US–China relations in a historical context
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Pathogen stress heightens sensorimotor dimensions in the human collective semantic space
Infectious diseases have been major causes of death throughout human history and are assumed to broadly affect human psychology. However, whether and how conceptual processing, an internal world model central to various cognitive processes, adapts to such salient stress variables remains largely unknown. To address this, we conducted three studies examining the relationship between pathogen severity and semantic space, probed through the main neurocognitive semantic dimensions revealed by large-scale text analyses: one cross-cultural study (across 43 countries) and two historical studies (over the past 100 years). Across all three studies, we observed that increasing pathogen severity was associated with an enhancement of the sensory-motor dimension in the collective semantic space. These patterns remained robust after controlling for the effects of sociocultural variables, including economic wealth and societal norms of tightness. These results highlight the universal dynamic mechanisms of collective semantics, such that pathogen stress potentially drives sensorially oriented semantic processing.
Enhanced risk of hot extremes revealed by observation-constrained model projections
The increasing frequency of extreme hot events poses significant societal and scientific challenges due to their adverse impacts on human and natural systems, compounded by their unpredictable nature. Climate models are essential for investigating root causes and anticipating long-term changes, yet their accuracy is limited by inherent uncertainties and errors. While observational constraint theories offer promise in addressing model issues, they often rely on empirical region-specific relationships. Here, we show that future changes in hot extremes and their uneven spread critically depend on historical thermal distributions, with variability playing a key role. We develop a universal analytical approach that combines observations with model outcomes, aiming for more reliable projections. Results reveal that hot event probabilities may grow faster than models imply across much of the global land. In vulnerable regions, increases could exceed model predictions by nearly twofold, even at low global warming levels. These findings lay the groundwork for realistic risk assessments and emphasise the need for strengthened adaptation and mitigation efforts.
Co-benefit of forestation on ozone air quality and carbon storage in South China
Substantial forestation-induced greening has occurred over South China, affecting the terrestrial carbon storage and atmospheric chemistry. However, these effects have not been systematically quantified due to complex biosphere-atmosphere interactions. Here we integrate satellite observations, forestry statistics, and an improved atmospheric chemistry model to investigate the impacts of forestation on both carbon storage and ozone air quality. We find that forestation alleviates surface ozone via enhanced dry deposition and suppressed turbulence mixing, outweighing the effect of enhanced biogenic emissions. The 2005-2019 greening mitigated the growing season mean surface ozone by 1.4 ± 2.3 ppbv, alleviated vegetation exposure by 15%-41% (depending on ozone metrics) in forests over South China, and increased Chinese forest carbon storage by 1.8 (1.6-2.1) Pg C. Future forestation may enhance carbon storage by 4.3 (3.8-4.8) Pg C and mitigate surface ozone over South China by 1.4 ± 1.2 ppbv in 2050. Air quality management should consider such co-benefits as forestation becomes necessary for carbon neutrality.
Impact of green bonds on CO2 emissions and disaggregated level renewable electricity in China and the United States of America
Green financial products have emerged that can benefit economic actors in financing green initiatives to promote renewable energy and enable carbon neutrality. Against this backdrop, the study examines the impact of green bonds (GBs) on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and renewable electricity generation (EG) in China and the USA, the leading countries in terms of GB issuance and CO2 emissions. To this end, the study conducts a disaggregated-level analysis by applying novel nonlinear quantile methods between January 2, 2019, and July 31, 2023. The results demonstrate that at higher quantiles; (i) GBs mainly have a dampening impact on CO2 emissions from the transportation sector in China and the USA; (ii) GBs have a stimulating impact on solar and wind EG in China; (iii) GBs have a diminishing impact on all types of EGs in the USA. Thus, GBs have an impact on carbon neutrality and renewable energy, which differs by quantiles, sectors, and EG sources. Accordingly, various policy implications are discussed in terms of further contributions of GBs to carbon neutrality and renewable energy in China and the USA.
US-China tech decoupling increases willingness to share personal data in China
Conflicts involving tech companies and data privacy between the US and China have evolved into a technology decoupling between the two countries. Nationalistic sentiments have been on the rise in both countries as well. This study examines how the rising geo-technological race and conflict affect people’s perception of data privacy. In particular, we examine whether reminding Chinese internet users of the US-China technological decoupling influences their willingness to share personal data. We conduct a randomized online experiment where we remind people of the US–China technology competition in artificial intelligence or the US sanctions on Chinese tech companies and examine the impact on respondents’ willingness to share personal data with private companies, the central government and local government. We find that the US-China tech decoupling treatments increase people’s willingness to share their data with private companies. Exploring the heterogeneous treatment effects by gender and education level reveals that nationalism is likely the mediating factor that explains why some people, especially, males and the college educated, are more likely to increase their willingness to share personal data when exposed to these treatments. Moreover, the US-China tech decoupling treatments directly increase people’s perception that data is a key input for Chinese company competitiveness in AI development. In sum, we find that reminding people of the US-China tech decoupling can invoke nationalistic sentiment and increase people’s willingness to share data with private companies and the government in China. The randomized control trial was pre-registered on the AEA RCT Registry (AEARCTR-0007526). The public URL of https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/7526 and the digital object identifier (DOI) is 10.1257/rct.7526-1.0.
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