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INTRODUCTION

China’s Foreign Investment Law: Towards Improving the Legal and Institutional Environment for Foreign Investors

The article aims to present the main changes of China’s foreign investment law with a focus on the Foreign Investment Law and its implementing, effective from January 1, 2020. They are overarching and concerning investors present on the Chinese market and those planning to expand into the market through foreign direct investments. The following research hypothesis was verified: The Chinese Foreign Investment Law and its implementing entail many beneficial changes from the foreign investors’ perspective. An in-depth analysis of legal texts is the main research method employed to verify the research hypothesis. Key findings: The FIL, its implementation and the further shortening of the prohibitions and restrictions on foreign investors included in the negative lists are important steps towards liberalisation in foreign investors’ access to the Chinese market, offering them opportunities to invest capital. They create a conducive institutional and legal environment for foreign investors compared to the previous legislation. However, further action is needed to address regulatory flaws, increase regulatory transparency, and accelerate the pace of change.

Chinese authorities have taken decisive steps to tackle violations of intellectual property (IP) rights in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The National People’s Congress (NPC) adopted a new amendment to China’s criminal law on December 26, 2020. These regulations entered into force on March 1, 2021. The article aims to draw attention to the recent developments and ways to fight against the IP infringement in China. The study focuses on the IP courts in China and then analyzes the recent amendment to Chinese criminal law. Therefore, it is based on the descriptive and dogmatic methods. The article seeks to answer the question of whether the regulations are effective and significantly prevent the spread of IP infringements in China. It brings us to the conclusion that China’s accession to the WTO was a turning point that influenced the development and the improvement of domestic IP regime. Hence, China became a country with complex, multifaceted, and contentious environment regarding IP rights. One of the most significant changes concern the establishment of IP courts across China. It is too early to determine whether these solutions are effective due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in China.

Challenges and directions of activity of president Yoon Suk Yeol’s administration

The purpose of the article is to describe the 2022 South Korean presidential election against the backdrop of a paradigm shift and to show the challenges and directions of Yoon Suk Yeol’s new administration. The author focuses on the research problems present in the new South Korean politics. Elements of change and continuity, which were also present in previous administrations are highlighted. In May 2022, Yoon Suk Yeol was sworn into the South Korea’s highest office. Yoon’s win in the presidential election ended a trend in which a decade of progressive rule was followed by a change to conservative rule. Since 1998, progressive and conservative presidents have alternated every two terms. The minimal difference in votes in favor of the conservative candidate reflected the divisions and social preferences of Koreans who favored a change from progressive to conservative government. The results of the 2022 presidential election revealed the polarization of South Korean society. Yoon will face a series of difficult challenges. In domestic politics, he must confront the housing crisis, widespread dissatisfaction with economic inequality, and generational tensions, among other issues. Yoon will also be challenged by the parliamentary majority currently held by the Democratic Party in the National Assembly. In foreign policy, South Korea’s new president advocates strengthening the alliance with the United States and cooperation with the Quad countries; he promises to improve relations with Japan, and to take steps toward South Korea playing a greater role in the world. In his inter-Korean policy, on the other hand, Yoon follows the traditional position of the conservatives, pledging to strengthen a policy of deterrence against acts of aggression and provocation by North Korea.

To what extent do current models apply to analyze soft repression? Research on soft repression is still under development, and due to technological advancement, it is necessary to analyze different types of soft repression in a way to modify and refine existing typologies. Drawing on lessons learnt from Asian and regional studies, this article aims to discuss critically selected theoretical tools used to study soft repression. It scrutinizes four models that apply to delve analytically into different types of soft repression. The focus is on the most influential approaches in recent years that gained the highest impact on the development of studies on contentious politics. The first typology applies to differentiate between soft repression forms used mainly by non-state actors. The second approach treats soft repression as an explaining variable, as the text focuses on the consequences of soft repression. The third model applies to studying hard and soft repression during protests. Its analysis exposes how the combination of effectively selected forms of repression leads to the demobilization of individual movements and discourages participation in the protest. The last model involves a specific form of soft repression that uses relationships and interpersonal ties to demobilize protesters.

A Broad Overview, Rather Than a Journalistic Investigation. Review of Sylwia Czubkowska’s book Chińczycy trzymają nas mocno. Pierwsze śledztwo o tym, jak Chiny kolonizują Europę, w tym Polskę

Energy Security Policy of the People’s Republic of China towards the Caspian States of Central Asia

In contemporary international relations, the issue of energy security is becoming fundamental. Access to energy resources is an existential need of every country, conditioning its economic and social development. In such a situation, states try to construct long-term energy security policies to ensure smooth supplies of raw materials. The research problem is the analysis of the energy security policy of the People’s Republic of China towards the Caspian states of Central Asia: Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. In the research process, a hypothesis was verified, assuming that China’s energy security policy in the Caspian region of Central Asia is determined by the increased demand of this superpower for energy resources and geographical proximity to oil and gas deposits located in Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) became interested in the hydrocarbon resources of the Central Asian region right after the collapse of the USSR. At that time, the energy security policy of this superpower was implemented in several stages: from gaining access to the oil and gas reserves of the countries of the region to the construction of export pipelines supplying the absorptive Chinese market. Thus, the analysis presents the conditions of the PRC’s energy security policy, its institutional dimension and actions towards Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, both in upstream and midstream terms.

The significance of maritime interactions has impacted coastal and landlocked countries. Nepal’s response to the US-led Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS) signifies the same. For Nepal, crossing seas was culturally associated with sin as an objective to fulfill the isolationist policy adopted until the political change of 1950. As such, Nepal’s interaction with the sea was not so friendly in the past. However, these historical shreds of evidence cannot suffice as the reason behind her denial of joining the IPS. Most of the available literature divulges the sensitive geographical position of Nepal in the context of the rise of China and the projection of a ‘new Cold War’ for its reluctance to join the Indo-Pacific strategy. However, they fail to probe into the domestic intricacies contributing to the hesitation. In this context, this paper primarily tries to dwell upon the actors and factors that have influenced Nepal’s dubiety in joining the Indo-Pacific Strategy. Thus, this paper aims to fulfill two objectives. First, to analyze the role of geographical sensitivity, and second, to scrutinize the domestic interplay of things. As exploratory qualitative research, this study reviews the official documents, agreements, statements, speeches, and reports from think tanks and newspapers to hypothesize that besides external factors there are integral internal elements that have played a part in Nepal’s denial to join the strategic partnership.

Human Remains in Asian Museums and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

The work concerns the restitution of museum remains as a special cultural asset found in archaeological museums. The research problem concerns reverence towards human remains constituting museum exhibits on the example of Singapore museums. This type of museum inventory has become the subject of intensified restitution activities on the part of tribal minorities, indigenous peoples, who claim the right to them based on the right to worship after their deceased ancestors, the right to protect cultural, religious, and traditional heritage. Such law is based particularly on the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The research objective focuses, first of all, on the legal grounds resulting from the Declaration, and secondly, on the analysis of the inventory of selected Singaporean museums, which contain exhibits that are human remains in their collections. The main research hypothesis focuses on the statement that Singapore, as one of the few Asian countries, maintains a special regime of pietism towards the deceased, which is manifested in the way of treating and storing human remains as museum exhibits. It may be due to the country’s cultural conditions on the one hand, and religious and legal conditions on the other. That, in turn, translates into the approach of museums to restitution claims, which are increasingly being put forward by representatives of indigenous peoples in connection with the return of the remains of their deceased ancestors. These claims find their legal basis in acts of international law and collective human rights. Therefore, the work answers the questions whether museums in Singapore duly respect international law in protecting human remains and the rights of indigenous peoples, and how this translates into reverence for this type of exhibits in museum practices in connection with ICOM regulations.

The Philippines during Rodrigo Duterte’s Rule: Rivalry between the United States and China

The rivalry of great powers between the United States and China embraces all regions of the world, including Southeast Asia and especially the Philippines. The President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte (2016–2022) at the beginning of his presidency started to diminish the dependence of the country on former colonial power the US and to improve relations with China. Duterte hoped for the increase of economic cooperation and support of Beijing for modernization of infrastructures. Despite some successes in his policy, Duterte finally started to search again for support from the US. It was the result of extremely strong links and dependency between armed forces of Philippines and United States and generally very strong pro American filling of many Filipinos, the second reason was slowness of realization of some Chinese investments in the country, brutality and aggressiveness of Chinese coast guards towards Philippine fishers, and probably also some weakness in Chinese policy to the Philippines. Finally, Duterte obtained good results. The US confirmed readiness for military support in case of foreign aggression (especially in the South China Sea) and China was involved in political and economic cooperation with the Philippines.

Green China – a Dream or Not So Faraway Future? Review of Łukasz Gacek’s book Cywilizacja ekologiczna i transformacja energetyczna w Chinach

SPIS TREŚCI

TABLE OF CONTENTS

WSTĘP

INTRODUCTION