School of Humanities and Social Science Division of Social Science 235 China/Africa Links Project Supervisor: SAUTMAN Barry Victor / SOSC Student: CHENG Yu / GCS Course: UROP1100, Summer This progress report is part of HKUST's Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program and is targeted on the China-Africa Links research, under the guidance and supervision of Professor Barry Sautman and Professor Yan Hairong. This report aims to summarise the contribution to the project over the semester, with an emphasis on the political and economic nature of China's relations with African countries, concentrating on the trade and investment connections among the bilateral relationships, the agricultural cooperation as another focus, and the evaluation of such connections by international public opinion. The research methodology is mainly a documentary review and data collection, drawing on data from the World Bank, WTO and specific governments to obtain an overview of the political and economic status in which each African countries stand, measuring the degree of economic proximity between China and that specific African country, referring to official treaties, documents and press reports to ascertain different patterns of agricultural cooperation between China and African countries, and finally collecting a wide range of media and academia perceptions to shed light on international public opinion. The results of these studies are differentiated by country and are presented to supervisors on a weekly basis. This progress report will unfold six countries involved in the said period’s study, to compare their socioeconomic development, the extent to which they maintain intense trade and investment relations with China, and typical examples of different modalities of agricultural cooperation. This comparative analysis is intended to capture which factors play an active role in China-Africa relations, and which aspects ChinaAfrica cooperation finds promising or challenging. Framing 'Democracy' in Hong Kong Supervisor: WONG James K. / SOSC Student: CHAN Hei / MGMT Course: UROP1100, Fall In light of the fray over the social reality in Hong Kong, this study delves into the discourse between the blue (pro-establishment) camp and the yellow (pan-democratic) camp to examine the duality of interpretations in Hong Kong on issue framing and political notions, pertaining to democracy and the identity of the people of Hong Kong. It is observed that populist rhetoric is used in the political discourse of Hong Kong. The three core elements of populism function as the diagnostic, prognostic and motivational frame of the social reality exploited by the blue and the yellow camp respectively. The tendency towards populism introduces questions over the role of emotions and radicality in Hong Kong politics.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDk5Njg=