Chinese municipalities have developed a large stock of capital assets during a period of rapid growth and urbanization, but have yet to modernize asset management practices. Cities face challenges such as premature decline of fixed assets and spiking liabilities related to operating and maintaining assets. This paper evaluates the asset management practices in three selected small cities and towns in China, using a benchmarking assessment tool followed by an in-depth field assessment. The paper finds that overall performance is below half the international benchmark for good practice in all three cities. Management practices are considerably more advanced for land than for buildings and infrastructure. Key deficiencies in data availability and reporting, governance, capacity, and financial management indicate increased risks for local government finance and the delivery of public services. For small cities and towns where public revenues are often uncertain and limited, urban public services will be at risk of deterioration unless good asset management practices are put in place. The paper recommends strategic actions for upper and lower levels of government, to advance local asset management practices and facilitate the reform agenda.

Both China and Korea have a rich culture of Chinese New Year, and there are similarities and differences between the customs of the two countries. The festival culture, as the essence of a country's culture, not only reflects the cultural connotation of the whole nation , but also reflects people's living standard to a certain extent. This paper discusses the similarities and differences of Chinese and Korean Spring Festival culture through a comparative analysis of Chinese and Korean Spring Festival culture, and proposes strategies for teaching Chinese Spring Festival culture in Chinese to Korean in order to help people better understand and pass on Chinese and Korean Spring Festival culture.

European commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, told Le Journal du Dimanche in January 2022, “Existing nuclear plants alone will need 50 billion euros of investment from now until 2030. And new generation ones will need 500 billion”. This paper considers whether these values are realistic. Further, it asks whether these investments would yield an internationally competitive European nuclear power infrastructure given that the nuclear power industries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member countries have lost global nuclear market share to Russian and Chinese firms since 1995.The paper investigates whether the European nuclear industry even with massive investment can compete with the Chinese nuclear industries. It concludes that the European (in particular, the French) nuclear power industry will be unlikely to be cost competitive with the Chinese nuclear power industry unless financing and new plant orders are immediately forthcoming. To achieve carbon neutrality, the issue becomes whether European Union countries can afford indigenous nuclear technologies or will need to import nuclear power plants from Asia.

Low enrollment intention threatens the funding pools of rural insurance schemes in developing countries. The purpose of this study is to investigate how social capital enhances the enrollment of health insurance among rural middle-aged and elderly. We propose that social capital directly increases health insurance enrollment, while indirectly influences health insurance through health risk avoidance. We used data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (wave 4) dating the year of 2018, instrumental variable estimation was introduced to deal with the endogeneity problem, and the mediation analysis was used to examine the mechanism of social capital on insurance enrollment. The results show that social capital is positively related to social health insurance enrollment, and the relationship between social capital and social health insurance enrollment is mediated by health risk avoidance.

Exploring the development path of badminton with Chinese characteristics is a key area in advancing the reform of China’s sports system and a crucial theoretical support for transitioning from a sports power to a sports powerhouse. This article reviews the overall situation of the development of badminton in China since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, and based on this, puts forward the basic connotations and directions of the development path of badminton with Chinese characteristics. It discusses the opportunities and challenges faced in aspects such as badminton management system and mechanism, accelerated optimization and upgrading of sports industry and brands, substantial breakthroughs in competitive level, cultivation of reserve talents, and diversified development of sports culture. It explores the future direction of the development path of badminton with Chinese characteristics from five aspects: system, management, talent, industry, and culture.