China's Involvement in the Hungarian Revolution, October-November 1956

The 1956 crises in the Soviet Bloc states, and the Hungarian October events in particular, had a profound impact on China's international and domestic policies. The Chinese Communist Party leadership – party chairman Mao Zedong in particular – had by the end of mid-1950s begun to conceive of "a great Chinese revolution," which would largely take the form of large-scale industrial modernization. At the same time, China's awareness that it could develop into a leading player in the international socialist camp led Mao and his colleagues to actively intervene on the East European scene, posing an implicit challenge to the Soviet dominance in the bloc. The apparent desire of the Hungarian and Polish people to break free from Stalinist socialism, and the real risk, as Mao saw it, of the bloc foundering, convinced the Chinese Party that only reforming institutional socialism and revising the Stalinist pattern of inter-state relations could keep the camp intact.

Magyar tulajdonú vállalatok versenyképessége kínai piacokon = Hungarian Firms’ Competitiveness in China

E kutatás célja áttekinteni, hogy milyen jellegű gazdasági kapcsolatokkal, versenyképességgel, tapasztalatokkal rendelkeznek magyar tulajdonú vállalatok Kínában. Kína gazdasága globálisan meghatározó, s egyúttal Magyarország tíz legnagyobb külkereskedelmi partnere között van. A kutatás kiemelt kérdései (a) milyen okok, motivációk indítják el a hazai cégeket Kína felé; (b) milyen folyamat révén, hogyan, mennyi idő alatt, milyen ráfordításokkal zajlik le a kínai jelenlét előkészítése, megtervezése, majd pedig megvalósítása; (c) hogyan szerzik meg a vezetők a szükséges információkat (pl. lehetséges kínai társasági jogi formákról, lokációkról); (d) milyen eredményekkel zárul ez a folyamat és milyen tanulságokat szűrnek le a vezetők; (e) melyek a kínai piaci jelenlét, működés legfontosabb tapasztalatai. A fenti kérdésekre alapvetően öt hazai vállalati esettanulmány összegzése ad választ. De emellett jelen tanulmány része a releváns elméleti és gyakorlati szakirodalom feldolgozása, a kínai gazdasági környezet sokrétű bemutatása, a kínai és magyar gazdasági kapcsolatok statisztikai elemzése, külföldi benchmark adatok gyűjtése. _______ The goal of this research to review what kind of economic relations, competitiveness and experiences Hungarian-owned firms have in China. Chinese economy is globally determining, and – in addition – China is one of Hungary’s ten biggest foreign trade partners. The main topics and questions of the research are: (a) what causes and motives encourage domestic companies to turn to the Chinese markets; (b) what are the phases of the process, what are the required time and costs of the preparation, planning and realization of establishing the presence in China; (c) how Hungarian managers gather the information needed (concerning e.g. possible Chinese corporate legal forms, locations); (d) what are the typical results of these processes and the lessons learned and emphasized by the managers; (e) what are the most important experiences of the firms’ operation in China. Five case studies on Hungarian firms answer the above-mentioned questions. But moreover the elaboration of the relevant theoretical and practical literature, the detailed description of the Chinese economical environment, the statistical analysis of the Chinese-Hungarian economical relations and the collection of foreign benchmark data are as well parts of this study.

Technology Policy, R&D, and Innovation in China Traditional Approaches, and New Challenges

China’s long term development path has always been strongly infl uenced by its own ways of innovation and invention. Though around one thousand years ago China had been undoubtedly the most advanced country in the world, by the 17th century Europe had surpassed it. And when the PRC was founded in 1949, it was only a poor, severely underdeveloped country without adequate, modern technologies. In the last three decades, however, the country has achieved remarkable success in economic terms: China has become the second largest economy in the world, and its new economic, fi nancial and trading power has made it clear that the dominance of the USA and Europe has passed. At the same time China is still lagging behind technologically. Though there are huge efforts to narrow the gap, it is extremely diffi cult to build up a new technological and innovation system without deep, organic foundations. China, however, has rich experience of innovations from the past, and the question is whether it is possible to use them to formulate a new technology policy. In this paper I will try to examine China’s technology system, its functioning and its prospects, while comparing it with the traditional ways of innovations in China. I would like to show that current technology policy is, at least partly, based upon traditional values, and that high tech research, R&D, and state of the art innovations can be reconcilable with several thousand-year-old approaches.

The Role of Chinese Plants in Hungarian Landscape Architecture

Most outdoor plants in Hungarian horticulture are exotas mainly from Middle and East Asia and North America. The flora of China is diversified and has many species because the last glacial period did not reach China. The richness of the Chinese flora was known for Europeans by the missionaries and medics first in 19th cectury. Later some bigger nurseries sent expeditions in China to collect new plants. Nowadays the Hungarian landscape architecture is impossible without Chinese plants.

Food Retail Chains: Hungary in the EU

The role of retail chains is signifi cant, not only in the European but also in the Hungarian market. Major changes can be seen in the food trade, and hypermarkets and supermarkets are becoming more widespread, which has an international tendency. We are able to see the transformation of trade structure and changes in customer behaviour. On the customers’ side, this means newer demands on retail chains, which fact greatly determines the location and shape of stores. In Hungary, the presence of small shops is still signifi cant, in accordance with European and international trends; yet on the basis of turnover, the increasing dominance of larger sales centres can be seen.