OOIR: Observatory of International Research

Papers

(The TQCC of Journal of Contemporary China is 3. 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 2021-02-01 to 2025-02-01.)

Article	Citations
External Coercion, Internal Accommodation: China’s Wedge Strategies Towards the Vietnam-United States Partnership, 2013–2022	41
Chinese Data Governance and Trade Policy: From Cyber Sovereignty to the Quest for Digital Hegemony?	39
Provinces in Command: Changes in Prefectural Appointments from Hu Jintao to Xi Jinping (2003-2020)	31
A Unique Path of Political Development: The Confucian Dialectic of Domestic and International Interaction in the History of the Communist Party of China	26
The Securitization of ‘Chinese Influence’ in Australia	19
Guarding Against the Threat of a Westernising Education: A Comparative Study of Chinese and Saudi Cultural Security Discourses and Practices Towards Overseas Study	18
The Belt and Road Initiative in Southeast Asia: A Mixed Methods Examination	17
Political Discourse in Chinese Urban Community: Pragmatic Utility and Ideological Fatigue	17
Governing the Future through ‘Ecological civilization’: Anticipatory Politics and China’s Great Yangtze River Protection Programme	16
The Political Leadership of Xi Jinping: Narratives of Integrity Through Ordeal	16
Butter or Guns: Taiwan’s Economic Policy Toward China	15
Counterframing, Blame Avoidance, and China’s Rhetorical Response to ‘Debt-Trap Diplomacy’	12
What Do We See When Looking at China’s Engagements in Africa? An Analysis of Mainstream Academic Perspectives	12
Stability Maintenance and the ‘Three Evils’: Framing China’s Role in Central Asia	12
A Retrospective Analysis of the Major Driving Forces and Triggering Events behind China’s Cooperation in Sino-Kazakh Cross-border River Negotiations	10
China’s International Talent Policy (ITP): The Changes and Driving Forces, 1978-2020	10
In the Eyes of the Beholder: How China and the US See Each Other	10
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	10
Fearing Hardships and Fatigue? Refusals to Serve in China’s Military, 2009-2018	10
Flexible Organizational Weapon of the Party: The New Presence of Women’s Federations in Women’s NGOs in China	9
‘Security Is a Prerequisite for Development’: Consensus-Building toward a New Top Priority in the Chinese Communist Party	9
Controlling the Mine? Assessing China's Emergence as a Minerals Super Power	9
Effects of United States Anti-dumping Actions on Sino-U.S. Trade in Steel Products	9
How China Builds the Credibility of the Belt and Road Initiative	9
Strong State or Vulnerable Homeland: How Chinese State Media Sought to Combat Democratic Diffusion during the 2019 Hong Kong Protests	8

Infrastructural Imaginaries of Region and Nation in the Pearl River Delta’s Express Railway Link	8
Shaping China’s Engagement with the Arctic: Nationalist Narratives and Geopolitical Reality	7
Australia’s Approach to Chinese Power and Managing Relations with Beijing: The Enduring Paradigm of Liberalism	7
The Initial Digitalization of Chinese Diplomacy (2019–2021): Establishing Global Communication Networks on Twitter	7
Embedding the Party in State and Society: From Integrated to Embedded Domination During China’s COVID-19 Crisis	7
Hardening Chinese Realpolitik in the 21st Century: The Evolution of Beijing’s Thinking about Arms Control	7
From Defensive toward Offensive Realism: Strategic Competition and Continuities in the United States’ China Policy	7
China’s Promotion of Knowledge Diffusion in Africa - a Case Study on Ethiopia’s Manufacturing Sector	6
When Socialist Legacy Meets International Norms: Gender Quota Adoption and Institutional Change in China	6
Americans’ Attitudes toward the US–China Trade War	6
A Cultural Theory of Chinese Foreign Policy	6
When Independence Meets Reality: Symbolic and Pragmatic Politics in Taiwan	6
‘Nesting Dragon, Soldier, Spy’: Shaping the Narrative on China Through Huawei in UK Parliamentary Debates	6
Assessing Public Support for (Non)Peaceful Unification with Taiwan: Evidence from a Nationwide Survey in China	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
How China’s Online Nationalists Constrain Policymaking – the Case of Foreigners’ Permanent Residency Reform	6
The Rule of Discourse: How Ideas and Institutions Shape China’s COVID Policy	5
What Shapes Taiwan-related Legislation in U.S. Congress?	5
Measuring and Forecasting the Rise of China: Reality over Image	5
China’s Economic Diplomacy Towards the Gulf Cooperation Council States	5
Tracing the Path of Sino-Ukrainian Relations: From the Post-Soviet Era to the Russo-Ukrainian War	5
The Domestic Mechanisms of China’s Vertical Multilateralism: The FOCAC and the 16+1 Format Case Studies	5
Probing NGO–community Interactions through Village Cadres and Principal–agent Relationships: Local Effects on the Operation of NGO Projects in Rural China	5
Reforms and Inequality: Examining the Impact of China’s Primary Distribution System Reforms on Wage Inequality (1989–2015)	5
Explaining ‘Grey Capital’: The Sociology of Transnational Chinese Companies and Crime in Thailand	5
Rising Powers and Normative Resistance: China, India, and the Responsibility to Protect	5
Propaganda as a Lens for Assessing Xi Jinping’s Leadership	5
How Far Away from Non-interference? A Case Study of China’s Development Initiative in Pakistan	4
The Scholar and the Ghost: Thucydides, China’s Rise, and Major Power War	4
Empathetic Solidarity: How Chinese English-Language Media Portrays Urban Community Participation	4
The US–China Rivalry in the Emerging Bipolar World: Hostility, Alignment, and Power Balance	4
Legality, Legitimacy and Institutionalization: China’s Dilemma of Sanctions and Economic Coercion	4
China’s Ideational Influence in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE): A Comparative Analysis of Chinese and European Scholars’ Interpretations of China-CEE Cooperation	4
The Cadre System in China’s Ethnic Minority Regions: Particularities and Impact on Local Governance	4
Maritime Territorial Disputes and China’s Soft Power in East Asia	4
The Illusion of Meritocracy: Evidence from Provincial Official Promotion in Post-Mao China	4
New Clientelism in Urban China: Broker-Based Evasions in Residential Property Market	4
The Politics of Policy Reformulation: Implementing Social Policy in Provincial China	4
International Cinema’s Shifting Image of China: From the Barbarian to the Schemer, and to the Civilized Great Power	4
Towards a Green Nationalism with Chinese Characteristics?	4
Is There a Chinese “Developmental peace”? Evidence from the Belt and Road Initiative’s Impact on Conflict States	3
Reassessing Seoul’s “One China” Policy: South Korea-Taiwan “Unofficial” Relations after 30 Years (1992-2022)	3
The Chinese Conception of Cybersecurity: A Conceptual, Institutional, and Regulatory Genealogy	3
Diverse Patterns of Paradiplomacy by Chinese Local Governments: A Comparative Case Study of Zhejiang and Yunnan Provinces	3
China-Africa Encounter and Worker Resistance: A Case Study of Wildcat Strikes Against a Chinese-Owned Company in Ethiopia	3
Balancing, Threats, and Wedges in International Political Economy: The Origins and Impact of the Sino-Indian Alliance at the WTO	3
Poor and Lazy: Understanding Middle-class Perceptions of Poverty in China	3
Understanding Environmental Governance in China Through the Green Shield Action Campaign	3
Political Events and Cultural Othering: Impact of Protests and Elections on Identities in Post-Handover Hong Kong, 1997–2021	3
A Question of Human Rights or Human Left? – The ‘People’s War against COVID-19’ under the ‘Gridded Management’ System in China	3

Localism in Retreat? Central-Provincial Relations in the Xi Jinping Era	3
Elite Networks and the Transregional Dimension of Authoritarianism: Sino-Emirati Relations in Times of a Global Pandemic	3
Who Deserves Credit? Banks for the Virtuous in Rural China	3
China-India Face-offs: How Does Reputation Matter in Crisis Management?	3
Politicized Adjudication Vis-à-vis Petitioners in Chinese Criminal Justice	3
The Welfare Is Ours: Rural-to-Urban Migration and Domestic Welfare Chauvinism in Urban China	3
Becoming a Ganbu: China’s Cadre Training School System	3
Adapting in Difficult Circumstances: Protestant Pastors and the Xi Jinping Effect	3
‘A Shared Future for Mankind’: Rhetoric and Reality in Chinese Foreign Policy under Xi Jinping	3
Naturalized Athletes and Racialized National Identity in China	3
The World Is Grateful to China: Chinese Government Discourse During COVID-19	3
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	3
Impact of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor on Nation-Building in Pakistan: A Case Study of Balochistan	3
Foundation of the Political Resilience in China: A Perspective of State Capacity	3
Power Contention and International Insecurity: A Thucydides Trap in China–US Financial Relations?	3
Limited Power-Sharing in a Personalized Regime: Xi Jinping’s Strategic Retreat from Local Politics	3
Global Attitudes toward China: Trends and Correlates	3