Institutional Differences and the Choice of Outward Foreign Direct Investment Mode under the "Belt and Road” Initiative: Experience Analysis Based on China's Manufacturing Enterprises

Based on 1692 outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) events of 735 A-share listed companies in China's manufacturing industry from 2010 to 2019, this paper empirically examines the effect of investment motivation and the impact of institutional differences between China and the host country on the choice of OFDI entry mode;the paper also investigates the moderating effect of the "Belt and Road” Initiative (BRI) on Chinese manufacturing enterprises (CMEs) through use of the logit model. The empirical results show that, with greater institutional differences, CMEs become more inclined to choose cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Furthermore, a positive moderating effect of resource-seeking motivation on the choice of M&A OFDI by CMEs is observed. The signing of the "Belt and Road” cooperation document positively moderates institutional differences in promoting CMEs—especially state-owned CMEs—to choose the M&A mode. The "Belt and Road” Initiative provides an efficient supply system for OFDI by CMEs. This study enriches and extends existing institutional theories and provides suggestions for the promotion of the geopolitical pattern and international cooperation regarding the "Belt and Road” Initiative.

Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases in BRI Countries

This book systematically assesses the risk of 21 major infectious diseases threatening BRI countries. It consists of 14 chapters. Chapter 1 is an overview. Chapter 2 introduces the history of health cooperation between China and other BRI countries. Chapters 3-14 introduce the prevalence of major infectious diseases threatening BRI countries such as cholera, vaccine preventable diseases (polio, measles, meningitis, Japanese encephalitis, diphtheria, hepatitis A), tuberculosis, influenza, and insect-borne diseases (Dengue fever, Zika virus disease, yellow fever, Chikungunya, Rift Valley fever), plague, malaria, Ebola virus disease, MERS, schistosomiasis, COVID-19 and AIDS, and risk factors, principles and cases of their prevention and control. It is a useful reference book in the research of infectious disease control and prevention, and provides historical experience and lessons learned. It also provides decision support for international cooperation among BRI countries in the field of epidemic prevention and control in the future. © People's Medical Publishing House, PR of China 2021, corrected publication 2021.

Social Integration and Residence Intention of Foreigners in Western China: Evidence from Xi'an.

Since "Belt and Road Initiative" (BRI) of 2014, the number of foreigners in China has increased rapidly and China has become an importing country for immigrants, a change ongoing since the beginning of the 21st century. To respond to the rapidly increasing number of foreigners in China, the government frequently revised the immigration policies and issued new regulations for foreigners. However, scholars understand very little about how the foreigners perceive their integration into Chinese society or decide to pursue long-term residency or lawful permanent resident status. While some pioneering studies touch on this, with samples from the coastal megacities, no empirical evidence has been collected from smaller, inner cities. Three new findings about the foreigners in Xi'an, a major city in western China, fill this literature gap. First, the level of subjective social integration is largely influenced by the local networks. Second, the level of objective social integration depends largely on local and hometown networks. Third, the intention to obtain long-term and permanent residency in China is more evident in those foreigners who come from countries covered by the BRI and who consider China to be a better place to live than their home country.

How does COVID-19 pandemic impact cities' logistics performance? An evidence from China's highway freight transport.

The pandemic COVID-19 which has spread over the world in early 2020 has caused significant impacts not only on health and life, but also on production activities and freight work. However, few studies were about the effect of COVID-19 on the performance of cities' logistics. Hence, this study focuses on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and compares the changes in logistics performance from a spatial perspective caused by COVID-19 that are reflected on the highway freight between its 18 node cities in 2019 and 2020 of the same periods for 72 days. This study uses the entropy weight method to reflect the impact that COVID-19 has caused to the logistics level. Based on the modified gravity model, the impact on the logistics spatial connection between node cities was analyzed. These two aspects have been combined to analyze the logistics performance. The results show that the node cities have been affected by COVID-19 dissimilarly, and the impact has regional characteristics. The logistics level and spatial connection of Wuhan are the most seriously declined. The decline in logistics level has the same spatial variation law as the confirmed cases. The logistics connection between Wuhan and the surrounding node cities and the three-node cities in the northeast of China are also severely affected by the pandemic because of the expressway control policies. The regional distribution of logistics performance has differences, and the correlation of the logistics level and logistics spatial connection decreases. Besides, this study puts forward different recovery suggestions and policies for different belts in the BRI, such as focusing on restoring areas and giving full play to the role of the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration and logistics corridor. Finally, further provides corresponding suggestions for reducing the impact of emergencies from the perspectives of logistics hubs.

Integration of the Confucian Culture on Cross-Cultural Conflict Management: The Role of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Cross-culture conflict management is the major challenge for the Chinese enterprises going global along the Belt and Road Initiative. This study explores the feasibility of integrating the Confucian culture into cross-culture conflict management, and a special role is given to the COVID-19 pandemic. We combine the Confucian culture values and Hofstede's cultural dimension theory and adopt the questionnaire survey methods on the Chinese multinational enterprises' employees. The Cronbach's Alpha method is also deployed to test the reliability and validity of the data. We find the significant integration of the Confucian culture into cross-culture conflict management. Furthermore, 16 sub-values of the Confucian culture are suggested to mitigate the cross-culture conflicts in multinational enterprises effectively. The findings imply that Chinese enterprises should consider new strategies to manage the cross-culture conflicts, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.