Given the features and contents of Trump’s protectionism, it’s believed that the present US trade policy has undergone fundamental changes, transforming the US into an opponent of the global multilateral trade system rather than a facilitator. China, Japan, and the ROK share common benefits and resorts such as maintaining the global multilateral trade system, fostering the regional manufacturing network and negotiating on the free trade area. Against such a background, the establishment of the China-Japan-ROK Free Trade Area (CJK FTA) witnesses a new opportunity. However, the construction of CJK FTA also faces many difficulties, such as the leadership in cooperation, regional identity, sensitive industry protection and the standards of FTA, which shed uncertainties on the prospect of CJK FTA. Thus, it is important for China to make good preparations concerning regional policymaking in advance.

Since the strategic importance of India Ocean gradually rose in the 21st century, the Indian Ocean regionalism has gained continuous attention from regional powers. In the context, Australia endeavored to promote the institutional change of the sole ministerial regional forum in this region, from the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IORARC) to the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA). Based on the Transaction Cost Model, the article mainly dissects the role of Australia in IORAs institutional change. First of all, the paper analyzes the content of institutional change in terms of membership, issue areas, concentration, flexibility, and the right of control. The institution shifted its main issue areas on maritime regionalism from open regionalism, and increased the level of concentration, while maintaining the decisionmaking process on the basis of consensus and the preference for informal agreement. Secondly, improved transparency of ties between Australia with India and Indonesia, and the rising uncertainty of maritime agendas constitute the driving force for the institutional change. Thirdly, compared with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, IORA, with a high degree of flexibility and decentralized control, is characterized by low transaction frequency and high heterogeneity among members, which weaken the importance of issue areas concerning trade liberalization. Finally, it is a necessity to get rid of two misunderstandings about IORA‘’s lowlevel institutionalization, namely no utility of weak ties and low effectiveness.

The interpretation of Article 121 (3) of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) was finally done by the tribunal for the SinoPhilippine arbitration on the South China Sea issue in July 2016. Examinations by renowned scholars demonstrated that the tribunals interpretation deviated from international practice. The paper employs the principles of treaty interpretation codified by Article 31 of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties to evaluate such an interpretation process. The paper proposes that the tribunal paid scant attention to the key words such as “rocks” in plural form as the first word and “which” as the second word of Article 121 (3). The tribunal also turned a blind eye to the first seven words in Article 121 (2), which makes up the immediate context for an impartial interpretation of Article 121 (3). Furthermore, insignificant materials were adopted by the tribunal to define the object and purpose, which also goes to travaux préparatoires. In such a way of “interpretation”, the tribunal revived unaccepted proposals submitted during the treaty negotiation. Given the fact that lots of general principles of treaty interpretation were violated, the non-conformity with such an interpretation by UNCLOS contracting parties shall be expected and justified.

The Belt and Road Initiative is building a new platform for international cooperation, which is of great significance to the development of the current world. Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) countries have been the indispensable party of the Belt and Road cooperation which is essentially conducive to promoting participating and updating in the global value chain. Therefore, it is of realistic significance to analyze opportunities for economic and trade cooperation between China and LAC countries under the background of the Belt and Road Initiative from the perspective of the global value chain. Currently, due to imbalance of industrial structure, backward infrastructure, inadequate regional integration, imperfect business environment and lack of innovation ability, LAC countries own a minor share in value added in the three major value chains oriented for the United States, Asia and Europe, and the development of its own value chain in the region is also limited. From the perspective of global value chain, the Belt and Road Initiative will provide new opportunities for the economic and trade cooperation between China and LAC countries, mainly in cooperation in infrastructure, participating in the reindustrialization in the region, strengthening the financing, improving SMEs development, increasing technology innovation cooperation, and making LAC more integrated into the Asian value chain.

Sustainable development is a common challenge faced by all countries in todays world. Carrying out international cooperation in the field of sustainable development makes an inevitable choice for China and Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries to better implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the UN. The paper analyzes the implementation of the 2030 agenda by China and LAC countries, and dissects their common challenges in implementing the 2030 agenda; Then, the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) is used to measure the sustainable development level of China and LAC countries, and the mechanism of the key factors affecting their sustainable development level is explored. Furthermore, current problems in economic and trade cooperation between China and LAC countries are examined. Finally, from the perspective of sustainable development, suggestions are proposed for sustainable cooperation between China and LAC countries in the economic, social and environmental dimensions, in accordance to the spirit of the 2nd ministerial conference of the ChinaCELAC Forum.

 China contributes to poverty reduction in Latin America in ways of foreign aid and investment, with infrastructure construction as a breakthrough and state-owned capital as the main force, which generally promotes economic growth and poverty reduction of Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries. However, different types of aid and investment generate different poverty reduction effects. In the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, the joint construction of China and LAC countries will witness more growth potential, but also many challenges. Problems such as government corruption, low market efficiency, fragmentation of foreign aid and investment and Chinas insufficient capacity in international affairs, to some extent, impede the advancement of cooperation between China and LAC countries in fighting poverty. Therefore, China should continuously improve the multichannel model for cooperation and financing, make a reasonable balance between infrastructure construction and the capacity promotion poverty reduction projects, and strengthen exchange and cooperation with LAC countries in governance capacity and market system construction, with the aim to build a foreign aid and development system characterized by openness and inclusiveness, and to promote cooperation in poverty reduction between China and LAC countries.

Taking the investment terms of the TransPacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) as the benchmark, the paper analyzes the level of investment liberalization of Colombias 3 free trade agreements (FTAs), namely the ColombiaUS, the ColombiaSouth Korea, and the ColombiaMexico FTA. The paper notes that the ColombiaUS FTA has the highest level of investment liberalization, followed by the ColombiaSouth Korea FTA and the ColombiaMexico FTA. Exploration of investment openness at the industry level reveals that finance and insurance, education, arts and entertainment, as well as health and social work are Colombias most sensitive areas to foreign investment. The study contributes to further improving the system of analysis and measurement of investment liberalization in FTA negotiations theoretically, which also serves as the reference for negotiations on investment issues in the SinoColombia FTA.

 A better grasp of Trumps “new deal” could help us better understand the current situation and predict the direction of the USs future domestic and foreign affairs. The connotation of Trumps “new deal” could be analyzed in 3 dimensions: domestic affairs, foreign affairs and social trend of thought. As for domestic affairs, it mainly presents in 4 elements: taxcut, employment promotion, seeking support from the voter, and antiimmigration. The effect of the domestic “new deal” is expressed as a drive of the domestic economy, and the governance result is relatively good. In the aspect of foreign affairs, it is embodied in the principle of “America First”, which inherits and carries forward the “three magic diplomatic weapons” of the Republican presidents since the 20th century. With the social trend of thought, Trumps “new deal” has broken the socalled “political correctness” and “moral correctness” of Americas pluralism cultural, resetting the over“leftleaning” US to normality. At the same time, we should recognize and positively shape the momentum of SinoUS relations from the strategic perspective, rather than read too much into the negative impact of Trumps “new deal”.

The Tumen river marine economic zone and Liaoning marine economic zone are the main marine economic zones in Northeast China. Under the background of joint construction of the “Polar Silk Road” by China and Russia, we should fully utilize the geographical and foundational advantages of the two marine economic zones in Northeast China, and speed up building the “Polar Silk Road”, which makes an important breakthrough in Chinas new round of revitalization of the northeast in response to the Belt and Road Initiative. The paper analyses the strategy and urgency of building the “Polar Silk Road”, the upcoming challenges, as well as the unique advantages of the two marine economic zones in Northeast China being the pivot to promote the construction of the “Polar Silk Road”. The writer holds that the current construction of the “Polar Silk Road” should adopt a stable and pragmatic approach. Strategically, we should focus on the interests of Russia and China and highlight consensus and the principle of “joint construction”. Tactically, we are supposed to realize effective synergy of the Belt and Road Initiative with the strategy of “revitalization of the northeast” with the aim of promoting the strategy of jointly building the “Polar Silk Road”. Practically, we are to take the method of “Developing Northeast as the Pilot and Making Breakthrough Point by Point” to gradually promote the construction of the “Polar Silk Road”, with focus on the coordinated development of Chinas “revitalization of the northeast” and Russias “Far East Development”.