25 December 2024, Volume 46 Issue 12

    

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  The “Chinese School” of Comparative Literature Revisited

  LU Jie

  Jinan Journal. 2024, 46(12): 1-16. https://doi.org/10.11778/j.jnxb.20241251

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  Based on Chinese practice and highlighting the China-oriented concept, many proposals and debates on the establishment of a “Chinese School” centering on various disciplinary, academic, discourse, and ideological systems have drawn much attention. Scholars of Chinese comparative literature advocated to establishing a “Chinese School” of comparative literature more than half a century ago. However, due to various historical reasons, this disciplinary ideal was criticized as “too hasty”, violating the disciplinary ideal of “international vision” and lacking innovative theories with Chinese characteristics after it was proposed, and did not become a consensus in the academia.
  This article reviews the turmoils that the “Chinese School” of comparative literature has experienced since it was advocated, explores Chinese comparative literature scholars' understanding of the antithetic and dialectic relationship between “international vision” and “nationalism”, and evaluates the theoretical innovation of Chinese comparative literature in the 21st century. From these three perspectives, this article re-examines the opportunities and challenges of establishing the “Chinese School” of comparative literature in the new historical context of the unprecedented profound changes in the early 21st century.
  Firstly, comparing the past and the present, this article makes a new judgment on the timing of establishing the “Chinese School” of comparative literature in the early 21st century. After decades of hard work after the initiative of establishing the “Chinese School” of comparative literature, and in the era when China greatly encourages theoretical innovation and academic prosperity, it is now the common expectation of the academia to re-propose the establishment of the “Chinese School” of comparative literature that can fully reflect Chinese characteristics, Chinese style, and Chinese manner. Secondly, by comparing Chinese and foreign scholars, this article finds that Chinese comparative literature scholars do not understand “international vision” and “nationalism” as two incompatible poles of binary opposition as French and American scholars do. While maintaining an international vision, Chinese scholars adhere to the idea of national culture and strive to promote the harmonious coexistence of the two. The concept of “diversity in harmony” can dispel the academia's worry that schools named after countries may impair “international vision”. Finally, this article takes “variation theory” and “imposed interpretation theory” as important evidence to prove that Chinese comparative literature scholars have made prominent achievements in the construction of comparative literature disciplinary theories and provided Chinese wisdom for international comparative literature research. This article concludes that to encourage Chinese comparative literature scholars to make greater contributions to the exchange and mutual learning among heterogeneous civilizations and the construction of cultural confidence in the Chinese nation in the new era, it is not a rehash to reiterate the disciplinary goal of establishing a “Chinese School” of comparative literature today, but a necessary initiative in the new social context.
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  Type-Oriented Determination of Platform Price Discrimination in Antitrust Law: From the Pricing Power Allocation Perspective

  WANG Huiqun

  Jinan Journal. 2024, 46(12): 17-28. https://doi.org/10.11778/j.jnxb.20240245

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  With the vigorous development of platforms and digital economies, Internet platforms have not only brought vitality to the economy but also posed serious challenges to the legal system, among which the issue of platform-based price discrimination is particularly the focus of the dispute. Existing discussions on platform price discrimination have focused heavily on data and algorithmic, neglecting the differences in pricing power allocation and the diversity of charging types in different transaction types within the platform as a two-sided market. This leads to an inability to answer in practice who the subjects implementing price discrimination are, the similarities and differences in price discrimination across different businesses, the impact of cross-network effects in different businesses on the effectiveness of price discrimination, and whether antitrust law should take a unitary or pluralistic adjustment path for price discrimination.
  In the context of platform pricing practices, a precise understanding of platform-based price discrimination necessitates a clear categorization of platform businesses into five distinct types: information aggregation, online advertising, transaction matching, intermediary self-operation, and others. Then, this paper identifies corresponding price discrimination behaviors for each category based on specific transactions and fee structures: price discrimination for platform subscriptions/membership fees, price discrimination for advertising fees, price discrimination for commission ratios, price discrimination for product/service fees, and price discrimination for additional charges.
  From a legal regulation perspective, the intricate nature of price discrimination practices requires more than mere adjustments for isolated monopolistic actions, as this approach often leads to inadequate oversight. It is essential to analyze various monopolistic behaviors pertinent to antitrust law, including differential treatment, unfair pricing, and predatory pricing, about different pricing types. When assessing these behaviors, the cross-network effects across diverse platform businesses must be evaluated for their overall impact on consumer welfare. This approach aims to ensure a thorough initial assessment of monopolistic conduct while preventing overreach in evaluating the potential harm caused.
  In practice, it is necessary to pay close attention to the following behaviors by platforms with market dominance: (1) the potential predatory pricing issues caused by market capture through subsidies or red packets followed by price increases; (2) the potential unfair high pricing issues caused by excessively high commission ratios. Given the complexity of platform price discrimination, the assessment of competitive harm in individual cases should be based on economic analysis, combining the different revenue structures of specific platforms to comprehensively analyze the impact of multiple interconnected businesses on costs, prices, and consumer welfare, avoiding harm inference, and refining and improving the provisions for legitimate reasons to prevent excessive deterrence.
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  Innovation Incentives and Value Balance in the Rule of Concentration of Undertakings in the Digital Economy

  GAO Songzhi

  Jinan Journal. 2024, 46(12): 29-40. https://doi.org/10.11778/j.jnxb.20240486

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  Digital economy is mainly characterized by innovative competition, but the monopolization trend in this field in recent years has triggered people's concern about the abuse of market power by platform enterprises to the detriment of innovation. In the first revision of China's Antimonopoly Law, “encouraging innovation” has been added to the purpose of the legislation to respond to the regulatory requirement. As the concentration of undertakings in the digital economy is highly related to both antimonopoly and innovation, this paper aims to study how to achieve an overall balance between promoting innovation of platform enterprises and maintaining the vitality of innovation in the market through the reasonable construction for the rule of concentration of undertakings.
  Based on the economic theories of Schumpeter, Arrow, and other economists on the relationship between innovation and competition, this paper analyzes characteristics of market structure and competition of the modern digital economy, and proposes that in the field of the digital economy, platforms maintain a “moderately competitive” market pattern, which makes it necessary to compete through innovation, and the platform's concentration of undertakings on startups enables platforms to obtain the innovation needed for competition, while startups can survive and develop with the resources of platforms. Reviewing domestic and international practice cases, this paper summarizes the two-fold effects of concentration of undertakings in the digital economy on innovation: on one hand, the concentration of undertakings can enhance efficiency and capacity of innovation through resource integration of key assets of startups and organizational restructuring, which promotes sustained and rich development of innovation; on the other hand, through “killer acquisitions” or imposing technological blockades after concentration, the concentration of undertakings can restrict or exclude potential innovation, weakens other competitors' ability and willingness to innovate, and thus curb the sources of innovation in the market.
  When the global digital economy and resources are in fierce competition, to support China's platform enterprises to carry out technological innovation and enhance key technological innovation capabilities, this paper proposes that a more inclusive attitude shall be adopted towards platform enterprises' investment in favor of innovation; the “endogenous mode of competition” of innovation shall be clarified in the legislative framework of the current Antimonopoly Law; and the following specific suggestions should be proposed to improve the current rule of concentration of undertakings. First, in the design of the declaration threshold rule, the prior negotiation system can be improved in a non-compulsory manner, and the simplified procedure can be applied to the concentration where unique and significant “technological innovation” can be realized. Second, in the design of the concentration review rule, we can explore the establishment of a preliminary standard of review to identify the anti-competitive effects, and emphasize the burden of proof on the participants of concentration to prove that the concentration can produce favorable effects including promoting innovations. Third, for the application of the remedial measures, a flexible remedy enforcement mechanism shall be established, where additional behavioral restrictions shall be adopted mainly, the monitoring mechanism shall be improved, and participants of concentration shall be allowed to apply for early expiration or adjustment of the additional conditions in accordance with changes in the market environment. The digital economy is still in a stage of rapid development, and adhering to the principle of prudent supervision in monopoly practice aligns with China's strategic development requirement.
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  On Legal Regulation of Illegal Profits of Firms in Administrative Monopoly

  XIE Zhenhan

  Jinan Journal. 2024, 46(12): 41-52. https://doi.org/10.11778/j.jnxb.20241020

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  The regulation of administrative entities' abuse of administrative power to exclude and restrict competition is an important task of China's anti-monopoly law enforcement. Administrative entities that abuse administrative power to exclude and restrict competition in administrative monopolies should bear corresponding legal responsibilities. However, operators involved in administrative monopolies are rarely held accountable, and their illegal profits have not been properly dealt with.
  The reasons are as follows. On one hand, there is no legal basis for regulating the illegal profits of operators in administrative monopolies in the existing regulatory system, and law enforcement agencies find it difficult to regulate the illegal profits of operators in administrative monopolies. On the other hand, academia lacks a corresponding regulatory theoretical framework with explanatory power and support. There are deficiencies in regulatory theories, making it difficult to effectively guide regulatory activities in practice.
  At present, there are several theories on regulatory theory in academia, such as “identity theory”, “deterrence theory”, “fault theory”, and “unjust enrichment theory”. These theories have their advantages and to a certain extent justify the regulation of the illegal profits of operators in administrative monopolies. However, these theories only support the regulation of the illegal profits of “actively participating” operators in administrative monopolies and encounter theoretical obstacles when dealing with “compulsorily participating” and “passive” operators in administrative monopolies. Therefore, it is necessary to absorb the advantages of existing theories and construct a “restitution” theoretical framework that can adapt to different types of operators in administrative monopolies to support regulatory activities.
  The regulation of the illegal profits of operators in administrative monopolies should be based on the “restitution” theory. In specific measures, it should be implemented in two steps. In the short term, with the help of the existing “order for rectification” system, by strengthening the administrative entity's responsibility to perform “order for rectification”, the administrative entity that abuses administrative power to exclude and restrict competition can correct wrong behaviors and confiscate the illegal profits of operators under the joint supervision of superior administrative entities and anti-monopoly law enforcement agencies. In the long term, laws should be revised to stipulate the corresponding legal responsibilities that operators in administrative monopolies need to bear and stipulate that the illegal benefits obtained by operators from administrative monopolies should be regulated. On one hand, according to the subjective state and actual role of operators in administrative monopolies, the forms of responsibility for operators in administrative monopolies should be stipulated. It should be stipulated that the illegal profits of operators should be regulated using “fines” and “confiscation of illegal gains”. On the other hand, it should be stipulated that illegal profits should be regulated, and the method of “replacing confiscation with fines” should not be adopted. To determine the amount of illegal gains more economically and efficiently, various business information can be taken into consideration and the practice of estimating profit margins by industry in Japan can be borrowed. The amount of illegal gains is presumed, and then the operator can defend against it. Then, we can reach the amount of illegal profits.
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  Empirical Research on Procedural Management of Deficient Criminal Procedural Acts

  CHEN Xijie

  Jinan Journal. 2024, 46(12): 53-69. https://doi.org/10.11778/j.jnxb.20230962

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  The legal practice of deficient criminal procedural acts shows the trends of broad explanation of handling deficient acts from authorities, aiming at achieving substantial ruling in case of deficiency procedural management, and wrongfully ignoring the existing deficient criminal procedural act. Consequently, structuring the procedural mechanism of deficient criminal procedural act should be started with the judicial control from a court of the authority's impulse of breaking the law, building the mechanism focus on judges' ruling that is based on the theory of deficiency interest. Specifically, the procedural disposal mechanism of deficient criminal procedural acts follows a sequential construction. First, the procedural disposal of criminal procedural defects uses the interpretation method for retrospective law regulation to identify whether the procedural defects are present. Secondly, it uses the “possibility standard” to judge whether there is a causal relationship between the defects of the litigation conduct and the fair trial. Only when the defects of the litigation conduct are not used as the basis for judgment or the court takes remedial measures in time, can the possibility of the defects of the litigation conduct affecting the fair trial be excluded. Finally, when it is impossible to rule out the causal relationship between the defects of litigation conduct and fair trial, the defendant should be consulted and confirmed whether to exercise the defect objection right based on the defect interest. If the defendant gives up exercising the right of defect objection, the effect of the defect of the litigation act shall be valid. However, if the defendant chooses to continue to exercise the right of defect objection, the judge can consider making a favorable determination to the defendant in the way of penalty right loss, thus exerting the shaping function of procedural justice on the entity result. Therefore, the procedural disposal mechanism of criminal procedural defects responds to the dilemma of the current disposal of procedural defects in different dimensions. As the first step to start the process of handling defects in litigation, the identification method of purpose interpretation provides an effective regulatory path for judges to define the “strategic” tendency of defects in litigation. The construction of a whole set of procedural disposal mechanisms for defects in criminal proceedings provides a set of scientific and reasonable operational guidelines for the cases of defects in criminal proceedings that are not explicitly stipulated by norms or that cannot be exhaustively enumerated by norms. Through a series of procedural means, the procedural disposal mechanism of defects in criminal litigation acts determines the effectiveness of the procedural disposal, and then finally forms the effectiveness evaluation result of defects in litigation acts, practicing a disposal mechanism that respects and reflects the value of procedural independence. Therefore, the procedural disposal mechanism of defects in criminal proceedings can follow reasonable methods of identification of defects in criminal proceedings at the micro level, establish scientific operational norms of procedural disposal at the medium level, and highlight the procedural character of procedural independence concept at the macro level, provide a rational order of operational norms for procedural disposal of defects in criminal proceedings. It realizes a typical disposition system based on the character of procedural autonomy and independence.
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  Investigation Application and Legal Regulation of Movement Trajectory Information

  MA Xiao

  Jinan Journal. 2024, 46(12): 70-80. https://doi.org/10.11778/j.jnxb.20231825

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  In recent years, the issue of citizens' movement trajectory information has become a hot topic in protecting personal information. As an important personal right of citizens, it should be given due attention and protection. Against this backdrop, investigative agencies and Internet companies find it significant for case handling and business development to obtain such information, thus necessitating strict protection of this type of information. However, existing literature is scarce on the application of citizens' movement trajectory information in investigations and the relevant legal rules, especially on how to determine the status of such information in judicial trials and how to establish it as a type of evidence material.
  This article employs the method of judicial case analysis to statistically identify the widespread abuse of citizens' movement trajectory information in practice. In judicial trials, there is no uniform classification or determination of such information. Specifically, there are situations where this information is directly used as evidence, situations where it is used as auxiliary evidence for direct determination, and situations where it is used as a clue to obtain other evidence that is directly determined as evidence.
  This article expands on previous literature in the following two aspects. First, it explores the legal attributes of citizens' movement trajectory information in the application of investigations, analyzing the legal attributes of such information from the perspective of technical investigation within the investigative power, thus expanding literature on the legal attributes of movement trajectory information. Second, unlike existing studies, this article applies a quantitative research method, summarizing the situations that occur in practice and confirming the specific forms of abuse of such information in practice.
  This article reveals, to some extent, the internal logic of the protection of citizens' movement trajectory information in the context of China's personal information protection. It is helpful for our investigative agencies to develop corresponding systems in the future when using such information, provide rights protection for obtaining such information under different circumstances, and ensure the orderly development of citizens' personal rights.
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  Generative Artificial Intelligence as a “Black Screen” for Society: The Logic and Practice of a Stacked Black-Box

  GUO Quanzhong, LI Li

  Jinan Journal. 2024, 46(12): 81-96. https://doi.org/10.11778/j.jnxb.20241587

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  Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) has not only reshaped the way of production, dissemination, and knowledge creation but also profoundly affected the social order and human thinking mode. As a powerful technical tool, the data-driven logic, algorithmic optimization mechanism, and black-box characteristics behind it have gradually become the focus of attention of academics and policymakers. How to deeply deconstruct the black-box characteristics of GenAI from technical, ethical, and social perspectives and explore its far-reaching impact on the social and cultural structure is the core issue of this study.
  The core mission of GenAI is to mimic human language, values, and thinking abilities, the goal that makes it increasingly technologically complex and insidious. Unlike conventional AI, GenAI embodies a high degree of non-interpretability in every aspect of its technical model, training process, and generation of results, shaping its unprecedented pure black-box nature. Based on the cutting-edge research and practice of GenAI development, this paper constructs a “stacked black-box” model, proposing that the black-box characteristics of GenAI are superimposed by three components: the technical black-box is reflected in the complexity of the algorithmic model; the nourishment black-box is reflected in the hidden nature of the training data source and processing; and the result black-box is reflected in the weak interpretability and uncertainty of the generated text.
  Although explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) tries to demystify the AI black-box through technical paths, its effect is still limited. From “pre-modeling explanation” and “interpretable model” to “post-modeling explanation”, the development of XAI has not yet really opened up the whole process of deep learning models, and may even increase the complexity of the system by adding secondary models. At the same time, the paradox of “explainable-human-like” is further highlighted. On the one hand, human beings want AI to simulate the complexity of human thinking; on the other hand, they demand transparency in the process, and this contradiction puts the development of technology in a dilemma. This paper emphasizes that it may not be realistic to completely demystify the GenAI black-box, and it is more important to balance the relationship between technological transparency and social needs.
  As GenAI is widely embedded in daily life, the traditional “black-box society” is evolving into “Neoblack-box society”, and the technology outsourcing system constructed by GenAI is becoming an important pillar of social decision-making, but it brings new problems such as centralization of power, technological inequality, and untraceability of decision-making. This paper proposes the concept of “thinking ratio”, arguing that in the context of widely embedded black-box technological systems, human beings need to strengthen their ability to “think about thinking” and “judge about judging”, so as to realize rational control of technology amid uncertainty. This paper provides a new path for the collaboration between technology and society at the cognitive level.
  This paper expands on previous studies in the following three aspects. First, it focuses on the key ethical issue of the “explainable-human-like” paradox from the multidimensional perspective of “superposition”, revealing the inherent contradiction between generative AI in the pursuit of transparency and human-like intelligence. Through the comprehensive analysis from technical logic to ethical dilemma, it provides a new theoretical perspective for the study of AI ethics. Second, the impact of AI technology on social formations is understood from the perspective of the black-box, revealing the far-reaching reshaping of technology on social order, resource distribution and individual ways of thinking. Third, the concept of “thinking ratio” is proposed in the face of criticisms that AI has made humans lose their thinking, turning attention to human cognitive adaptability to complex technological environments, and providing a new way of thinking for the understanding of the evolution of human decision-making ability in the technological era.
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  A Study on Empowerment Scenarios, Risk Patterns, and Regulatory Pathways for Integrating Large Generative AI Models into Social Governance

  TAN Xinyu

  Jinan Journal. 2024, 46(12): 97-111. https://doi.org/10.11778/j.jnxb.20242259

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  Large generative AI models (LGAIMs), exemplified by ChatGPT, have not only brought tremendous changes to human social life but also become deeply integrated into the modern social governance system, continuously driving the evolution of government structures and the innovation of governance models. While the original intention and essence of embedding LGAIMs into social governance is to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) technology to safeguard public interests and pursue public values, these technologies inevitably cause new risks and challenges in practice. Existing literature has explored the risk patterns and governance pathways associated with the embedding of LGAIMs in social governance, focusing on the conflict between political values and instrumental values, as well as the balance between public authority and algorithmic power. However, the interactive relationship between LGAIMs, government organizational structures, and social governance orders has not been explored in depth. Furthermore, there has not been a precise analysis of the risk patterns and regulatory pathways, considering the typical empowerment scenarios of LGAIMs.
  Drawing on the inter-construction theory of technology and organization, as well as technology and society, this study delves in the empowerment scenarios, risk patterns, and regulatory pathways of LGAIMs embedded into social governance. First, LGAIMs contribute to the construction of algorithmic decision-making systems in social governance, facilitating the shift from bureaucratic decision-making driven by human emotions to algorithmic rationality. However, this transformation faces challenges related to moral and responsibility judgments, necessitating a technology-for-good approach to guide the development of algorithmic decision-making models and intelligent systems in governance. Second, LGAIMs break the “information isolated island” phenomenon that often arises in traditional social governance, enabling effective cross-departmental and cross-level human-computer collaboration. Nonetheless, there is a risk of technological alienation, which makes it essential to ensure the primacy of human agency in social governance activities. Third, LGAIMs enable the scientific calculation of public service demands and accurate identification of social governance contradictions, advancing the precise matching of “supply and demand” in social governance. Nevertheless, this can also lead to the risk of social stereotyping and bias, making it essential to adhere to public value principles of fairness, justice, democracy, and equality. Fourth, LGAIMs support the construction of smart social governance scenarios characterized by virtual-physical symbiosis and human-computer interaction; however, there is a risk of undermining citizens' rights, necessitating the establishment of a multi-agent collaborative governance model focused on safeguarding civil rights.
  This study expands the theoretical framework in two aspects. First, this study, based on the inter-construction theory of technology and organization, as well as technology and society, profoundly reveals the operational patterns of embedding LGAIMs into social governance. In particular, this study proposes a technology-for-good approach and a collaborative governance model to balance the conflict between political values and instrumental values during the inter-construction process between technology and organization. Similarly, this study advocates for humanistic principles and public value objectives to balance the tension between public authority and algorithmic power in the inter-construction of technology and society. Second, this study highlights key social governance scenarios, examining the empowerment effects, risk patterns, and regulatory pathways arising from the integration of LGAIMs. It further advances the contextualized study of embedding LGAIMs with social governance. This study provides policy recommendations for government agencies seeking to deploy LGAIMs in decision-making, strengthen interdepartmental collaboration, analyze and address governance contradictions, and optimize service provision. These recommendations include the formulation of target value orientations, the establishment of a risk regulatory framework, the development of an ethical system, and the promotion of a collaborative governance model.
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  Research on Strengthening the Willingness and Motivating the Participation of Veterans in Social Governance

  WANG Chuang

  Jinan Journal. 2024, 46(12): 112-124. https://doi.org/10.11778/j.jnxb.20242260

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  Veterans, as an important human resource in the modernization of national governance, have a profound impact on the effectiveness and sustainability of social governance through their willingness and motivation to participate. However, systematic research on how to effectively stimulate veterans' willingness and motivation for social participation is still lacking. The willingness of veterans to engage in social governance is primarily guided by multiple mechanisms of identity recognition, value recognition, and emotional recognition, while their motivation is influenced by both subjective and objective factors. Future efforts should focus on optimizing veterans' participation in social governance from four dimensions: enhancing individual capabilities, building diverse participation platforms, improving incentive mechanisms, and fostering a supportive social environment.
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  “Build a Nest to Attract the Phoenix” or “Attract the Phoenix to Build a Nest”? — The Influence Mechanism of the Establishment of High-Tech Zones on Population Flow

  HUANG Xinfei, ZHAO Chenglin

  Jinan Journal. 2024, 46(12): 125-145. https://doi.org/10.11778/j.jnxb.20240392

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  In recent years, the natural population growth rate has declined significantly, and the competition around “population” has become increasingly fierce. Existing literature has not reached a consistent conclusion on the relationship between housing prices and labor migration, and there are still deeper factors influencing labor migration. The establishment of national hi-tech zones is an important means for local governments to promote the transformation and upgrading of industrial structure, and has an important impact on labor migration. Although the construction of national hi-tech zones can improve urban economic development and promote the transformation and upgrading of industrial structure, if the development results are not internalized into the income premium of the migrant population, the attraction of the construction of hi-tech zones for the migrant population is still doubtful. This paper attempts to conduct an exploration of the construction of hi-tech zones and test the role of this policy in the field of migration decision-making.
  This paper manually collects the resident population data of 233 prefecture-level cities in China from 2004 to 2018 and empirically tests the impact of the establishment of national Hi-tech zones on regional population mobility by using the time-varying difference-in-differences (DID) method. The results are as follows. (1) The establishment of national hi-tech zones has expanded the permanent population of the cities in which they are located, which can increase the total population by 4 percentage points. The construction of hi-tech zones has an inhibitory effect on the growth rate of the permanent resident population. (2) The mechanism test proves that the establishment of national hi-tech zones in a region enhances the attractiveness of the region to the population through three channels: promoting the transformation and upgrading of regional industrial structure, raising regional wages, and improving the environment for innovation and entrepreneurship. (3) The results of heterogeneity analysis show that the longer the construction time of national hi-tech zones, the more obvious the role of national hi-tech zones in attracting population inflow; and the positive promoting effect of national hi-tech zones on population size is more significant in the central and western regions and backward areas.
  Compared with previous studies, the theoretical contributions of this paper are as follows. First, it expands the research perspective of migration decision-making of the migrant population. From the perspective of urban industrial layout, it explains the attraction effect of high-tech industrial agglomeration on migration decision-making. Based on solving the problem of “come” of the migrant population, it further solves the problem of “stay” from the perspective of providing higher wage premiums. Second, it promotes research on the construction effect of national hi-tech zones, extends research on such regional industrial policies with Chinese characteristics to the level of urban livability, and provides a new idea in line with the development concept of new urbanization for the construction of hi-tech zones.
  The conclusion of this paper clarifies the internal logic of the influence of the establishment of national hi-tech zones on population migration decision-making to a certain extent, and demonstrates the way that hi-tech zones play a role in affecting the migration decision-making of population, helps local governments to formulate appropriate industrial policies to attract population inflow, and provides a new perspective for China to promote the construction of new urbanization and realize the coordinated development of technological innovation and human resources.
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  Can Board Secretary Concurrency Improve the Quality of Corporate Disclosure: A Study from the Perspective of MD&A Readability

  GU Shuibin

  Jinan Journal. 2024, 46(12): 146-167. https://doi.org/10.11778/j.jnxb.20241799

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  In China, over 70% of listed companies have board secretaries who concurrently hold other positions. While it is common for board secretaries to serve as chief financial officers (CFOs) in Western countries, China additionally witnesses numerous cases of board chairmen, executive directors, or general managers concurrently holding the role of board secretary. This study posits that such dual roles may result in energy dispersion, reduced effectiveness, and conflicts of interest, ultimately diminishing the quality of corporate information disclosure.
  To test this hypothesis, this paper conducts empirical analyses using data from A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen between 2011 and 2022 and focuses on the readability of management discussion and analysis (MD&A) sections. First, applying a two-way fixed effects model that accounts for both time and industry, this paper finds that the concurrent appointment of board secretaries significantly reduces the quality of corporate disclosure. Second, categorizing different types of concurrent roles, this paper observes that regardless of whether the board chairman, executive directors, or general managers concurrently hold the secretary position, the quality of corporate disclosure declines. The negative impact is more pronounced when the board chairman or executive directors hold the secretary role compared to general managers. These findings remain consistent across multiple robustness tests, including propensity score matching-difference-in-differences (PSM-DID), instrumental variable-Heckman models, and an alternative methodology for evaluating corporate disclosure quality. Lastly, cross-sectional analyses reveal that the detrimental effects of concurrent appointments are particularly pronounced in contexts characterized by high earnings management, weak internal controls, and limited media oversight, which demonstrates that holding multiple roles reduces the board secretary's ability to internal surveillance and governance, thereby diminishing the quality of information disclosure.
  This study has significant policy and academic implications. First, it provides empirical evidence to support regulatory efforts aimed at improving board secretary appointment practices. Emphasizing the critical role of board secretaries in corporate disclosure, this paper highlights how concurrent appointments may undermine efficiency and disclosure quality, thereby offering a solid foundation for policy reforms. Second, our findings enrich the theoretical and academic discourse on the dual roles of board secretaries, distinguishing between scenarios where the board secretary assumes additional roles (board secretary taking over) and where other executives take on the board secretary role (board secretary taken over). This paper identifies heterogeneous effects on corporate disclosure quality by examining the motivations and impacts of these concurrent appointments. Finally, this paper distinguishes between financial and non-financial information, thus improving their applicability in diverse contexts.
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  Chinese Modernization Toward Western “Other” Civilization

  WU Qun

  Jinan Journal. 2024, 46(12): 168-176. https://doi.org/10.11778/j.jnxb.20241816

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  “The other” is a recognition and construction for examining, improving, and transcending oneself. Since its inception, Chinese civilization has been “the other” civilization for Western civilization. In the long historical process of discourse progression, the image of China as “the other” has evolved from a beautiful myth to one of hostility, and then to varying degrees of praise and criticism. China is an indispensable civilizational subject in human history, and its customs, traditions, values, beliefs, institutions, and concepts have become objects of scrutiny by the West. The West has constructed specific discourse expressions through different roles, perspectives, and standpoints to achieve self-examination, self-cognition, self-reflection, and self-transcendence. Chinese modernization, as the contemporary emergence of a Western “other” civilization, represents the phoenix-like renewal of the traditional, virtuous “other”, the shedding of feathers and rebirth from the backward “other” of modern times, and the sublation of civilization towards the contemporary “other”. To break out of the predicament of Western “other” civilization in the contemporary era, China must solidify its practical foundation for transcending Western “The Other” civilization traps, actively promote civilizational exchanges, mutual learning, and inclusiveness, and build a community with a shared future for mankind. At the same time, it must maintain strategic persistence and be courageous and adept at fighting.