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Britain’s policy on China fluctuated from positive engagement to China scepticism between 2015 and 2023, influenced by geopolitical and domestic politics and economic concerns. British media coverage of US–China interactions and rivalry therefore warrants scrutiny. The US–China summit meeting of November 2023 offered such an opportunity. This article uses a critical discourse analysis approach to analyse UK coverage of Xi Jinping’s US visit. Portrayals of the summit are examined in terms of differing tones and stances adopted by The Guardian, the BBC, and the Daily Mail news outlets. It is found that while the Daily Mail’s tone toward the summit meeting was overwhelmingly negative, that of The Guardian was moderately positive and the BBC’s tone was mostly neutral. Narratives reveal that Britain positioned itself between the two rivals through an inclusion of diverse, elite perspectives and that news framing of China cohered with Anglo–American ideological norms and special relations.

China's soft power has attracted considerable attention in the recent decade. In this volume scholars from the U.K., Europe, the U.S., Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong and mainland China, including a number of well established and well known analysts on China, examine main areas where China has made noticeable advances in its appeal and influence. They include China's foreign policy discourse, international communication, cultural diplomacy, and foreign assistance. In addition, Chinese concept of soft power, foreign policy strategy, and the relationship between its international standing and that of the U.S. are also closely analysed. The volume covers some of the most recent development and assesses China's soft power critically. This book offers an assessment of China's efforts to cultivate its international image, as well as a critique of Nye's theory of soft power. It draws on case studies of the Chinese diplomatic practice and utilizes world opinion polls. This volume offers a theoretical and empirical perspective on the discussion on soft power with a particular focus on China's soft power.

Business–government relations play a crucial role in China's economic development and policy implementation. Situated in an asymmetric dependency nexus, local officials court business investments to facilitate policy and boost their political careers, while under Xi Jinping private firms are increasingly incentivised to support party-state goals to gain access to political capital. In this study, we use the case of football development to show how private business actors and government officials enter reciprocal relationships based on the exchange of respective financial and political capital. Using insights from semistructured interviews with practitioners and macro-level data, such as investors’ characteristics and financial data, we explore the role of political capital in state–business exchanges, specifying the mechanisms of this interaction (motivations, forms, and perceived benefits) and three distinct investment scenarios in the case of football. Besides insights into the sector, the article contributes to the understanding of the modus operandi of private business and local government in the Chinese political economy at large.

(KP), a clinically significant Gram-negative opportunistic pathogen, has emerged as one of the predominant causative agents of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs). This bacterium is responsible for various severe clinical manifestations, including pneumonia, urinary tract infections, bloodstream infections, and sepsis. In recent years, the global prevalence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) strains has been escalating rapidly. Epidemiological surveillance data reveal a persistent upward trend in infections caused by MDR microorganisms worldwide, a phenomenon disproportionately prevalent in resource-limited developing countries. This trend presents formidable challenges to clinical infection management and constitutes a critical threat to global public health security. In the context of bacterial antibiotic resistance, the phenomenon of heteroresistance (HR) has attracted growing scientific attention due to its unique clinical significance. HR is characterized by the coexistence of subpopulations within a clonal (ie, genetically similar) bacterial population that exhibit divergent susceptibility profiles to an antimicrobial agent. This subtle phenotypic heterogeneity is considered a crucial precursor to the development of stable, high-level antibiotic resistance, representing a pivotal transitional phase in the evolution of MDR. The clinical importance of HR is twofold: first, the resistant subpopulations are often missed by conventional antimicrobial susceptibility testing, potentially leading to unexpected treatment failure. Second, HR serves as an early warning indicator for the impending emergence of complete resistance.

(KP) is a common Gram-negative bacterium in clinical practice and can cause various infectious diseases, including pneumonia, liver abscess and bloodstream infection. Carbapenem-resistant (CRKP) has become a major threat to global health due to its high incidence and mortality rates, especially the ST11-CRKP strain prevalent in China. The age, main clinical diagnosis, previous health and immune status of the two patients with ST11-CRKP-related infections during the same period reported in this study were similar. The antibiotic treatment regimens for the two patients were the same in terms of the type and dosage of antibiotics, except for omadacycline. Meanwhile, PFGE, multilocus sequence typing (MLST), and K typing confirmed that the two strains had the same genetic background. Through experiments on serum resistance, biofilm formation, the infection model and the hypermucus phenotype, it was found that CRKP1 showed a hypervirulent phenotype, while CRKP15 showed a hopervirulent phenotype. Whole-genome sequencing further revealed the differences in virulence genes between the two strains and further confirmed the virulence phenotypes of the two strains. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis showed that the gene was one of the key genes for the virulence difference of the two strains with the same genetic background under the therapeutic difference of omadacycline. In addition, the effect of omadacycline on the expression of the gene was evaluated by qRT-PCR technology. The interaction between the gene and omadacycline was confirmed through molecular docking. To sum up, these findings suggest that under the therapeutic stress of omadacycline, CRKP may adjust virulence through adaptive evolution, and the gene may be the key factor for the differences in virulence within this bacterial population.

This volume is an updated survey and assessment of the recent policy initiatives of Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, which have come to be known as the Hu-Wen's New Deal. Individual chapters are written by scholars from different academic disciplines and backgrounds. These scholars hail from Singapore, the United States, Australia, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China. Topics cover the patterns and process of leadership succession, emerging political factions, social unrest, sources of economic growth, income disparities, social security reform, land use policy, banking reform, corporate governance, labor and population policies, rule of law, and changes in the Party and ideology. On the external aspects, discussion includes China's changing relations with the U.S., Japan and ASEAN. In many ways, the Hu-Wen leadership today is still coming to grips with the same issues and problems as discussed in this book.

As China’s political and economic influence in the world is rapidly increasing, it is essential to understand how China’s domestic politics affects its foreign political and economic policy. This book offers an accessible, informative and up-to-date systemic analysis of the foreign policy of China. Where mainstream literature on international relations usually suggests that China’s foreign policy is primarily determined by external factors, such as the international system and external settings, this book demonstrates instead that domestic factors profoundly shape China’s foreign policy from the late Mao’s era to the reform era. It demonstrates how China’s foreign policy is driven by the preservation of political and economic regimes; the political survival of the top leader; the top leader’s vision for, and skills in, managing external affairs; the leader’s policy priorities; dramatic events and the process of policymaking. It presents its argument in-depth analysis of major cases of Chinese foreign policy – for example, China’s difficult relations with Southeast Asia; China’s 15-year accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO); China’s oil diplomacy in the recent decade, and the diversified process of foreign policy making in the twenty-first century. Hongyi Lai is a lecturer at School of Contemporary Chinese Studies, University of Nottingham, UK. He is author of Reform and the Non-State Economy in China: The Political Economy of Liberalization Strategies ; the editor of Asian Energy Security: The Maritime Dimension ; and co-editor of Harmony and Development: ASEAN-China Relations and China into the Hu-Wen Era: Policy Initiatives and Challenges. Part 1: Analytical Framework 1. Introduction: Bringing Back Domestic Politics in Studies of Foreign Policy 2. Internal Sources of External Policy: An Analytical Framework Part 2: Cases of China’s Foreign Policy 3. Domestic Regimes and Leaders’ Vision: Relations with Southeast Asia 4. Leadership Succession, Priority, Debates, and Shocks: WTO Accession 5. Managing Domestic-External Interaction: China-U.S. WTO Agreement 6. Securing Strategic Resources for Domestic Economy: Oil Diplomacy 7. Institutions and Players: Diversified Policy Making Process Part 3: Conclusion 8. Understanding a Rising China

The public disorder & social instability & discontent in the People's Republic of China since the late 1990s raise serious questions about the nation's governance. Particular instances include an attempt to form an opposition Democratic Party, efforts to establish labor unions, the challenge by the Falun Gong movement, the spread of crime, & the increasing number of collective protests. However, a review of recent literature suggests that the regime remains strong. Establishment of a Democratic Party failed, & the Falun Gong was dismantled. The peasants & workers were somewhat appeased by gaining the right to have Internet access & mobile phones. Public discontent continues to be a strong force for government reform in many areas, but it is not yet strong enough to place the current regime in danger of overthrow. Tables, Figures. Adapted from the source document.

This volume is an updated survey and assessment of the recent policy initiatives of Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, which have come to be known as the Hu-Wen's New Deal. Individual chapters are written by scholars from different academic disciplines and backgrounds. These scholars hail from Singapore, the United States, Australia, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China. Topics cover the patterns and process of leadership succession, emerging political factions, social unrest, sources of economic growth, income disparities, social security reform, land use policy, banking reform, corporate governance, labor and population policies, rule of law, and changes in the Party and ideology. On the external aspects, discussion includes China's changing relations with the U.S., Japan and ASEAN. In many ways, the Hu-Wen leadership today is still coming to grips with the same issues and problems as discussed in this book.