OOIR: Observatory of International Research

Papers

(The median citation count of Journal of Contemporary China is 1. The table below lists those papers that are above that threshold based on CrossRef citation counts [max. 250 papers]. The publications cover those that have been published in the past four years, i.e., from 2021-04-01 to 2025-04-01.)

Article	Citations
External Coercion, Internal Accommodation: China’s Wedge Strategies Towards the Vietnam-United States Partnership, 2013–2022	44
Chinese Data Governance and Trade Policy: From Cyber Sovereignty to the Quest for Digital Hegemony?	33
Amity, Security, Influence: Explaining China’s Policy Toward Afghanistan, 1949–2024	31
Political Discourse in Chinese Urban Community: Pragmatic Utility and Ideological Fatigue	25
A Unique Path of Political Development: The Confucian Dialectic of Domestic and International Interaction in the History of the Communist Party of China	23
‘Security Is a Prerequisite for Development’: Consensus-Building toward a New Top Priority in the Chinese Communist Party	22
Butter or Guns: Taiwan’s Economic Policy Toward China	19
Counterframing, Blame Avoidance, and China’s Rhetorical Response to ‘Debt-Trap Diplomacy’	18
Stability Maintenance and the ‘Three Evils’: Framing China’s Role in Central Asia	17
A Retrospective Analysis of the Major Driving Forces and Triggering Events behind China’s Cooperation in Sino-Kazakh Cross-border River Negotiations	15
What Do We See When Looking at China’s Engagements in Africa? An Analysis of Mainstream Academic Perspectives	15
In the Eyes of the Beholder: How China and the US See Each Other	13
How Politics ‘Messed up with’ Institutionalization: A Case Study of the Investigation into the Death of Li Wenliang during the Initial Months of COVID-19	13
Fearing Hardships and Fatigue? Refusals to Serve in China’s Military, 2009-2018	12
China’s International Talent Policy (ITP): The Changes and Driving Forces, 1978-2020	12
Flexible Organizational Weapon of the Party: The New Presence of Women’s Federations in Women’s NGOs in China	11
From Defensive toward Offensive Realism: Strategic Competition and Continuities in the United States’ China Policy	10
Strong State or Vulnerable Homeland: How Chinese State Media Sought to Combat Democratic Diffusion during the 2019 Hong Kong Protests	10
Americans’ Attitudes toward the US–China Trade War	10
A Cultural Theory of Chinese Foreign Policy	9
Tracing the Path of Sino-Ukrainian Relations: From the Post-Soviet Era to the Russo-Ukrainian War	9
Australia’s Approach to Chinese Power and Managing Relations with Beijing: The Enduring Paradigm of Liberalism	9
Shaping China’s Engagement with the Arctic: Nationalist Narratives and Geopolitical Reality	9
The Rule of Discourse: How Ideas and Institutions Shape China’s COVID Policy	9
When Socialist Legacy Meets International Norms: Gender Quota Adoption and Institutional Change in China	9

Hardening Chinese Realpolitik in the 21st Century: The Evolution of Beijing’s Thinking about Arms Control	9
Embedding the Party in State and Society: From Integrated to Embedded Domination During China’s COVID-19 Crisis	9
When Independence Meets Reality: Symbolic and Pragmatic Politics in Taiwan	8
Reforms and Inequality: Examining the Impact of China’s Primary Distribution System Reforms on Wage Inequality (1989–2015)	8
Governing the Future through ‘Ecological civilization’: Anticipatory Politics and China’s Great Yangtze River Protection Programme	8
Provinces in Command: Changes in Prefectural Appointments from Hu Jintao to Xi Jinping (2003-2020)	7
Assessing Public Support for (Non)Peaceful Unification with Taiwan: Evidence from a Nationwide Survey in China	7
The Belt and Road Initiative in Southeast Asia: A Mixed Methods Examination	7
China’s Promotion of Knowledge Diffusion in Africa - a Case Study on Ethiopia’s Manufacturing Sector	7
The Initial Digitalization of Chinese Diplomacy (2019–2021): Establishing Global Communication Networks on Twitter	6
The Securitization of ‘Chinese Influence’ in Australia	6
‘Nesting Dragon, Soldier, Spy’: Shaping the Narrative on China Through Huawei in UK Parliamentary Debates	6
How China’s Online Nationalists Constrain Policymaking – the Case of Foreigners’ Permanent Residency Reform	6
Infrastructural Imaginaries of Region and Nation in the Pearl River Delta’s Express Railway Link	6
Cadre Personnel Management and the Central–Local Relations of China’s Financial Governance: The Rise of ‘Airlifted’ Vice-Provincial Governors in Financial Affairs	6
Controlling the Mine? Assessing China's Emergence as a Minerals Super Power	6
The Political Leadership of Xi Jinping: Narratives of Integrity Through Ordeal	5
International Cinema’s Shifting Image of China: From the Barbarian to the Schemer, and to the Civilized Great Power	5
Legality, Legitimacy and Institutionalization: China’s Dilemma of Sanctions and Economic Coercion	5
The Politics of Policy Reformulation: Implementing Social Policy in Provincial China	5
Navigating Through The Fog: Reflexive Accounts on Researching China’s Digital Surveillance, Censorship, and Other Sensitive Topics	5
Rising Powers and Normative Resistance: China, India, and the Responsibility to Protect	5
Between Centralism and Localism: Dual Mobility Regimes in the Chinese Bureaucracy	5
Empathetic Solidarity: How Chinese English-Language Media Portrays Urban Community Participation	5
What Shapes Taiwan-related Legislation in U.S. Congress?	5
China’s Economic Diplomacy Towards the Gulf Cooperation Council States	5
The Scholar and the Ghost: Thucydides, China’s Rise, and Major Power War	5
How Far Away from Non-interference? A Case Study of China’s Development Initiative in Pakistan	4
The US–China Rivalry in the Emerging Bipolar World: Hostility, Alignment, and Power Balance	4
Explaining ‘Grey Capital’: The Sociology of Transnational Chinese Companies and Crime in Thailand	4
New Clientelism in Urban China: Broker-Based Evasions in Residential Property Market	4
Weibo Criticism of Fang Fang’s Wuhan Lockdown Diary as an ‘Enemy Within’: Rhetorical Tactics and Discourse Practices of Voluntary Propaganda in China During the COVID-19 Pandemic	4
‘A Shared Future for Mankind’: Rhetoric and Reality in Chinese Foreign Policy under Xi Jinping	4
The Sino-American Struggle for Normative Security: The Strategic Framing and Shaping of Alignment of Belief in the Human Rights Council During the COVID-19 Pandemic	4
Is There a Chinese “Developmental peace”? Evidence from the Belt and Road Initiative’s Impact on Conflict States	4
Naturalized Athletes and Racialized National Identity in China	4
A Question of Human Rights or Human Left? – The ‘People’s War against COVID-19’ under the ‘Gridded Management’ System in China	4
The Illusion of Meritocracy: Evidence from Provincial Official Promotion in Post-Mao China	4
Impact of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor on Nation-Building in Pakistan: A Case Study of Balochistan	3
Notice of duplicate publication: IR Theory and Australia’s Policy Change Towards China, 2017–2022: An Introduction Essay	3
China’s Ideational Influence in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE): A Comparative Analysis of Chinese and European Scholars’ Interpretations of China-CEE Cooperation	3
Maritime Territorial Disputes and China’s Soft Power in East Asia	3
Probing NGO–community Interactions through Village Cadres and Principal–agent Relationships: Local Effects on the Operation of NGO Projects in Rural China	3
IR Theory and Australia’s Policy Change Towards China, 2017-2022: An Introductory Essay	3
Becoming a Ganbu: China’s Cadre Training School System	3
Diverse Patterns of Paradiplomacy by Chinese Local Governments: A Comparative Case Study of Zhejiang and Yunnan Provinces	3
Who Deserves Credit? Banks for the Virtuous in Rural China	3
The Domestic Mechanisms of China’s Vertical Multilateralism: The FOCAC and the 16+1 Format Case Studies	3
Reassessing Seoul’s “One China” Policy: South Korea-Taiwan “Unofficial” Relations after 30 Years (1992-2022)	3
Elite Networks and the Transregional Dimension of Authoritarianism: Sino-Emirati Relations in Times of a Global Pandemic	3

The Welfare Is Ours: Rural-to-Urban Migration and Domestic Welfare Chauvinism in Urban China	3
Politicized Adjudication Vis-à-vis Petitioners in Chinese Criminal Justice	3
Political Events and Cultural Othering: Impact of Protests and Elections on Identities in Post-Handover Hong Kong, 1997–2021	3
The World Is Grateful to China: Chinese Government Discourse During COVID-19	3
Towards a Green Nationalism with Chinese Characteristics?	3
The Chinese Conception of Cybersecurity: A Conceptual, Institutional, and Regulatory Genealogy	3
Measuring and Forecasting the Rise of China: Reality over Image	3
Can the BRI Deliver High-Quality Development? A Multi-Actor Analysis of China’s Overseas Economic Zones	3
Poor and Lazy: Understanding Middle-class Perceptions of Poverty in China	3
Global Attitudes toward China: Trends and Correlates	3
Assessing Japan’s Taiwan Policy: Systemic Clarity, Political Survival and Bureaucratic Prudence	2
Party Corporatism in Urban China: Grid Governance and Resurgent Centralism	2
IR Theory and Australia’s Policy Change Towards China, 2017–2022: An Introduction Essay	2
“First Democracy, Then Centralism”: The New Shape of Village Elections Under the “One-Shoulder Pole” Policy	2
Rare Earth and Resource Nationalism: What Happened Before and After China’s Embargo on Japan?	2
Social Resources Transfer Program under China’s Targeted Poverty Alleviation Strategy: Rural Social Structure and Local Politics	2
Searching for the Rainbow Connection: Regional Development and LGBT Communities in China	2
Reforming the Chinese State Sector: Mixed Ownership Reforms and State-Business Relations	2
Limited Power-Sharing in a Personalized Regime: Xi Jinping’s Strategic Retreat from Local Politics	2
Shaping AI’s Future? China in Global AI Governance	2
Internationalizing China Standards Through Corporate Social Responsibility: An Exploratory Study of Chinese State-Owned Enterprises in Africa	2
Institutional Design and Rhetorical Spaces: China’s Human Rights Strategies in a Changing World Order	2
Repenetrating the Rural Periphery: Party Building Under China’s Anti-Poverty Campaign	2
China and Authoritarian Collaboration	2
Does Concurrent Political Leadership Appointment Affect Local Fiscal Allocation in China?	2
The Impact of China’s Dams on the Mekong River Basin: Governance, Sustainable Development, and the Energy-Water Nexus	2
Attitudes Toward Income Inequality in China: Revisiting the Concern About Inequality from a Comparative Perspective	2
Development of New Generation of Artificial Intelligence in China: When Beijing’s Global Ambitions Meet Local Realities	2
The Rise of Pro-Regime Intellectuals and Their Mass Persuasion Strategies on China’s Internet	2
Urban Management in Authoritarian China: How the Smart City is Used to Enhance Comprehensive Law Enforcement	2
The Crackdown on Rights-advocacy NGOs in Xi’s China: Politicizing the Law and Legalizing the Repression	2
From Hu’s Outward-Looking Pragmatism to Xi’s Ambitious Nationalist Leninism: Contrasting Agendas in Politburo Collective Study Sessions	2
China-Africa Encounter and Worker Resistance: A Case Study of Wildcat Strikes Against a Chinese-Owned Company in Ethiopia	2
A Friend in Need May Not Be a Friend Indeed: Anti-Coronavirus Aid and China’s Soft Power in Europe	2
From Corruption Control to Everything Control: The Widening Use of Inspections in Xi’s China	2
China-India Face-offs: How Does Reputation Matter in Crisis Management?	2
Innovating Repression: Policy Experimentation and the Evolution of Beijing’s Re-Education Campaign in Xinjiang	2
Balancing, Threats, and Wedges in International Political Economy: The Origins and Impact of the Sino-Indian Alliance at the WTO	2
Foundation of the Political Resilience in China: A Perspective of State Capacity	2
Rising Cohabitation and Chinese Modernity: Flexible Intimacy and Persistent Marriage	2
Understanding Environmental Governance in China Through the Green Shield Action Campaign	2
Population Mobility and Passive Alienation: A Survey Analysis of Chinese Urban Residents’ Cultural Life Perceptions	1
China’s Digital Yuan: Motivations of the Chinese Government and Potential Global Effects	1
China’s Interventions in ‘Gray Special Economic Zones’ in Southeast Asia’s Borderlands	1
Is Beijing’s Long Game on Taiwan About to End? Peaceful Unification, Brinkmanship, and Military Takeover	1
Fan Engagement with Chinese Celebrities’ Political Signaling on Weibo	1
The Ramifications of China’s Maritime Equipment Industry Policies for the EU	1
A Rational Policy Design or Contingent Historical Creation? Considering the Emergence of China’s Distributed Solar Power Generation Regime	1
Constructing Chinese Firms as Development Catalysts: State-Firm Public Diplomacy Collaboration in Kenya	1
The Evolution of American Contemporary China Studies: Coming Full Circle?	1
The Chinese Public’s Perceptions of the European Union: Changes and Stability Revealed by 2010 and 2020 Surveys	1
Chinese Re-Examinations of Russia? The Strategic Partnership in the Wake of Russia’s War Against Ukraine	1
Beyond Parochial Activism: Cross-Regional Protests and the Changing Landscape of Popular Contention in China	1
‘Power of One’: Situating the ‘Iris Chang Phenomenon’ in the National/Transnational Remembering of the Nanjing Massacre	1
Policy Feedback Loop: Central-Local Interactions in China’s International Economic Policy	1
Top-Level Design and Enlarged Diplomacy: Foreign and Security Policymaking in Xi Jinping’s China	1
Explaining Military Change in China: Reintroducing Civilian Intervention	1
Digital Governance in China: Dispute Settlement and Stability Maintenance in the Digital Age	1
Designated Accountability: Pair-Making Mechanisms and Evolving Central-Local Relations in China’s Targeted Poverty Alleviation	1
Between Politics and Expert: Institutional Transposition and the Admission of Economic Bureaucrats into Party Elite in China	1
China’s Twitter Diplomacy in Germany: Practices, Reactions, and Discrepancies	1
Rural Urbanization in China: Administrative Restructuring and the Livelihoods of Urbanized Rural Residents	1
When Rubber Bullets Fly, Family Comes First: How Fathers in Hong Kong Reconciled with Their Activist Children	1
To Ban or Not to Ban: China’s Trade in Endangered Species	1
In the Pursuit of the Constructed Truth: Courtroom Questioning as a Persuasive Genre of Talk	1
Collusive Infrapolitics: The Hidden Gay Worlds of HIV Community Based Organizations in Kunming, China	1
Hedging No More: Security Seeking and Japan’s Dual-Track China Policy	1
The U.S. - China Trade War: Who is More Injured?	1
Sino-phobia in Russia and Kyrgyzstan	1
The Enduring Sino–Russian Strategic Relations of Mutual Dependence—The Attribute of Military Cooperation	1
Why Did China’s Zero-COVID Policy Persist? Decision Urgency, Regime Type, and Political Opportunity Structures	1
American and Chinese Public Opinion in an Era of Great Power Competition: Ingroup Bias and Threat Perceptions	1
Public Opinion Backlash against China’s International Expansion	1
International Dispute Resolution of BRI-Related Cases: Changes and Challenges	1
The Rally Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic and the White Paper Movement in China	1
Profit or Power: Determinants of Chinese Financing to the Developing World	1
Administration-Led Carbon Markets and China’s Green Transition: Efficiency, Fairness and Rent-Seeking	1
‘Head of the Dragon’ or ‘Trojan Horse’?: Reassessing China–Greece Relations	1
The Quad, AUKUS and Australian Security Minilateralism: China’s Rise and New Approaches to Security Cooperation	1
China’s Discourse of Maritime Power: A Thematic Analysis	1