This article explores investment protection under Chinese international investment agreements (IIAs), particularly under the China-Poland bilateral investment treaty (BIT). As a state that both imports and exports foreign direct investment, China currently promotes balanced and safeguarded BITs that protect its increasing overseas investments and preserves the necessary space to regulate in the public interest. The Chinese government remains reluctant to be directly involved in investment arbitration as a respondent, while Chinese investors are active in taking advantage of the IIAs’ regime. When compared to China’s recent treaty practice and new developments in global investment governance, the China-Poland BIT is relatively outdated in terms of investment protection, promotion, social clauses, and dispute settlement. In terms of the investment protection effects of BITs, China is seemingly in a more urgent position to update the China-Poland BIT. However, if we evaluate the overall effects of a modernized BIT on investment promotion, regulation, and dispute settlement, an updated China-Poland BIT will fit the interests of both the Polish and Chinese governments. Notwithstanding the on-going negotiation between the EU and China, this article aims, along with presenting the Chinese practice regarding BITs, to describe de lege lata the state of protection offered to Chinese and Polish investors under the China-Poland BIT.
Emerging technologies represent the direction of the new industrial revolution of promoting sustainable economic and social development, and strategic emerging industries have developed rapidly in China. The development of these emerging technology industries requires more mineral resources as raw materials, especially the need for specific minerals, has increased. The unsatisfied growing demand for minerals used in emerging technologies or an unexpected supply disruption in major producing countries could have an impact on economic development. There are only several studies on the supply of mineral resources from the perspective of mineral resources needed by the development of China’s emerging industries. To assess the criticality of the minerals needed by the strategic emerging industries in China, this paper adopts three indicators: import concentration, the volatility of prices and the application requirements by the Chinese 13th five-year plan dedicated to strategic emerging industries in 2016. Furthermore, 34 types of nonfuel minerals and mineral raw materials are separated into three categories. Finally, this paper indicates that the three indexes are all high for 8 minerals with supply risks, application in emerging technologies, and substantial market fluctuations which need the support of special policies. Two indexes of three Level-II indicators are high for 14 minerals which need different policy combination measures, and one index is high for 12 minerals which also needs attention, all of which were analyzed.
The Silurian fishes from north-western Hunan, China are characterised by the earliest known galeaspids
Dayongaspis Pan and Zeng, 1985 and Konoceraspis Pan, 1992, and the earliest known antiarch Shimenolepis
Wang J.-Q., 1991, as well as rich sinacanth fin spines. Shimenolepis from Lixian County in north-western
Hunan, which was dated as the Telychian (late Llandovery), has long been regarded as the oldest representative
of the placoderms in the world. As such, in addition to eastern Yunnan and the Lower Yangtze Region,
north-western Hunan represents another important area in South China that yields important fossil material
for the research of early vertebrates and related stratigraphy. Here we summarise the Silurian fishes known in
north-western Hunan so far, and classify them into three vertebrate assemblages (i.e., the Wentang, Maoshan,
and Yangtze assemblages). Based on the updated Silurian vertebrate and stratigraphic databases, the Silurian
fish-bearing strata in north-western Hunan can be subdivided into the Rongxi, Huixingshao, and Xiaoxi formations
in ascending chronological order, which can be correlated with the Lower Red Beds, the Upper Red Beds,
and the Ludlow Red Beds in South China, respectively. A new look at the Silurian strata in Lixian suggests that
the age of Shimenolepis is late Ludlow rather than late Llandovery as previously suggested. The research on
Silurian fishes and biostratigraphy in north-western Hunan not only provides morphological data of early vertebrates,
but also offers new palaeoichthyological evidence for the subdivision, correlation, and age assignment of
the Silurian marine red beds in South China. The establishment of a related high-precision Silurian stratigraphic
framework in north-western Hunan will help to elucidate the temporal and spatial distribution of Silurian fossil
fishes, deepen the understanding of the evolution of early vertebrates, and unravel the coevolution between
Silurian vertebrates and the palaeoenvironment.
The environment in general and the marine environment in particular forms an ecosystem. Such ecosystem is characterized by high interconnectivity and interdepen-dence of species inhabiting it. Often enough, marine ecosystems far exceed the limits of the State’s sovereignty. Thus, their effective protection and preservation shall be carried out on a cooperative basis, engaging all States sharing common environment. The first international treaty to tackle the issue of marine environmental protection on a systemic basis is the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). It is also a treaty which directly established an obligation to cooperate in ensuring this protection. However, homogenous international regulation is not capable of addressing regional varying circumstances of marine environment. As the example of the South China Sea shows, lack of cooperation between coastal States can result in an irreversible damage to the environment. On the other hand, a remarkable model of effective realization of the obligation to cooperate has been established in the region of the Baltic Sea. What we can learn from these experiences is that fulfillment of the obligation to cooperate on a re-gional basis is a prerequisite for effective protection and preservation of the marine environment.
Józef Kowalewski, a founding father of Mongolian studies in Russia, stayed in Beijing from November 1830 until July 1831. He stayed with the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission and, being a Catholic himself, Kowalewski was very interested in the history and current state of Catholicism in China. In those years Catholicism in China faced severe persecution. All European missionaries were expelled from China with the exception of Bishop Gaetano Pirès Pereira, who was allowed to stay at the Russian Mission because of his old age. Kowalewski is said to have written a history of Catholicism in China which was destroyed by fire. However, unpublished diaries of Kowalewski, which survive in the Russian archives, contain much interesting information about Catholic cemeteries in Beijing, the life of Chinese converts, the Jesuit library and records of his talks with the last Catholic bishop.
Field surveys were undertaken in 1997–1999 across five ecological zones in Nigeria to collect isolates of Maize streak virus (MSV), genus Mastrevirus. Apart from maize (Zea mays L.), 15 other grass species were found with MSV symptoms in Nigeria. These hosts showed two types of symptoms viz: mild (with or without mottle) or severe (typical symptoms in maize). When Cicadulina storeyi China was used to attempt transmission of these isolates of MSV to seedlings a susceptible maize hybrid CML 254 X CML 247, six isolates were not transmissible to maize. Seven isolates that were transmissible to maize produced mild symptoms. The viral agents causing typical or severe streak symptoms in Axonopus compressus (Sw.) P. Beauv., Brachiaria distichophylla (Trn.) Stapf, Dactyloctenium aegyptium (Linn.) P. Beauv. and Setaria barbata (Lam.) Kunth produced symptoms that were typical of MSV in farmers fields, when transmitted to maize. Out of 33 plant species that seedlings were challenged with MSV, only eight proved susceptible. Four of them showed mild symptoms while the other four showed severe symptoms of MSV. Only three isolates collected during the surveys did not react with a MSV polyclonal antiserum produced in mice in Double Antibody Sandwich-Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (DAS-ELISA). These isolates were found in Andropogon gayanus Kunth (from Kaduna), Thelepogon elegans Roth ex Toem & Schult (from Kadawa) and Rottboellia cochinchinensis (Lour.) Clayton (from Jos) exhibited mild streak/mottle symptoms. Specific monoclonal antibodies, raised against MSV, reacted with 12 out of 25 samples tested. The DAS-ELISA data also showed significant variation in concentration of the virus in the different plant hosts. The relationship dendogram through SDS-PAGE among eight purified virus isolates show 55–90% variation. At 0.55 coefficient of similarity, the dendogram divided the samples into two groups while at 0.9 coefficient of similarity, the 8 isolates were identified as distinct genetic entities.
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