In response to COVID-19 outbreaks, China implemented aggressive and comprehensive nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), whose epidemiological effectiveness is often attributed to government coercion. However, sustained compliance also relies on a broad consensus regarding the nature of the disease and the legitimacy of interventions. Drawing on surveys conducted immediately before reopening in mainland China and Hong Kong, this study examines the foundations of voluntary compliance. The findings show that beyond coercion, both instrumental and normative concerns affect compliance. Perceived severity of COVID-19, perceived effectiveness of NPIs, collectivist orientation, and institutional trust are associated with higher voluntary compliance, whereas negative impacts of NPIs, especially psychological burdens, are associated with lower voluntary compliance. These results highlight the importance of legitimacy and consensus mobilization in sustaining compliance.
Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data collected in 2024 and 2025 in a relatively well-off rural area of China, this study examines the mental health of primary caregivers of young children and its correlates. The quantitative data show high prevalence of cognitive (40%), language (42%), and motor (20%) developmental delays among the children. Caregiver mental health problems may be one possible contributing factor given that approximately 17% of caregivers exhibit at least one mental health issue (i.e. stress, anxiety, or depression). The qualitative analysis identifies several risk factors of caregiver mental health problems: limited awareness of mental health concepts; heavy burden of caregiving; insufficient public services; and a lack of awareness of caregiver mental health's impact on child development.
This article examines how China conducts its diplomacy on Ukraine within the United Nations framework and assesses whether its stated principles align with its actual behavior. Using corpus linguistics, discourse analysis, and UN voting data from 2014 to 2025 across the United Nation Security Council (UNSC), General Assembly (UNGA), and selected UN technical bodies, it analyzes the relationship between China's words and its deeds. A comparison with the Palestine/Gaza corpus shows that China applies more attribution and selective framing, challenging the notion of a uniform 'principled neutrality'. The findings show that China's abstention doctrine is conditional, and that its UN behavior reflects strategic differentiation across political and technical arenas of global governance.
Despite China's similarly complex modern relationships with both the United States and Russia, contemporary Chinese public opinion is far more favorable toward Russia than toward the United States. Why? Combining observational analysis, survey experiments, and conventional regression, we argue that state regulation of collective memory about the two countries plays a key role in producing this selective nationalism. Using original data from two survey experiments in China, we show that exposure to more balanced historical information, rather than the one-sided narratives promoted by the state, reduces both anti-Americanism and pro-Russian sentiment. We also find that educational attainment, as a vehicle for political indoctrination, is associated with stronger anti-American and pro-Russian views. Our study highlights memory engineering as a powerful instrument of political misinformation.
