In 2013, China presented the idea of the infrastructure project One Belt One Road. The thesis aims to analyse the potential effects of the initiative, and how its attempt to improve transport infrastructure will impact EU-tourist flows to participating countries. A closer look to the effects on the tourism industry is justified because of the importance of the touristic sector for the global economy. For instance, the direct contribution of the touristic sector accounted for 2.3 trillion USD worldwide in 2016. A gravity model approach is used in the following paper to examine the significance of road, railway, air service as well as port infrastructure for tourists from the European Union. Afterwards, an OBOR simulation is carried out that forecasts a potential change for EU-tourist inflows. The results go in line with previous gravity model studies regarding the positive relationship of the GDP and the inverse influence of the distance on tourism flows. Furthermore, the findings suggest a significant impact of well-developed road, railway and air service networks. However, the quality of ports did not meet the expectations and is somewhat contra productive for the decision making of EU tourists. The simulation for the improvement of transport infrastructure implies that countries with an under-...

Announced in 2013, the One Belt One Road(OBOR) Initiative is considered the most important geopolitical development strategy of the 21st-century in the country. The Chinese government aims to promote trade and investment with more than 63 OBOR countries. In this paper, I analyze the impact of One Belt One Road Initiative on China’s foreign direct investment for a period of 2003-2015 with a country level panel data. Other determinants frequently used in the FDI literature such as market size, geographical distance, resources, trading effects and political risks are also considered in the model. The empirical results show that OBOR policy is positively associated with China’s outward FDI flow. I believe the research result indicates a policy related trend for Chinese firms’ overseas investments.

The aim of this thesis is to provide an in-depth analysis on the projected nature of China's One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative through Chinese engagement in Eastern Europe, with a particular focus on Serbia. The current geopolitical situation provides a unique opportunity for the use of the Heartland Theory, first presented by Halford John Mackinder in 1904, which outlines and justifies state expansion across Eurasia. The main objectives of this thesis are to discuss possible outcomes for Serbia following increased Chinese investment and to provide a recommendation for a European response. Being an adjacent nation of the Heartland, a potential future member of the European Union, and currently balanced between Europe's and China's pull, Serbia has became a unique and important state to consider when assessing China's intentions in Europe. China's continued economic and political rise in recent years has allowed them to become influential in nations previously untethered to China, and has ominously begun to follow the footsteps that Mackinder had predicted a century prior. Although the theory suggests a nation's intent to rule the world, which one could argue China is pursuing, the aim of this thesis is in fact to uncover and illustrate the effects that China's potential advance to world...

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences. / Department of Government and Public Administration

Depuis le début des années 2000, la Chine et la RPDC (« Corée du Nord) ont tenté de mettre en œuvre des programmes de coopération économique et d’intégration transfrontalière. Ces programmes de coopération ont été facilité par des politiques réformatrices en Corée du Nord, la famine des années 1990 ayant fait prendre conscience à Pyongyang qu’un certain degré de réforme économique était nécessaire pour reprendre le contrôle et relancer une économie désorganisée et appauvrie. En conséquence, les échanges et les investissements entre la Chine et la RPDC ont connu une hausse spectaculaire. Ceci étant, les expérimentations politiques menées par Pyongyang, dont notamment les Zones Économiques Spéciales, n’ont pas réussi à attirer l‘attention des entrepreneurs et des officiels chinois.A travers l’étude empirique d’une selection de Zones Économiques Spéciales et de leurs environnements politiques et législatifs, des entretiens avec des hommes d’affaires chinois impliqués dans les relations économiques bilatérales à la frontière et des observations sur le terrain en Corée du Nord, l’auteur développe l’idée selon laquelle les stratégies d’engagement économiques chinoises et les politiques de développement économique nord-coréennes sont fondamentalement incompatibles, ce qui fait des actuellespratiques de coopération économique une source de tensions politiques. Il semblerait que la Chine a en effet essayé d’atteindre certains objectifs politiques et géopolitiques à travers des outils économiques, ce qui est vu par Pyongyang comme une ingérence dans ses affaires internes. Ces stratégies chinoises sont particulièrement intéressantes à étudier dans le contexte de l’initiative « One Belt, One Road ». Paradoxalement, l’auteur cherche à expliquer que les plus récentes générations de Zones Économiques Spéciales ne visent pas seulement à faciliter une certaine forme d’intégration économique bilatérale mais incarnent dans le même temps une forme de résistance à l’étreinte économique chinoise. / Since the beginning of the 2000’s, China and the DPRK (North Korea) have tried to implement economic cooperation and crossborder-economic integration programs. These cooperation programs have been facilitated by reformist policies in the DPRK, as the 1990 decade famine that struck North Korea convinced the Pyongyang leadership that some degree of economic reform was needed to restart and regain control over a greatly damaged economy. As a result, trade and investment ties between China and North Korea soared. However, political experimentations by the Pyongyang leadership, such as Special Economic Zones, have attracted limited attention from Chinese entrepreneurs and officials.Through an empirical analysis of a selection of North Korean Special Economic Zones and related policies, interviews with Chinese businessmen active in the borderlands as well as anecdotal evidence gathered in the DPRK, the author argues that Chinese economic engagement policies and North Korea’s economic development strategy bear structural incompatibilities which makes the current economic cooperation patterns a source of diplomatic and political friction. It seems that China has indeed been trying to achieve different political and geopolitical objectives through economic means, which largely resonates with the larger Chinese-led “One Belt, one Road” initiative” but is seen as interfering from Pyongyang. Quite paradoxically, the author argues that later generations of Special Economic Zones do not only constitute institutions designed to foster economic integration between China and the DPRK but also embody political resistance to the Chinese economic embrace. / Seit dem Beginn der 2000er Jahre haben China und die Demokratische Volksrepublik Korea (Nordkorea) versucht, eine wirtschaftliche Kooperation und grenzüberschreitende wirtschaftliche Integrationsprogramme zu implementieren. Diese Projekte wurden durch reformorientierte Politik in der DPRK ermöglicht, da die Hungersnot, welche Nordkorea in den 90er Jahren heimsuchte, die Pjöngjanger Führung überzeugte, dass ein gewisser Grad an wirtschaftlichen Reformen nötig sei, um die schwer beschädigte Wirtschaft neu zu starten und über sie Kontrolle auszuüben. Infolgedessen steigerten sich der Handel und die wirtschaftlichen Beziehungen insgesamt zwischen China und Nordkorea auf ein noch nie da gewesenes Niveau. Jedoch haben politische Experimente der Führung in Pyongyang, einschließlich eines direkten „Policytransfers“, welche chinesischen Erfahrungen nachempfunden waren, wie zum Beispiel Sonderwirtschaftszonen, eingeschränkte Aufmerksamkeit von chinesischen Unternehmern und Beamten erfahren.Auf Basis einer empirischen Analyse einer Auswahl von nordkoreanischen Sonderwirtschaftszonen und damit verbundenen „Policies“, Interviews mit im Grenzgebiet aktiven, chinesischen Unternehmern und in Nordkorea gesammelten Einzelberichten, argumentiert der Autor, dass die chinesischen wirtschaftlichen Engagement Strategien und die wirtschaftliche Entwicklungsstrategie Nord-Koreas strukturellen Unvereinbarkeiten aufweisen, welche die derzeitigen wirtschaftlichen Entwicklungsmuster zu eine Quelle diplomatischer und politischer Spannungen werden lassen. Es scheint, dass China in der Tat versucht hat, verschiedene politische und geopolitische Ziele auf wirtschaftlichem Wege zu erreichen, was größtenteils in der bedeutenden, von China angeführten, „One Belt, one Road“ Initiative seinen Nachhall findet, jedoch von Pjöngjang als Einmischung gesehen wird. Paradoxerweise sind, so die Argumentation des Autors, spätere Generationen der Sonderwirtschaftszonen nicht nur Institutionen zur Förderung der wirtschaftlichen Integration zwischen China und der Demokratischen Volksrepublik Korea, sie verkörpern auch den politischen Widerstand gegen die chinesische wirtschaftliche Umklammerung.

China has gone through a phase of rapid economic development in the last four decades. The country is the world’s biggest economy, measured in GDP purchasing power parity terms, and the largest trading nation in terms of the total sum of exports and imports of merchandise trade. With the launch of the century’s largest infrastructure project – the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – by Xi Jinping in 2013, China is planning to revive the Ancient Silk Roads in order to gain geopolitical power beyond Asia. Thus far, huge flows of FDI have already made their way from China to countries along the Belt and Road, especially the ones in need of additional infrastructure provision. In this paper, the effect of Chinese outward FDI on economic growth in the BRI economies through infrastructure development is examined, thereby conducting a cross-country analysis with panel data for 34 and 27 countries, respectively, over the period 2005–2017. The direct effect of Chinese FDI on economic growth in BRI countries is ambiguous, supporting previous literature on FDI and economic growth. When adding infrastructure indicators to the regressions and accounting for the endogeneity problem, the effect of Chinese FDI on economic growth changes but remains insignificant, nevertheless. This is most likely due to the reduced sample sizes, on the one hand, and the fact that Chinese construction contracts play a bigger role than actual FDI in the BRI.

The European Union (EU) is a key trading partner for the People's Republic of China (PRC). Nearly one third of PRC's production is send to the EU and half of EU exports is directed to the PRC. Such huge trade volumes require an appropriate logistical connection, which is currently dominated by maritime transport. However, since 2007 railway transport has also been available. The aim of this dissertation is to evaluate the position of the railway transport of the PRC European route (with focus on the position of the Czech Republic) with regard to its development, obstacles and potential for the future. Firstly, the paper describes the background and reasons for the establishment of the New Silk Road (One Belt One Road initiative), followed by the trade and economic cooperation between the PRC and the Czech Republic. The practical part deals with individual aspects of railway connection. Neither in terms of trade volumes nor price can railway compete with the maritime solution, nevertheless it slowly but surely acquires its first regular customers.

一帶一路倡議是中國最近的經濟發展策略，其目的是透過基礎設施發展和貿易，將中國與歐亞大陸的其他國家連結在一起。儘管並非單純為了能源所規劃的策略，但是倡議的組成部分對中國提供日增的能源需求扮演了一個角色。 本論文透過與1990 年代末中國走出去策略之比較，在中國能源需求的大架構下，檢驗一帶一路倡議。為評估一帶一路倡議對中國能源安全的影響，本論文首先界定中國對能源安全的見解，然後分析一帶一路計畫如何應對中國對能源安全的關切。 本論文發現一帶一路倡議可視為走出去策略的後續策略。此外，本論文也發現中國主要是透過供應的角度來觀察能源的安全，且一帶一路計畫（如，石油和天然氣管道的構築）確保了能源運輸的可靠性。 / The Belt and Road Initiative is China’s latest economic development strategy, which seeks to connect China to the rest of Eurasia through infrastructure development and trade. While not a dedicated energy strategy, components of the initiative will play a role in meeting China’s growing energy needs. This paper examines the Belt and Road Initiative in the greater context of China’s energy policy by comparing it to China’s “going-out” strategy of the late 1990s. It assesses the impact that Belt and Road projects will have on China’s energy security by first defining how China views its energy security and then analyzing how Belt and Road projects address China’s energy security concerns. This paper finds that the Belt and Road Initiative can be considered a successor to the“going-out” strategy. It also finds that China views energy security primarily through the lens of supply, and that Belt and Road projects such as port and pipeline construction contribute by ensuring reliability of transport.

The aim of the diploma thesis is the comparison of maritime and rail freight transport between Asia and Europe. The thesis focuses on characteristic of rail transport as an alternative mode of transport and identification of possibilities, how to increase its competitiveness towards to maritime transport. First part of the thesis analyses current situation in maritime and rail transport and focuses on their specifics and future potential. The practical part deals with the change of fictitious company´s logistics system. Maritime and rail transport are compared in terms of risks, costs and shipping time. The last part of thesis deals with possibilities of increasing competitiveness of rail transport in the future.

新疆塔吉克族的婚禮，目前已是聯合國非物質文化遺產之一。塔吉克族的婚禮方式傳統特殊，有其特定的結婚季節，是塔吉克人引以為傲的慶典。隨著中國大陸「一帶一路」的全球經濟發展策略，塔吉克族的故鄉塔什庫爾干，因為位於一帶一路通往中亞與南亞的重要樞紐上，成為了經濟特區，帶動經濟飛快地發展，卻也造成維護傳統文化上的巨大衝擊。許多塔吉克族的傳統房屋被迫拆除，新建地現代樓房因為室內空間改變，而影響了塔吉克族的婚禮儀式。此外，隨著現代化的影響，許多傳統的禮俗慢慢地流失，塔吉克族特有的樂器鷹笛和羊皮鼓，已漸漸地被電子琴所取代。而騎馬迎娶新娘的儀式，也大多被汽車所取代。因此，此創作計畫透過三個多月的紀錄，將塔吉克婚禮的過程紀實攝影，最終展覽以攝影敘事的方式，結合動態影像與塔吉克鷹舞的互動體驗，以及問卷回饋的形式，反映社會大眾對於不同文化變遷的意見，也希望能特過此創作，對於塔吉克族文化的變遷與流失，做最後的紀錄與保存。 / The Xinjiang Tajik wedding is one of the United Nations Intangible Cultural Heritage. The Tajik wedding is particular, traditional which is only hold in wedding season. The Tajik is proud of their wedding ceremony. Via the One Belt One Road global economic strategy in mainland China, which leads to the dramatically change in Tashkurgan, the hometown of the Tajik. The location of Tashkurgan is in the hub of Central Asia and South Asia. The perfect location make Tashkurgan become the Fourth Special Economic Zone in China. Being the Special Economic Zone brought to the increasing developing, on the other hand, which harmed to the cultural maintenance as well. Most of the traditional Tajik houses were demolished. The China government built the modern house to replace the original tradition one. The change of the house which also changed the indoor space leading to the change to the Tajik wedding ceremony. Otherwise, the modern life also make many customs vanished. Instead of playing the Eagle-flute and Lamb-drum, some wedding were playing the keyboard . The custom about horse-riding to escort the bride was substituted by the car. Thus, this project has recorded the Tajik for three months. The process of the Tajik wedding was recorded with photography documentary. The exhibition that integrated Photography Narrative and dynamic phantom. In the exhibition, with the questionnaire and interaction in Eagle dance, which reflected the audience feedback to the other culture change. Furthermore, I hope that I could make a contribution to preserve images about the culture change for Tajik via this project.