According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, more than 80% of world's fish stocks are fully exploited, over-exploited, depleted, or recovering from depletion. Although several international agreements have promoted more responsible fisheries, coastal states have usually maintained national policies that enable higher harvest levels rather than greater conservation of fish stocks, and international agreements for more responsible fisheries have generally experienced a weak domestic implementation.

Among the major coastal fishing states,...

This book explores how Confucian thought, which was the ideological underpinning of traditional, imperial China, is being developed and refined into a New Confucianism relevant for the twenty-first century. It traces the development of Confucian thought, examines significant new texts, and shows how New Confucianism relates to various spheres of life, how it informs views on key philosophical issues, and how it affects personal conduct. Starting by exploring the philosophical and ideological principles of New Confucianism, the book goes on to explain how New Confucianism is a collective...

This book examines the learning curve of the People's Supreme Court of China as an expanding Chinese national institution that has played a key role in the struggle for the rule of law in China. Within the unity of state administration and the requirements of the constitution, the court has negotiated the changing tension between politics and law through improvising new formats of interpretation and supervision in response to the changing priorities of revolution and market reform.

This book argues that as new political and social values are formed in post-socialist China, Christian values are becoming increasingly embedded in the new post-socialist Chinese outlook. It shows how although Christianity is viewed in China as a foreign religion, promoted by Christian missionaries and as such at odds with the official position of the state, Christianity as a source of social and political values - rather than a faith requiring adherence to a church is in fact having a huge impact. The book shows how these values inform both official and dissident ideology and provide a...

This book sheds light on the social imagination of nature and environment in contemporary China. It demonstrates how the urgent debate on how to create an ecologically sustainable future for the world s most populous country is shaped by its complex engagement with religious traditions, competing visions of modernity and globalization, and by engagement with minority nationalities who live in areas of outstanding natural beauty on China s physical and social margins. The book develops a comprehensive understanding of contemporary China that goes beyond the tradition/ modernity dichotomy,...

An upsurge in violence between Uyghur and Han in China s far western region of Xinjiang has gained increased media and academic attention in recent years as was evidenced in the July 2009 riots. Numbering over eight million, the Uyghur are China s fifth-largest minority nationality, and their mounting aspiration for obtaining more autonomy has contributed to the recent ethnic conflicts in the region. This book looks at those who are seeking to preserve the Uyghur identity, and support the secession of Xinjiang from China in order to create their own independent state by exploring the...

China is currently afflicted by enormous environmental problems. This book, drawing on ancient and modern Chinese environmental thinking, considers what it is that makes an environment a desirable place for living. The book emphasises ideas of beauty, and discusses how these ideas can be applied in natural, agricultural and urban environments in order to produce desirable environments. The book argues that environment is both a product of nature and of human beings, and as such is potentially alterable by culture. The book explores the three aspects of environmental beauty whereby such...

The opening of China's financial market to western banks was seen as a key plank of the economic reform programme. Despite the recent banking crisis and the idea that Chinese banks might supplant western banks in the global financial system, Chinese banks continue to suffer from fundamental problems including a shallow talent pool, a shortage of technical expertise, and weak corporate governance mechanisms. This book analyses the role which western bankers have played in China's economic reforms, focusing on their influence on institutional change and corporate governance. Based on...