Xiaojun Li

Bio: Xiaojun Li is an academic researcher from University of British Columbia. The author has contributed to research in topics: China & Public opinion. The author has an hindex of 9, co-authored 31 publications receiving 258 citations. Previous affiliations of Xiaojun Li include Stanford University.

US Military Aid and Recipient State Cooperation

Abstract: What can states expect to receive in return for the military aid they provide to other states? Can military aid buy recipient state compliance with donor objectives? In this study, we systematically investigate the effects of US military assistance on recipient state behavior toward the United States. We build on existing literature by creating three explicit theoretical models, employing a new measure of cooperation generated from events data, and controlling for preference similarity, so that our results capture the influence military aid has on recipient state behavior independent of any dyadic predisposition toward cooperation or conflict. We test seven hypotheses using a combination of simultaneous equation, cross-sectional time series, and Heckman selection models. We find that, with limited exceptions, increasing levels of US military aid significantly reduce cooperative foreign policy behavior with the United States. US reaction to recipient state behavior is also counterintuitive; instead of using a carrot-and-stick approach to military aid allocations, our results show that recipient state cooperation is likely to lead to subsequent reductions in US military assistance.

The face of internet recruitment: Evaluating the labor markets of online crowdsourcing platforms in China:

Abstract: Zhubajie/Witmart and other online crowdsourcing platforms have proliferated in China, and researchers have increasingly used them for subject recruitment. One critical question remains, however: wh...

Does Conditionality Still Work? China’s Development Assistance and Democracy in Africa

Abstract: Previous studies have found that the democratizing effect of conditional aid is temporally contingent: the collapse of the Soviet Union as an alternative source of aid enhanced the effectiveness of Western aid conditionality with respect to democratic reforms being adopted in Africa. Does conditionality still work with China’s rise as a major donor since the early 2000s? This article examines this question by leveraging the first Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) as the temporal dividing point and new measures of Chinese aid to Africa, based on expert opinions and media reports. The results show that the democratizing effects of the OECD’s development aid in Sub-Saharan Africa have indeed diminished. Furthermore, results from a synthetic control analysis suggest that major recipients of Chinese economic assistance did not achieve higher levels of political freedom than other comparable countries in the post-FOCAC period. These findings support the thesis that the democratizing effect of aid conditionality works only during a period when recipient countries do not have other alternative sources of aid, allowing donors to more credibly commit to enforcing conditionality.

Who Pollutes? Ownership type and environmental performance of Chinese firms

Abstract: What is the relationship between ownership type and environmental performance in Chinese firms? Using a survey of over 1,000 industrial firms in 12 Chinese cities in 2006, this article tests a number of competing hypotheses linking ownership type to environmental performance. The results show that small and medium state-owned enterprises (SOEs) on average spend less on pollution abatement technologies and are less likely to meet national emissions standards, compared to privately owned enterprises (POEs) and foreign invested enterprises (FIEs). However, the environmental performance of the largest SOEs matches that of their private and foreign counterparts. These findings are complemented by qualitative interviews and archival research conducted in 2012.

국제정치이론 = Theory of international politics

Abstract: Therefore, the seeker after the truth is not one who studies the writings of the ancients and, following his natural disposition, puts his trust in them, but rather the one who suspects his faith in them and questions what he gathers from them, the one who submits to argument and demonstration, and not to the sayings of a human being whose nature is fraught with all kinds of imperfection and de‹ciency. Thus the duty of the man who investigates the writings of scientists, if learning the truth is his goal, is to make himself the enemy of all that he reads, and, applying his mind to the core and margins of its content, attack it from every side. He should also suspect himself as he performs his critical examination of it, so that he may avoid falling into either prejudice or leniency. (Ibn al-Haytham)1

Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry

Abstract: Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry. By P. W. Singer. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2003. 368p. $39.95.Peter Singer has produced a highly commendable volume for the Cornell Studies in Security Affairs series on an area of study that has received relatively little attention within the academic world. Much of the existing literature focuses on the mercenary end of private military companies (PMCs) and ignores the breadth of the industry. Similarly, the debate on transformation has tended to focus on technology and changing approaches to the conduct of war; relatively little has concerned itself with the increasing role of the privatized military companies, yet, as Singer points out, 1 in 10 of those deployed by the United States in the most recent war in Iraq was a contractor. It is not just the scale of the industry at present (one estimate puts it at $100 billion per year) that makes it an important area for study. It is also that this industry covers the full spectrum of defense activities. It ranges from service provision at home to the provision of combat services and military units. This will become even more so as we move away from the linear battlefield and the idea of a front line melts away. Moreover, this is not just a Third World issue; virtually every state uses elements of the industry, with the United States being the largest user.

Destined For War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap?

Abstract: The unprecedented rise of China in the last three decades has transformed the geopolitical landscape of the world. It has led to a tectonic shift in the global power equilibrium. The unipolar momen...