Western-dominated development lending, led by the IMF and Paris Club, has long relied on rigid policy conditionality and structural adjustment packages that frequently deepen inequality in low-income recipient states. Since 2017, commentators and Western politicians have popularized the so-called "Chinese debt trap" narrative, claiming China deliberately saddles poorer nations with unsustainable liabilities to seize strategic infrastructure amid repayment defaults. Focusing on the most widely cited case—the Hambantota Port in Sri Lanka—this study dismantles such one-sided claims through primary project timelines and sovereign debt data. Evidence from this paper demonstrates the port initiative originated from Sri Lanka's domestic infrastructure demands rather than Chinese coercion; loan pricing remained competitive against global commercial financing at the time, and the 99-year port lease constituted a stand-alone commercial transaction to ease the nation's liquidity squeeze, not a debt-for-asset seizure. Overall, this paper argues that China's non-conditional bilateral lending represents an alternative development finance model distinct from Western orthodox approaches, while oversimplified debt-trap rhetoric conceals the complex structural drivers of developing nations' external debt pressures.

Digital transformation has become a key driver of public sector innovation, encouraging governments to redesign public service delivery through digital governance. Although Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macao share cultural and historical connections, their distinct institutional contexts and administrative arrangements have resulted in different digital governance models. This study compares digital governance practices across the three regions to examine how institutional conditions influence governance approaches and public service delivery outcomes. A qualitative comparative case study approach is adopted, drawing on policy document analysis and secondary literature to examine governance frameworks, service delivery mechanisms, and citizen-oriented initiatives. The findings reveal that each region demonstrates different strengths in administrative efficiency, digital accessibility, service responsiveness, and citizen engagement, reflecting the influence of institutional arrangements and policy priorities. By identifying both similarities and differences among the three regions, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of digital governance development in Greater China and provides practical implications for policymakers seeking to enhance public service delivery and promote cross-regional policy learning.

Inefficient corporate investment is a typical manifestation of misallocated resources in capital markets, and traditional governance models can hardly effectively alleviate the inherent uncertainty in investment decision-making. This paper incorporates the Lean Startup Methodology (LSM) into empirical research on capital allocation efficiency. Based on data of A-share listed manufacturing companies in China from 2012 to 2022, it constructs a Lean Startup Practice Index (LSM) using textual analysis, and conducts empirical analysis with a two-way fixed effects model and a two-step mechanism testing framework. The study finds that lean startup practices can significantly inhibit inefficient investment in manufacturing enterprises, and the effect works mainly through three transmission paths: alleviating financing constraints, reducing information asymmetry, and promoting digital transformation. Heterogeneity analysis further shows that this inhibitory effect is more pronounced in non-state-owned enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises. This paper not only expands the application boundary of lean startup, but also provides new ideas for enterprises to optimize capital allocation based on management process improvement.

Rules of origin constitute a fundamental legal instrument in modern international trade, determining the country of origin of goods for purposes of applying trade policy measures. Article 2(1) of the WTO Agreement on Rules of Origin (ARO) serves as a transitional provision intended to regulate administrative determinations of general application pending the completion of the Harmonization Work Programme (HWP). However, due to its ambiguous terms and the prolonged stagnation of the HWP, the clause faces numerous application difficulties and operational fragmentation in practice. By examining hypothetical scenarios and WTO jurisprudence (especially DS 243), this paper identifies structural deficiencies in the provision's three criteria—tariff classification change, ad valorem percentage, and manufacturing or processing operations—and analyzes their underlying institutional causes, including structural ambiguity, lack of multilateral supervision, and incompatibility with global value chains (GVCs). To resolve these dilemmas, this paper proposes principled reform suggestions emphasizing legal certainty, transparency, administrative oversight, and GVC adaptability without over-prescribing rigid technical formulas. Furthermore, it evaluates China's constructive coordinating position and the impact of its partial waiver of Special and Differential Treatment (S&DT). The paper concludes that reforming Article 2(1) is vital for restoring legal certainty, preventing hidden trade protectionism, and strengthening the multilateral trading system in the era of fragmented global production.

A revolution is a fundamental transformation of an existing political or social system, often emerging when groups believe that existing institutions fail to represent their interests or protect their rights due to political oppression or social inequality. Although revolutions may take different forms, from struggles for political independence to social movements built on protest and resistance, they share a common goal: challenging existing systems and redefining the relationship between individuals, society, and political power. However, because revolutions respond to different historical circumstances and forms of injustice, their goals and the meanings of revolutionary ideals may change over time. The American Revolution of 1776 and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s represent two important stages in this development. This study examines how the Declaration of Independence and the Letter from Birmingham Jail define freedom and equality and how these revolutionary ideals changed over time through a comparative analysis of the two documents and their historical contexts. Based on this analysis, this paper finds that although the Declaration of Independence and the Letter from Birmingham Jail were both based on the ideals of freedom and equality, they defined revolutionary goals differently because they responded to distinct forms of injustice. The American Revolution focused on achieving political independence and establishing self-government, while the Civil Rights Movement expanded these ideals by demanding social equality, legal protection, and full citizenship for previously excluded groups.

The deepening development of the digital economy has made data assets a core vehicle of value for cross-border investment; however, traditional international investment law, which originated in the era of tangible assets, faces significant institutional tensions when determining whether digital assets constitute protected investments. Centered on the determination of the investment eligibility of digital assets, this paper focuses on three core legal challenges: the interpretation of investment definition clauses, the application of the Salini objective standard, and the determination of the territorial requirement. Through a systematic review of existing literature and an analysis of recent arbitration cases, such as Nexo v. Bulgaria and Einarsson v. Canada, this study reveals the normative conflict between the traditional treaty framework and the digital reality. This study finds that a balance should be sought between legal certainty and dynamic adaptability. It advocates for a typological approach to distinguishing between operational data assets and purely speculative crypto-assets, while retaining the basic function of the territorial requirement but interpreting it flexibly, replacing the requirement for physical establishment with a substantive economic connection. From a Chinese perspective, incremental experimentation with bilateral and regional rules represents a pragmatic path to participating in the digital transformation of international investment law.