The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China made significant arrangements to create a first-class business environment characterized by market orientation, rule of law, and internationalization. The business environment has thus become a subject of intense academic and industrial focus through both theoretical and practical explorations. What kind of business environment is beneficial to improving regional innovation capacity has also become a pressing research question. Given that the business environment is a complex ecosystem, this paper adopts a complex systems perspective and uses fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to analyze the complex relationship between the business environment and regional innovation capacity from the perspective of configuration. The results show that a single business environment element is not a necessary condition for high regional innovation capacity, but optimizing the innovation environment universally enhances regional innovation capacity. Three types of business environment configurations can foster high regional innovation capacity: the government-led, human resource-based type driven by finance and innovation, the government and market dual-logic type driven by finance and innovation, and the type driven by the market and innovation, presenting multiple paths for improving regional innovation capacity in China. From the perspective of institutional configuration theory, this paper deeply analyzes the impact of the coupling relationship of multiple elements in the business environment on regional innovation capacity, aiming to reveal the construction path of the business environment that can cultivate high regional innovation capacity, enrich the cognitive framework of the relationship between the business environment and regional innovation capacity in theory, and provide practical references for policymakers.

The resilience and security of industrial chain in China's medical equipment sector have garnered significant attention, particularly in addressing various emergencies. From the perspective of New Quality Productive Forces, this paper first summarizes the current status of the resilience and security of industrial chain in China's medical equipment sector, then systematically reviews policies aimed at enhancing such resilience and security, and finally proposes countermeasures to further strengthen the resilience and accelerate domestic substitution. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China has seen continuous growth in the market shares of complete equipment and key components of medical equipment. The market shares of complete equipment in multiple sectors have exceeded 50%, and a majority of key components are now domestically produced. However, some critical components or sub-components, especially high-end, high-reliability, and premium-grade components, still rely on foreign suppliers, posing challenges to the independence and controllability of the entire industrial chain. To enhance the resilience and security of industrial chain in the medical equipment sector from the perspective of New Quality Productive Forces, continuous innovation is essential to achieve full domestic substitution. China has introduced a series of policies and measures to support industrial chain in terms of institutional design, financial investment, and industrial foundation, effectively boosting the development, resistance, recovery, control, and innovation capabilities of the sector. Looking ahead, driven by an innovation-oriented ecosystem and robust policy support, the resilience and security of industrial chain in China's medical equipment sector are expected to further improve. It is recommended that the government leverage its control over the downstream of the industrial chain as a policy tool to integrate and regulate midstream and upstream, foster a moderately competitive industrial structure, launch pilot programs for medical big data, establish unified standards and property rights systems, and actively promote the intelligentization of medical equipment.

As a traditional heavy industry base in China, Liaoning Province possesses a solid industrial foundation in both traditional materials and advanced basic materials. However, it also faces challenges in transforming its manufacturing sector toward high-end, intelligent, and green development. Based on the perspective of industrial chain synergy and framed within the theoretical context of New Quality Productive Forces driving industrial upgrading, this paper systematically examines the current status of China's new materials industry, the strengths and weaknesses of Liaoning's new materials sector, and the driving mechanisms and implementation pathways for its upgrading. This paper finds that Liaoning holds significant advantages in the manufacturing of advanced basic materials and their application in equipment manufacturing. Nonetheless, the industry suffers from structural issues such as disrupted industrial chains, regional development imbalances, and delayed green transformation. Empowering the industry with New Quality Productive Forces can help reconstruct the value logic of the industrial chain: digital and intelligent technologies enhance production efficiency and responsiveness through data-driven R＆D, flexible manufacturing, and full life cycle management; industrial chain synergy networks improve industrial resilience through vertical integration and horizontal collaboration; and green transformation promotes sustainable development through low-carbon process innovation, circular economy systems, and green standards. This paper further proposes that Liaoning should leverage its institutional advantages to improve top-level designs that promote the development of New Quality Productive Forces and the new materials industry; utilize the capital and technological strengths of large state-owned enterprises to drive collaborative innovation among small and medium-sized private enterprises within upstream and downstream of the industrial chain; encourage universities, research institutions, and enterprises to establish collaborative innovation platforms for new materials, thereby strengthening the deep integration of industry, academia, research, and application, optimizing regional factor allocation, and promoting talent mobility; and the government should coordinate the division of labor across the industrial chain, establish dedicated funds to support breakthroughs in core technologies, promote the development of pilot testing platforms for new materials, and improve green finance and insurance compensation mechanisms.

The miniaturization of smart factories is an important path for small and medium-sized enterprises to achieve intelligent manufacturing. Using a literature review method, this paper systematically retrieves related literature on micro smart factories from databases such as CNKI, Web of Science, and Scopus. Combining studies on micro factories and smart factories, this paper defines a micro smart factory and analyzes the constituent elements of a micro smart factory from three aspects: conceptual subjects, technical foundations, and development goals. It is believed that micro smart factories have characteristics of subject specificity, technical similarity, subject applicability, and functional fundamentality compared to traditional smart factories. This paper also clarifies conceptual differences among micro factories, smart factories, intelligent manufacturing, and micro smart factories. Additionally, based on application scenarios of micro smart factories, it constructs a research framework following the logic of “influencing factors-development barriers-implementation paths-goals and outcomes”. This paper finds that influencing factors of micro smart factories involve three aspects: technological, organizational, and environmental levels. Development barriers include financial, technological, talent, and management obstacles. Building micro smart factories requires solving issues in five areas: finance, technology, talent, cognition, and management support. The goals and outcomes of micro smart factories differ at both micro and macro levels. Finally, this paper proposes future development directions for micro smart factories from four dimensions: construction and practice, theoretical framework, benefits and governance, and growth changes and boundary effects, providing references for theoretical research on micro smart factories and the future development of intelligent manufacturing in China.

With the rapid development of the market economy, mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and restructuring have become the main commercial activities in the securities market. To explore the impact and mechanism of M&A and restructuring inquiry letters on corporate ESG performance, based on the theoretical analysis, all A-share listed companies that underwent M&As and restructuring from 2015 to 2021 are selected as the research objects, and regression tests are conducted under strict control of time and individual fixed effects, further expansion analysis is conducted on the economic consequences and characteristics related to M&A and restructuring inquiry letters, and the heterogeneity of the impact of M&A and restructuring inquiry letters on corporate ESG performance under different levels of financing pressure is explored. Research has found that M&A and restructuring inquiry letters can significantly improve the ESG performance of the surveyed companies through a dual path of increasing analyst attention and alleviating information asymmetry issues. Further analysis reveals that the impact of receiving letters on a company's ESG rating is short-term, with an improvement in the quality of ESG information disclosure after receiving letters, and the mechanism of action is similar to that of ESG performance. At the same time, changes in the effectiveness of M&A and restructuring inquiry letters are revealed, and it is found that their impact on ESG performance significantly decreases after 2019. Heterogeneity analysis shows that this promoting effect is more significant in non-state-owned enterprises and enterprises with higher levels of financing constraints. This paper verifies the optimization effect of M&A and restructuring inquiry letters on corporate ESG performance, there is heterogeneity in the regulatory effects on companies under different financing pressures, indicating that the ability of companies to withstand potential risks in their financing activities weakens the promotion effect of M&A and restructuring inquiry letters on ESG performance.

Urban transportation is one of the key sectors contributing to urban carbon emissions. Investigating efficient carbon reduction paths is of significant importance for promoting the high-quality development and green, low-carbon transformation of the transportation sector. Beijing, a city with a dense population and frequent economic activities, has considerable energy consumption and carbon emissions in its transportation sector. The Chinese government has pledged to peak carbon emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. Therefore, studying the relationship between transportation carbon emissions and economic growth in Beijing, as well as exploring effective carbon reduction measures, is crucial for achieving these goals. This paper takes Beijing as a case study and employs a “top-down” approach to calculate the annual carbon dioxide emissions from its transportation sector. It analyzes the decoupling status between transportation carbon emissions and economic growth and constructs a system dynamics model for urban transportation carbon emissions. The model considers multiple subsystems, including the population and economy subsystem, the transportation subsystem, the energy and carbon emissions subsystem, and the private car cost subsystem. By simulating and forecasting the trends in carbon dioxide emissions from urban transportation in Beijing, the study investigates the changes in emissions under various carbon reduction strategies. The study calculates and analyzes the carbon emissions from Beijing's transportation sector, revealing an increasing trend in recent years. It also shows that the decoupling status between transportation carbon emissions and economic growth is characterized by either an expanding or weak decoupling, failing to achieve the ideal state of strong decoupling. Based on this, the study develops a system dynamics model for urban transportation carbon emissions and simulates the emission trend variations under different scenarios. The results indicate that adjusting the vehicle energy structure, controlling private transportation demand, and improving energy efficiency are effective measures for reducing transportation carbon emissions. Promoting new energy vehicles, implementing stringent traffic restriction policies, and enhancing energy-saving technologies can significantly reduce transportation carbon emissions. This paper not only examines the ecological benefits of implementing carbon reduction measures from a policy perspective but also assesses their economic benefits, thereby enriching the evaluation framework of transportation carbon reduction policies. Furthermore, the study considers the cost changes for consumers resulting from policy implementation, comprehensively evaluating the implementation effects and guiding role of the policy from both the ecological and economic benefits. The findings offer valuable guidance for government departments in selecting efficient and rational carbon reduction policies, which will help promote high-quality economic development and high-level protection of the ecological environment. Additionally, the research provides insights for low-carbon transportation development in other regions and holds significant theoretical and practical values for achieving the green and low-carbon transformation of the transportation sector.

This paper deeply analyzes the logical basis and value implications of the scientific worldview and methodology of upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground, as well as its practical requirements in the New Era. This paper persists in applying the Marxist standpoint, viewpoint, and methodology to systematically study the worldview and methodology of upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground, utilizes the research method of logical and historical unity, emphasizes the integration of theory and practice, and employs the basic tenets of Marxism to analyze and summarize the rationale for upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground, its value, and practical application methods. The main viewpoints of this paper are as follows:upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground is the organic unity of Marxist materialism, epistemology and dialectics; the nourishment of the fine traditional Chinese culture is the cultural soil for upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground; upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground has been carried out through the practical exploration of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in its more than a hundred years of struggle, and the CPC's more than a hundred years of remarkable history is a history of constantly pursuing, revealing and practicing the truth of Marxism, which carries the genes and lineage of upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground. Upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground helps to enrich and develop Marxism, uphold and improve the system of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, promote cultural prosperity and enhance China's cultural soft power, and build China into a great modern socialist country. Upholding fundamental principles and breaking new groud demands us: Firstly,with upholding fundamental principles at the core, to always take the right principles and traditions as the foundation and firmly uphold theoretical beliefs by adhering to the basic principles of Marxism to ensure the orthodoxy of theory; to uphold the CPC's comprehensive leadership to ensure the orthodoxy of direction; and to uphold Socialism with Chinese Characteristics to ensure the orthodoxy of essence. Secondly, it requires us to focus on innovation and actively promote advancements in the path, theory, system, and culture, injecting momentum into building China into a great modern socialist country. Thirdly, upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground requires us to grasp the dialectical unity of the two. On the one hand, it requires us to treat science with a scientific attitude and achieve the dialectical unity of conformity to laws and purposiveness. On the other hand, it demands pursuing truth with the spirit of seeking truth, thereby realizing the dialectical unity of adhering to and developing truth. Not only upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground should reveal the truth, but also uphold and practice it to transform the real world by the guildance of the fundamental principles of truth and drive social progress forward in a manner that is both timely and consistent with the evolving demands of society. From the perspectives of logical basis, value implications and practical requirements, this paper offers a comprehensive theoretical exposition on upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground. It puts forward a series of innovative viewpoints, providing valuable references for theoretical research and practical exploration in related fields, which facilitates a deeper understanding and application of the worldview and methodology of upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground, thereby offering methodological guidance for building China into a great modern socialist country.

The sense of community for the Chinese nation is the foundation of ethnic unity, an emotional bond of national identity and ethnic integration, and a source of strength for the continuous development of the Chinese nation. Systematically reviewing the theoretical foundation, historical context, and practical paths through which the Communist Party of China (CPC) forges a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation is not only a three-dimensional perspective for grasping the general development trend of the Chinese nation but also a necessary path for revealing the internal laws governing the evolution of the CPC's ethnic work. As the main thread of the CPC's ethnic work in the New Era, forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation presents a theoretical construction with threefold ideological origins: taking Marx's community thought as its philosophical foundation and inheriting the value pursuit of the “association of free individuals”; upholding adapting Marxist ethnic theory to Chinese context and needs of times as its methodology to innovate and develop the pluralistic unity concept of the nation; and drawing cultural nourishment from traditional political wisdom of Chinese civilization, such as “great unity” and “harmonious coexistence”, to achieve the modern transformation of fine traditional Chinese culture. Over the past century, the CPC's efforts to forge a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation have undergone dual tests of practice and history, evolving through four interconnected development stages: fermentation and foundation-laying, exploration and establishment, innovation and development, and maturity and sublimation. In the practical context of the New Era, forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation has formed a promotion path integrating economic, political, cultural, and social dimensions. This involves a comprehensive deployment and integrated advancement of four components: solidly promoting common prosperity, firmly advancing political identity, stimulating deep-seated cultural identity, and promoting interaction, exchange, and integration. This multi-dimensional and integrated practical system inherits the historical wisdom of Chinese civilization and responds to the development needs of the New Era, rallying strength and focus for the realization of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

At the ceremony marking the centenary of the Communist Party of China (CPC), General Secretary Xi Jinping summarized the CPC's century-long experience in theoretical innovation and explicitly proposed the significant proposition of integrating the basic tenets of Marxism with fine traditional Chinese culture, namely the “Second Integration”. Later, at the meeting on cultural inheritance and development in 2023, General Secretary Xi Jinping further emphasized that the “Second Integration” is another manifestation of our commitment to freeing the mind. This has laid a solid cultural foundation for the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the New Era, demonstrating that the CPC has reached new heights in promoting theoretical innovation and strengthening cultural confidence by inheriting fine traditional Chinese culture. In-depth study and a profound grasp of the connotation of the “Second Integration” hold great significance for upholding the guiding role of Marxism, establishing a connection between tradition and modernity, continuously advancing theoretical innovation, and fulfilling new cultural missions. From a cultural perspective, the “Second Integration” adheres to a grand view of history. It places the integration of the basic tenets of Marxism with fine traditional Chinese culture within the century-long historical development of the CPC, clarifies the internal mechanism of integrating the “soul vein” of Marxism with the “root vein” of fine traditional Chinese culture, and employs the methodology of unifying logic and history to deeply explore the successful experience gained from this integration. Research findings reveal that the “Second Integration” has accumulated major experience in three aspects:the subjective consciousness of persistence through collision and selection, the path optimization of inheritance and integration, and the mission-driven commitment to upholding fundamental principles and breaking new ground. The experience carries vital importance for implementing Xi Jinping Thought on Culture, achieving the “Second Integration”, and advancing the creative transformation and innovative development of fine traditional Chinese culture.

As a crucial instrument in civil and commercial transactions, valuation adjustment mechanism (VAM) agreements are commonly utilized in private equity and venture capital investments. This paper analyzes the causes of obstacles in the performance of equity repurchase-based VAM agreements, attributing them primarily to the facts that the Minutes of the National Courts' Civil and Commercial Trial Work Conference fails to effectively address the relationship between capital reduction procedures and equity repurchase, and treats them as bundled requirements, and the investor is in a disadvantaged position in terms of equity proportion in the target company, which prevents them from dominating capital reduction procedures. This paper argues that equity repurchase-based VAM agreements should be characterized as contracts with conditions attached to their terms rather than as aleatory contracts or conditional contracts. Specifically, the failure of the VAM agreement is an agreed-upon intentional condition for equity repurchase. To overcome obstacles in performance, the provisions of Article 159 of the Civil Code regarding the improper obstruction of the fulfillment of conditions can be analogously applied to resolve the predicament of malicious refusal to initiate capital reduction procedures. Since the equity repurchase claim has become enforceable, target companies that fail to fulfill their repurchase obligations may be held liable for breaches of contract. As ultimate remedies for such breaches, investors may seek compensation under debt law provisions for delayed performance or request for the return of the original property as property right holders.

The Law of the People's Republic of China on Specialized Farmers Cooperatives (hereinafter referred to as the Law) is rich in empowerment ideas. Significant achievements have been made in the study of cooperative empowerment across various disciplines such as economics, sociology, political science, and management. However, legal research has not adequately addressed the legal empowerment of cooperatives and their members based on ontology empowerment of the Law, and there is still room for further research. Legal empowerment is precisely the fundamental empowerment of cooperatives and their members, and an in-depth analysis of this empowerment is conducive to highlighting the profound theoretical and practical background and long-term objectives. Based on ontology empowerment norms of the Law, starting from the principle that the law is a social habit and ideological achievement, this paper integrates the concepts of empowerment, the endogenous power of specialized farmers cooperatives and their members, and rural revitalization. The research results indicate that there is a closed-loop mechanism among empowerment, endogenous power, and rural revitalization. The five types of empowerment in the Law embody the important ideas of ontology empowerment of the Law. The essence and characteristics of ontology empowerment are reflected in the following aspects: for enhanced endogenous power, the empowerment of legal attributes to cooperatives serves as the foundation, the empowerment of cooperatives through policies are driving forces, the empowerment in cooperative markets is crucial, the empowerment of cooperative organizations is the guarantee, and the empowerment of cooperative members forms the basis. The closed-loop operation mechanism and five types of empowerment bring new perspectives and results to the study of empowerment of the Law. The five types of empowerment, endogenous power, and rural revitalization in the Law form a closed-loop empowerment pattern under the promotion of theoretical and practical logical forces, revealing the inherent mechanism of linkage between empowerment and endogenous power as well as rural revitalization, and the feasibility of forming a closed-loop framework for enhancing endogenous power and achieving rural revitalization through empowerment. The law is the core and cornerstone in supporting the development of cooperative system. The legal empowerment of cooperatives will be continuously optimized and refined in accordance with the evolving goals of rural revitalization and their future upgrades. As cooperatives continue to encounter new problems in their ongoing development, these problems will become new topics for the evolution of cooperative empowerment ideas. Analyzing new topics will be more helpful in improving the ontology empowerment concept of the Law and advancing rural revitalization across the board.

With the promulgation of the Measures for the Review of Science and Technology Ethics (for Trial Implementation) in China, the review of science and technology ethics has become a legal procedure for carrying out scientific and technological activities. In recent years, judiciary authorities have sought to leverage technology to modernize judicial work, and the integration of technology and the judiciary has deepened, with technology even affecting existing judicial decision-making to a certain extent. This paper provides legal reasoning and empirical analysis of the establishment and operation rules of the Judicial Artificial Intelligence (AI) Ethics Committee. At the legal level, the establishment of the Judicial AI Ethics Committee in the context of judicial automated decision-making is necessary, legitimate, and justified. This committee is responsible for the ethical review of the court's scientific and technological activities. At the same time, its operation rules are special “reference-based applications” based on the general review of science and technology ethics, which will inevitably conflict with general provisions to a certain extent. Its review forms, such as the granting of review powers, the formulation of review procedures, and the composition of reviewers, should be discussed from the perspective of legal doctrine, which can be used as the core element for the review of science and technology ethics at the court level, so as to accelerate the construction of the future framework of the Judicial AI Ethics Committee mechanism to address the challenges and difficulties in ethical reviews in judicial automated decision-making. Currently, judicial automated decision-making is no longer a prospect but a reality. The Judicial AI Ethics Committee must go beyond general ethical reviews and refine review standards based on specific requirements of the judicial field. At the same time, in response to the particularity of the judicial scene, more detailed ethical norms should be formulated, and the review process should be continuously optimized, to enhance the effectiveness of ethical reviews, guarantee the fairness and transparency of judicial decision-making, and ultimately achieve the organic integration of judicial automated decision-making and ethical norms.

New Quality Productive Forces are the fundamental force to comprehensively advance Chinese modernization, and intellectual property rights (IPR) are the internal requirements and important focus to promote the development of New Quality Productive Forces. The IPR judicial practice plays multiple roles in promoting the development of New Quality Productive Forces. The people's courts, taking the IPR judicial practice as a starting point, explore specific paths to empower New Quality Productive Forces, which is consistent with the generative logic and development direction of New Quality Productive Forces. By systematically reviewing the research results of the people's courts at all levels in China and combining typical cases in the judicial field, this paper examines the research status, practical effects, and structural assumptions of IPR judicial practice empowering New Quality Productive Forces from the perspectives of literature, cases, and theory. It explores and demonstrates the value structure and theoretical model of IPR judicial practice empowering New Quality Productive Forces and proposes specific paths and hierarchical plans for this empowerment effect. This paper finds that IPR judicial practice achieves its empowerment effect through methods such as element extraction, mechanism innovation, and overall protection. Its judicial content, judicial process, and judicial results jointly constitute the theoretical model of the empowerment process. The operational basis of this model lies in the fact that the logic of IPR judicial practice empowering New Quality Productive Forces is premised on typified cases, promoting continuous technological breakthroughs and innovative allocation of production factors through differentiated judicial treatment methods, ultimately driving the deep transformation of industrial models. The operational logic of this model is rooted in the interconnectedness of IPR judicial practice and the elements of New Quality Productive Forces, and its judgment results can shape the relerant rule of New Quality Productive Forces. Through IPR judicial practice, it can maintain and enhance the core competitiveness of enterprises, guide the formation of advanced production relations, improve total factor productivity, and ultimately have the overall effect of empowering New Quality Productive Forces. With the continuous deepening of IPR judicial practice and related research, the hierarchical plans for IPR judicial practice empowering New Quality Productive Forces should be further developed from four dimensions:the conceptual elevation from rights protection to empowerment for New Quality Productive Forces, the process cultivation from element identification to precise application, the interpretation of judicial judgments from a new perspective, and the release of effectiveness of promoting the development of New Quality Productive Forces from individual cases to similar cases.