By erecting Pingding Gaocheng Steles within the temple, they reported recent political achievements to Confucius, aiming to establish a form of “politics of recognition”. Consequently, these Pingding Gaocheng Steles functioned as a “medium of recognition”, shaping a form of “mediatized politics”. This type of stele medium integrated both “military governance” and “civil governance” aspects of national governance. Using state-sponsored Confucian temples as storage spaces, it disseminated the political message of pacification achievements to all levels of the state educational system through rubbing and replication techniques, playing significant communicative roles in political symbolism, political publicity, and political persuasion.
  Compared to previous literature, this paper makes expansions in three aspects. Firstly, in terms of the research perspective, it examines the communicative value and significance of both the Confucian temple and Pingding Gaocheng Steles as material media carriers from the perspective of mediology, focusing on both the stele medium and its cultural-spatial context. Secondly, in terms of macro-level holistic research, it combines Pingding Gaocheng Steles from the Imperial Academy Confucian Temple with those from the Rehe Wenmiao (Confucian Temple), integrating the phenomena of stele communication in central state academies with those in local state academies, viewing them as a typical historical communication phenomenon. Thirdly, in researching media communication functions, it explores the communicative functions of these Pingding Gaocheng Steles while offering necessary critical reflections on the historical limitations of this medium.
  This paper, to some extent, reveals the communicative functions of the Confucian Temple Pingding Gaocheng Steles in constructing national identity, interpreting the “Great Unity” communication practice, and establishing political legitimacy, along with their contemporary communicative value. It aids government departments in fully excavating and utilizing historical and cultural resources to tell China's stories, awaken national memory, and highlight the distinctive features of Chinese civilization. This contributes to forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation and promoting the creative transformation and innovative development of China's excellent traditional culture.
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  How New Quality Productive Forces Empower Exchanges and Mutual Learning among Civilizations

  RUAN Yifan, LI Junnan

  Jinan Journal. 2025, 47(7): 16-28. https://doi.org/10.11778/j.jnxb.20242520

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  Against the backdrop of the deep evolution of global exchanges among civilizations and the digital technology revolution, new quality productive forces not only inject impetus into China's high-quality economic development but are also bound to make significant contributions to promoting global exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations. This paper, in response to the insufficiency of current research in integrating and analyzing the intrinsic connection between new quality productive forces and exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations, aims to provide theoretical support and practical guidance for building a new pattern of global exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations that is characterized by equality and inclusiveness.
  This paper adopts a theoretical construction and systematic analysis approach to systematically sort out the dialectical relationship between new quality productive forces and exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations. By analyzing the deep impact of technological changes on cultural production, dissemination, and interaction models, and combining the laws of cultural evolution, a three-dimensional analytical framework of “logical reasoning-mechanism of action-practical path” is constructed. This paper unveils that the high permeability and high integration characteristics of new quality productive forces provide a strong impetus for driving exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations. At the level of logical reasoning, based on the principles of historical materialism, starting from the universal laws of the evolution of productive forces and the development of civilization, a three-dimensional dialectical logic of “the universal logic of the development of civilization, the endogenous logic of the differentiation of civilization, and the subject logic of value consensus” is deduced, which profoundly explains the intrinsic connection between productive force leaps and exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations. Regarding the mechanism of action, this paper focuses on how new quality productive forces reconfigures the traditional model of cultural exchanges and dissemination through revolutionary technological breakthroughs, and constructs a new system of exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations centered on “innovating cultural production paradigms-reshaping dialogue interfaces-optimizing interaction efficiency”, effectively resolving the dilemmas of traditional cross-cultural dialogue such as communication barriers, value attenuation, and interaction deficiency. At the level of practical path, it is necessary to build a more powerful Chinese material civilization, generate a more vibrant Chinese spiritual civilization, promote more diverse cross-cultural exchanges, create a more abundant carrier of human cultural resources, and practice a civilization view of equality, mutual learning, dialogue, and inclusiveness, thus fully utilizing the development momentum of new quality productive forces to promote global exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations.
  This paper expands on existing research in the following aspects. First, it reveals the dialectical relationship between new quality productive forces and exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations, deepening the contemporary interpretation of Marx's theory of exchanges among civilizations. Second, it transcends the traditional research's limited understanding of the instrumental nature of technology, systematically demonstrating the intrinsic support logic of new quality productive forces for the equality, inclusiveness, and diversity of civilizations and its positive role in dissolving the hierarchical order of civilizations. Third, it systematically constructs a theoretical model of new quality productive forces empowering exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations, responding to the theoretical demands of building a cultural power and promoting the global civilization initiative.
  The results of this paper deepen the theoretical understanding of new quality productive forces empowering exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations, providing practical guidance for exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations in the digital age. Additionally, it provides references for China's participation in global cultural governance under the high-quality development of the “Belt and Road” Initiative, guiding governments, enterprises, and social organizations in promoting cultural “going global”, innovating products, and building dialogue platforms, and serving the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.
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  The Reconstruction of Meaning and Aesthetic Transformation of the Unified View of Poetry and Painting

  LIU Yi

  Jinan Journal. 2025, 47(7): 29-41. https://doi.org/10.11778/j.jnxb.20240465

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  This paper explores the new development of the “unified view of poetry and painting” concept in the Song Dynasty. Its core issue is how the poetic philosophy of “usurping Creation” (夺造化) from the mid-Tang Han-Meng School was received by Song literati and penetrated the realm of painting, thereby reshaping the traditional relationship between poetry and painting. The significance lies in its uncovering of the profound intellectual-historical dynamics driving the evolution of art theory in the Song Dynasty, complementing previous scholarly perspectives that have focused on the evolution of painting techniques.
  This paper primarily employs cross-genre and interdisciplinary methods of textual analysis and intellectual-historical inquiry. By tracing the evolving trajectory of the key term “usurping Creation” through Tang and Song poetry, “notebook fiction” (such as the transformation of the Han Xiangzi story in Youyang zazu (酉阳杂俎) and Qingsuo gaoyi (青琐高议), official treatises on painting (like Xuanhe huapu (宣和画谱) and Huaji (画继) and poems inscribed on paintings, this paper reconstructs the specific paths and conditions under which a poetic idea was transformed into a concept within painting theory.
  The research process unfolds in three progressive stages. First, this paper examines the process by which the “usurping Creation” concept evolved from a sporadic poetic expression in the Tang Dynasty into a core criterion of painting theory in the Song Dynasty. Second, it links the cause of this phenomenon to the cultural trend of “Revering Han Yu” in the Northern Song, arguing that it was the admiration for the spirit of Han Yu's poetry that reactivated and disseminated the “usurping Creation” idea, while Ouyang Xiu's discourse theoretically established the connection of poetry and painting in “vying with Creation in ingenuity” (与造化争巧). Finally, through an analysis of painting practices such as Gaoxuan Guotu (高轩过图) and Shiding Lianju Tu (石鼎联句图), it specifically elucidates how this new concept guided painters in tackling the bizarre and unconventional poetry traditionally considered “unpaintable”.
  This paper reaches the following conclusions and main arguments. First, the rise of the “usurping Creation” concept in the field of Song Dynasty painting was fundamentally driven by the revival and dissemination of the mid-Tang poetic philosophy of the same name. Second, the introduction of this concept elevated the theoretical foundation of the “unified view of poetry and painting” from the traditional “learning from Creation” (师造化), based on representational ability, to “usurping Creation”, based on creative power. Third, this led to the emergence of a new paradigm-“There is painting in Changli Gong's poems” (“昌黎公诗中有画”)-which stands in stark contrast to the model of “There is painting in Mojie's poems” (“摩诘诗中有画”). It sought to create sensory shock in the viewer through a bizarre and innovative style, rather than the elegant pleasure pursued by traditional poetic painting. Fourth, to achieve this aesthetic goal, Song Dynasty painters of poetic themes made significant technical innovations, such as emphasizing expression over representation and employing continuous narrative techniques akin to a handscroll.
  The innovation of this paper lies in its explicit formulation of two coexisting models within the Song Dynasty's “unified view of poetry and painting”: the “Mojie model” based on “learning from Creation” and the “Changli Gong model” based on “usurping Creation”. By placing the evolution of painting theory within the larger context of poetics and intellectual history, this paper deepens the understanding of the relationship between poetry and painting in the Song Dynasty and provides a new interpretive dimension for the evolution of the core motif of the “relationship between heaven and humanity” in Chinese art.
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  The Institutional Improvement and Legal Coordination of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law in the Field of the Digital Economy: From the Perspective of the Third Revision of China's Anti-Unfair Competition Law

  WANG Xianlin

  Jinan Journal. 2025, 47(7): 42-57. https://doi.org/10.11778/j.jnxb.20250716

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  With the rapid development of the digital economy, new forms of unfair competition have become increasingly prevalent, posing obstacles to the innovative, healthy, and sustainable development of the economy. Against this backdrop, China is conducting the third revision of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, aiming to improve the rules for fair competition in the digital economy.
  This paper highlights the threefold challenges of the implementation of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law due to the characteristics of the digital economy. First, the data element is non-exclusive, non-consumable, and replicable, presenting a severe challenge to the traditional competition rules system based on physical production elements. Second, the platform economy becomes more ecosystem-based, not only extending and intensifying platform monopolies but also making it harder to distinguish between monopolistic behaviors and unfair competition. Finally, hidden and complex algorithmic competition methods are widely used by operators, but they are difficult to regulate effectively in the current legal framework.
  In response to these challenges, the first step is to address them at the institutional and regulatory level. First, the protection of data rights should be given high priority. Second, the rules for unfair competition in the platform economy should be improved to assist in the governance of platform-based competition. Third, the identification and liability rules for new forms of unfair competition should be clarified.
  The application of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law in the digital economy should also pay attention to its coordination with related laws. In coordination with the Anti-Monopoly Law, it should be recognized that the Anti-Unfair Competition Law focuses on maintaining fair competition, while the Anti-Monopoly Law focuses on preserving a free competitive market structure. In coordinating with the E-Commerce Law, the general-special relationship between the Anti-Unfair Competition Law and the E-Commerce Law should be acknowledged, with priority given to the latter in the e-commerce field. In coordinating with the Personal Information Protection Law, the traditional barriers between departmental laws need to be broken, and a dynamic coordination mechanism should be established at the legislative, judicial, and regulatory levels. In coordination with the Cybersecurity Law, the boundaries between unfair competition behaviors and actions that endanger cybersecurity should be clarified, and a cross-departmental collaboration mechanism should be created to ensure that both data security and market competition order are protected.
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  The Chinese Context of Competition Law and the Construction of Social Solidarity Theory

  LIU Jifeng

  Jinan Journal. 2025, 47(7): 58-74. https://doi.org/10.11778/j.jnxb.20240565

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  Competition law varies in nature depending on the legal context of different countries or regions. In the Chinese context, competition law is theoretically classified as economic law, which is distinct from public law and private law. However, in legal practice, the economic law attributes and thinking patterns of competition law are not consistently applied and are often replaced by the private law analysis paradigms. Misunderstandings have led to a series of problems, such as differences in the handling process or outcomes of competition cases by relevant authorities, which have affected the authority of the competition law system. Therefore, it is necessary to correct this situation.
  This paper employs the philosophical methods of deconstructionism and structuralism. Based on fully deconstructing the competitive legal relationship and exploring its inherent multiple and complex elements, it constructs the structure of its social solidarity relationship, that is, it is centered on the behavioral subject and radiates outward to external subjects, forming a double-layer, binary, and bidirectional relationship structure. In this structural relationship, the most external and open-ended interest, which is directed toward unspecified entities, that is, the social public interest, is the starting point and objective of competition law analysis in the Chinese context. The systematic understanding of this special structure can provide theoretical support for correcting the erroneous introduction of private law concepts and their inappropriate influence in the practice of competition law in China. It helps guide the improvement of China's competition law system, including the introduction of punitive damages and the improvement of the public interest litigation system for anti-competitive behavior.
  This paper finds that the competitive legal relationship appears similar to a contractual relationship or a tort relationship on the surface, but essentially constitutes a social solidarity relationship due to the involvement of unspecified subjects. The expansion of enterprise scale has changed the way enterprises operate and the social interest structure, as well as the constraints between existing laws and social entities. Competition law does not focus internally on protecting the parties involved, but rather examines the competitive process in terms of the influence of external parties, and focuses on the order and efficiency of competition. When the purpose of protecting competition shifts from competition participants to the competitive order, the private nature of competitive relationships is covered by their public nature, and social solidarity becomes the dominant factor in determining the nature of behavior, that is, the so-called competitive harm. Competition law regulates the abuse of economic power or the abuse (or being abused) of competitive advantage, and the method of regulation is to assess the degree of damage to the public interest of society. Based on the priority of social public interest in the composite relationship, a theory of social solidarity can be established in the Chinese context. This theory helps further clarify the nature of competition law, enrich economic law theory, and guide legislation and legal practice.
  Compared with previous studies, this paper makes extensions in the following areas. The first is methodological innovation. Using deconstructionist and structuralist methods, it constructs the social solidarity relationship of competition law in the Chinese context. The second is the refinement of economic law theory. Whether it is market supervision law or macro-control law, both are based on social solidarity relationships.
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  The Impact of the “Dual Circulation” New Development Paradigm on Industrial Chain Resilience: A Complex Systems-Based Measurement Method for Industrial Chain Resilience

  PAN Xinxin

  Jinan Journal. 2025, 47(7): 75-98. https://doi.org/10.11778/j.jnxb.20241017

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  Against the backdrop of profound adjustments in the global economic landscape and increasing complexity in the external environment, the “dual circulation” new development paradigm provides a strategic direction for enhancing industrial chain resilience by strengthening the endogenous driving forces and reliability of domestic circulation, as well as improving the quality and efficiency of international circulation. Under the “dual circulation” new development paradigm, enhancing industrial chain resilience is not only an inherent requirement for ensuring stable economic performance in China but also a critical pathway to breaking free from low-end lock-in within the global value chains (GVCs) and elevating industrial competitiveness. However, existing literature remains insufficient in exploring the relationship between the “dual circulation” new development paradigm and industrial chain resilience, particularly lacking a dual perspective-focusing on both domestic circulation and domestic and international dual circulation-to thoroughly analyze their impact on industrial chain resilience and its mechanisms.
  This paper utilizes data from the China Carbon Accounting Database, China Industry Economy Statistical Yearbook, China Statistical Yearbook, China Science and Technology Statistical Yearbook, and the National Bureau of Statistics. The measurement of industrial chain resilience draws on the approach in He, constructing an industrial chain network using China's multi-regional input-output data. Based on the complex network theory, a deliberate attack strategy is employed to calculate China's industrial chain resilience index. For measuring the “dual circulation” new development paradigm, this paper adopts the regional value-added decomposition framework developed by Zhang and Bai and Sheng et al., assessing domestic circulation and domestic and international dual circulation from a value chain perspective. Empirical findings reveal that domestic circulation exhibits a U-shaped effect on industrial chain resilience, initially suppressing and subsequently promoting it, while domestic and international dual circulation significantly enhances resilience. Mechanism analysis indicates that the domestic market scale and technological innovation serve as key pathways through which domestic circulation influences industrial chain resilience. Meanwhile, domestic and international dual circulation boosts resilience by attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) and fostering technological progress. Further analysis demonstrates significant industrial and regional heterogeneity in the impact of the “dual circulation” new development paradigm on industrial chain resilience.
  Compared to prior studies, this paper makes two key contributions. First, in terms of research perspective, this paper moves beyond the qualitative focus of existing literature on the background, connotations, and theoretical logic of “dual circulation”. Instead, it shifts attention to the economic effects of domestic circulation and domestic and international dual circulation, systematically examining their impacts on industrial chain resilience and identifying pathways for resilience enhancement in the new era. Second, in terms of research content, this paper disentangles the distinct effects and mechanisms of domestic circulation and domestic and international dual circulation on resilience, offering novel theoretical and empirical insights. Furthermore, by incorporating multidimensional perspectives, such as industrial and regional heterogeneity, it uncovers differential patterns of these effects, providing targeted policy guidance for industrial chain resilience improvement.
  This paper elucidates the intrinsic mechanisms through which the “dual circulation” new development paradigm influences industrial chain resilience, offering valuable policy implications for the government to formulate targeted policies to enhance industrial chain resilience. The government should not only sustain the dominant role of domestic circulation in resilience building but also balance opening-up and economic security, and leverage domestic and international dual circulation to foster industrial chain resilience, thereby establishing a more resilient industrial chain system.
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  The Evolution, Driving Mechanism, and Prospective Research of the Inter-provincial Cooperation Based on Domestic Circulation

  XIE Baojian, JIA Xiaofang

  Jinan Journal. 2025, 47(7): 99-123. https://doi.org/10.11778/j.jnxb.20231371

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  Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), China's regional economic development has seen a shift toward inter-provincial cooperation based on cross-regional development strategies, city clusters, and metropolitan areas. Inter-provincial cooperation has progressively become the spatial pattern of China's regional economic development, as evidenced by the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development, the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the Yangtze River Delta's high-quality integrated development, the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle, and the ecological preservation and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin. However, cooperation and competition are inextricably linked in interprovincial relations, and the decentralization system and administrative division have not completely eliminated the local protections implemented by each region for the sake of growth, resulting in distortion in interprovincial cooperative relations. Interprovincial administrative barriers have become a major impediment to the integration of the domestic market under the new development pattern, in which the domestic circulation is the mainstay and the domestic and international circulation reinforce each other, and promoting interprovincial cooperation has become critical to the high-quality, integrated development of the regional economy under the new development pattern.
  Based on the evolution of the temporal and spatial pattern of inter-provincial cooperation since the founding of the People's Republic of China, this paper analyzes the route of inter-provincial cooperation from three perspectives of stage evolution, systematic driving mechanism, and new situations and opportunities. The findings reveal that the tendency of inter-provincial agglomeration of economic activities in China has become more apparent. Regional development is shifting from the conventional “four sectors” to inter-provincial cooperation, and a spatial pattern of regional economic development based on inter-provincial cooperation is emerging. The central government, local governments, and the market all have a twofold impact on inter-provincial cooperation since they all seek to maximize their interests. Combining the new situation and new prospects presented by inter-provincial collaboration in the new growth stage, this paper makes the following suggestions: strengthening the central planning authority, improving the system's construction, strengthening top-level design, capitalizing on the benefits of the new generation of information technology, and investigating new forms of inter-provincial collaboration.
  This paper contributes to existing literature in the following three aspects. First, it focuses on the provincial administrative belonging of the participating subjects to study the stage-by-stage evolution of interprovincial relations, which confirms the trend of interprovincial agglomeration of economic activities in China. Second, the driving mechanism of inter-provincial cooperation is systematically separated from the multiple roles of the central government and the market, providing a rich research perspective for breaking through the barriers of inter-provincial cooperation and further deepening domestic circulation. Third, using the theory of repeated games in information economics, this paper summarizes the triple roles of the central government, local governments, and the market in terms of constructing the triggering strategy of infinite repeated games, providing a new research perspective for breaking the prisoner's dilemma of inter-provincial relations.
  This paper reveals the stage-by-stage evolution of China's interprovincial cooperative relations and the driving mechanism, re-examines the new opportunities facing interprovincial cooperation from the perspectives of the institutional environment, technological environment, and domestic development conditions, and proposes a new path of cooperation, which helps the government departments formulate policies and measures to strengthen interprovincial cooperation.
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  Selective Incentives as the Intrinsic Logic of Grassroots Government's Social Risk Governance Behavior: Case Analysis Based on Rational Action Perspective

  ZHU Kan, YUE Jinglin

  Jinan Journal. 2025, 47(7): 124-142. https://doi.org/10.11778/j.jnxb.20250004

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  The reform and opening-up in the past 40 years has enabled China to surpass the accumulation of many developed countries that took two or three hundred years to complete. This compressed development approach has led to significant economic and social growth in a short period. However, it cannot be ignored that the rapid changes in social structure and interest patterns have accumulated a large number of social governance risks. Grassroots governments are the frontline mediators in resolving conflicts and disputes, playing a crucial role in preventing and managing social risks. Strengthening research on the social stability management behavior of grassroots governments is of great significance for maintaining social stability and safeguarding the interests of the people. However, there is currently little research on the complex and changing behavior of grassroots governments in resolving social governance risks.
  Based on the theory of rational behavior, this paper constructs an analytical framework for grassroots governments to resolve social risk behaviors, and uses a case study method to empirically analyze the behavior of town government B in resolving social disputes during the merger of middle school A. The findings of this paper are as follows. Firstly, currently, China faces a structural dilemma of heavy social risk governance tasks and insufficient financial resources, which forces grassroots governments to eliminate social risks to the greatest extent possible at the lowest economic cost. Secondly, in a specific social governance context, due to differences in policy identification and action capabilities, the public may form different target groups, such as cooperation, confrontation, complaints, and compliance. These differentiated target groups will have different impacts on the risk governance of grassroots governments. Thirdly, in terms of specific action strategies, grassroots governments combine environmental constraints with the background of target groups, and choose targeted strategies such as actively absorbing, punishing according to law, promoting good governance, and attracting empowerment to better guide social forces to resolve governance risks and achieve ideal governance performance at the lowest governance cost.
  This paper constructs a new analytical framework to explain a series of behaviors of grassroots governments in addressing social risks. The theoretical innovations of this paper are as follows. Firstly, it introduces the rational behavior theory, enriching the research perspective of grassroots governments in resolving social risks. Secondly, the process and methods of the impact of differences between target groups on grassroots government risk governance actions have been pointed out, filling the gap of insufficient attention to the context of target groups in existing research. Thirdly, this paper proposes that refined composite governance is a new model for the transformation of social risk governance, and provides an in-depth interpretation of the current “social governance” risk governance model.
  This paper suggests that selective incentives are an important manifestation of the transformation of the grassroots government's social risk governance model. This refined and composite governance model has significant advantages in promoting social participation and reducing governance costs, and has broad application prospects. This governance model has important reference significance for promoting the modernization of the grassroots governance system and governance capacity.
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  Does the Construction of Innovative Cities Promote Renewable Energy Technology Innovation: Evidence from the Renewable Energy Sector

  DAI Shengli, MA Wangrong

  Jinan Journal. 2025, 47(7): 143-158. https://doi.org/10.11778/j.jnxb.20242543

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  Renewable energy technology innovation is one of the key strategies for addressing climate change, helping China achieve its emission reduction targets, reduce production costs, and promote green economic transformation. Innovation is the core driver for social progress and economic development. Against the backdrop of the technological revolution, innovation capacity has become a key determinant of a nation or a region's competitiveness. However, from the perspective of innovative city pilot policies, there remains a gap in research on their impact on renewable energy technology innovation.
  Based on balanced panel data at the level of prefecture-level cities in China from 2006 to 2022, this paper treats innovative cities as a quasi-natural experiment, employing the difference-in-differences (DID) method to identify the mechanisms through which pilot policies influence urban renewable energy technology innovation, and conducting heterogeneity analysis from multiple perspectives. The findings indicate that pilot policies significantly generate a green effect, i.e., they promote urban renewable energy technology innovation. After undergoing a series of robustness tests, this conclusion remains valid. The mechanism analysis indicates that the innovative city pilot policy promotes renewable energy technology innovation through talent effects, technology effects, and industrial structure optimization effects. The heterogeneity analysis shows that in eastern cities, those with higher green finance, and those with stronger digital infrastructure capabilities, the innovative city pilot policy has a more significant effect on renewable energy technology innovation.
  Compared with previous literature, the potential marginal contributions of this paper are as follows. First, it fills research gaps. Existing literature has examined the impact of innovative city policies on overall innovation or the drivers of renewable energy technology innovation, but few studies have directly linked the two, especially using quasi-natural experiment methods to assess the effects of a comprehensive innovation policy on innovation activities in a specific green technology field. This paper employs the DID method to provide relatively reliable causal evidence for this link, expanding the understanding of the environmental effects of innovation policies and policy tools for green technology innovation. Second, it deepens the understanding of mechanisms. Unlike studies that focus solely on the overall effects of policies, this paper delves into the specific pathways through which innovative urban policies influence renewable energy technology innovation via three key channels: talent, technology, and industrial structure optimization. This provides more detailed micro-level mechanism evidence for understanding how “innovation-driven development” is concretely implemented in “green technology transformation”, enriching interdisciplinary research at the intersection of innovation economics and environmental economics. Third, it offers insights into heterogeneity. This paper systematically examines the differences in policy effects across regions, cities with varying levels of green finance development, and cities with different levels of digital infrastructure. This not only reveals the conditional nature of policy implementation effects but also provides valuable empirical evidence and theoretical references for future promotion of innovative city policies, regional coordinated development, and targeted measures to drive renewable energy technology innovation.
  This study explores how innovative city construction influences technological innovation in urban renewable energy, aiming to provide new empirical evidence for China's innovative city construction and renewable energy technological innovation.
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  Transportation Quality Efficiency and Urban-Rural Income Inequality: Empirical Analysis of Cities along the New Western Land and Sea Corridor

  YANG Shanshan

  Jinan Journal. 2025, 47(7): 159-179. https://doi.org/10.11778/j.jnxb.20242248

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  The improvement of transportation facilities has been seen as an important means of raising income in China. Compared to the eastern region, the terrain in the western region is dominated by mountains, plateaus, and basins, making it more expensive and difficult to carry out the transportation industry. Consequently, to enhance the transportation capacity and the quality and efficiency of logistics development in the western region, China has issued the Master Plan for New Western Land and Sea Corridor, actively promoting the construction of the new western land and sea corridor and the development of a multimodal system of land transportation, inland waterway transportation, and air transportation. However, most income disparity studies tend to focus on the impact of transportation infrastructure and fail to look at the key factor of transportation quality efficiency.
  This paper comprehensively examines the four modes of transportation, namely, railroads, highways, water transport, and civil aviation, and refers to the research results of scholars such as Tian and Ran and Li and Tu, to comprehensively assess the efficiency of the transportation quality in the regions along the new western land and sea corridor, and quantifies the degree of urban-rural income inequality using the Theil index, and then empirically examines the role of the efficiency of the quality of transportation in affecting urban-rural income inequality. This paper finds that the efficiency of transportation quality in the new western land and sea corridor significantly reduces urban-rural income inequality in the regions along the routes, and this finding remains robust after dealing with endogeneity, replacing the urban-rural income inequality measure, and adjusting the sample size. Mechanism analysis suggests that this ameliorative effect is achieved through two main paths: improving financial efficiency and promoting urbanization. Further analysis of the threshold effect shows a non-linear relationship between the efficiency of transportation quality and the degree of urban-rural income inequality when urban per capita disposable income and rural per capita disposable income (per capita net income) are taken as threshold variables.
  Compared with existing studies, the innovations of this paper are mainly in the following aspects. Firstly, taking into account the actual situation of the western region and the national policy orientation, this paper focuses the research perspective on prefecture-level and above cities along the new western land and sea corridor, and uses the total passenger transport volume/total household population and the total freight transport volume/built-up area to comprehensively measure the efficiency of the transportation quality and examine its impact on the urban-rural income inequality. Secondly, this paper provides an in-depth analysis of how the efficiency of transportation quality affects urban-rural income inequality, i.e., it explores the specific paths through which it works. Finally, this paper uses a threshold model to further investigate whether there is a nonlinear relationship between transportation quality efficiency and the urban-rural income inequality. This paper provides a new theoretical and empirical basis for understanding the role of transportation quality and efficiency in the coordinated development of the regional economy, and actively helps the government to make scientific decisions on transportation infrastructure investment and planning. Additionally, this paper reveals the complex relationship between transportation quality and efficiency and the urban-rural income inequality, which helps prefecture-level cities to introduce more targeted policy measures to promote balanced urban-rural development and realize common prosperity.
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  The Legal Attributes of the Micro-connect Investment Model and Its Path of Legal Regulation

  LI Jiamin

  Jinan Journal. 2025, 47(7): 180-196. https://doi.org/10.11778/j.jnxb.20242628

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  The micro-connect investment model is an innovative financing framework developed by small and micro enterprises. It is evident that in accordance with daily revenue-based financing arrangements, this model manifests hybrid equity-debt characteristics. This gives rise to fundamental operational challenges, including legal attribute ambiguities, deficiencies in cross-border fund supervision coordination, and investor risk. This paper systematically outlines the model's legal attributes, proposes coordinated cross-border regulatory mechanisms, and formulates investor protection measures, thereby establishing the theoretical basis for the regulation of revenue-based financing innovations.
  Through the examination of existing laws and cross-border financial regulatory regimes, including financial legislation in Macao, this paper deconstructs the model's contractual architecture and transactional framework. Three critical dimensions are addressed. Firstly, regarding the legal applicability of the Daily Revenue Contract, it is evident that the contract exhibits essential attributes of debt. Consequently, such instruments are considered to be debt-like contracts governed by the General Provisions of the Contracts Section within the Civil Code, with stipulations from the loan contract being applied analogously. About the overall model, the micro-connect investment model has established a Micro Connect Financial Assets Exchange in Macau. The issuance of financial products is conducted through this Exchange, with investments being made by professional investors. The legal framework governing the core aspects of this model, including the fund raising, product issuance, and Exchange operations, is that of Macau's financial laws and regulations. The model can be categorized as a private equity fund business that utilizes asset-based securities as investment instruments. Secondly, with regard to the matter of cross-border regulation of funds, the micro-connect investment model involves financing enterprises in the mainland, the Macao Financial Assets Exchange, and international investors, thereby creating cross-border and cross-jurisdictional flows of funds. The primary focus at present should be on risk identification and the establishment of early warning systems. In the medium to long term, the development of a coordinated regulatory mechanism is essential. Thirdly, investor risk mitigation necessitates enhanced supervision of the Monetary Authority of Macao over the Micro Connect Macao Financial Assets Exchange, specifically mandating rigorous fulfilment of information disclosure protocols and anti-money laundering implementation.
  The innovation of this paper is evident in the manner in which it resolves core regulatory dilemmas. This is achieved through a tripartite analysis that encompasses the legal characterization of the micro-connect investment model, the implementation of cross-border supervision, and the establishment of investor safeguarding measures. It establishes the debt-like juridical nature of the Daily Revenue Contract, proposes a specific path for a synergistic mechanism among the three regulators, and emphasizes the prevention of investor risks by strengthening the fulfilment of the obligations of the exchanges. The results provide a legal basis and practical guidance for the mainland, Hong Kong, and Macao regulators to regulate financial innovation and safeguard financial stability. The research findings have certain practical value and academic significance in improving the financial regulatory framework of the emerging revenue-based financing model.