The theory of “exception to the general rules of the law of the sea”, while unreasonable in terms of the formation, identification and application of historic rights, makes the theoretical impediment to that of “customary international law”. Based on the common practice and opinio juris, Chinas historic rights can be further defined as being regulated by regional customary international law. The customary law particularly provides a theoretical safeguard for protecting Chinas historic rights in the South China Sea, thus to make up for deficiencies of the theory of “customary international law”.Key words: the South China Sea; historic rights; the general rules of the law of the sea; regional customary international law.

Political security makes the foundation of national security. With the advent of the era of artificial intelligence, intelligent technologies such as big data, cloud computing, and machine learning continue infiltrating into fields of politics, and increasingly embedding and integrating national sovereignty, social order and ruling environment. In the development of these intelligent technologies, a lot of problems are witnessed, such as uncontrolled application scenarios or the lack of preventive and control measures, which even affect the political security of modern political parties. Some Western political parties, one after another, have elevated the intelligence technology to the level of national strategy, using artificial intelligence technology to mobilize and govern within the political parties, as well as propagate. Artificial intelligence is also applied in social governance and regime consolidation, thus effectively safeguarded the political security. For the Communist Party of China, its supposed to accurately grasp the new trend of the development of political parties in the era of artificial intelligence, and analyze the main strategies of Western political parties to maintain political security in the era of artificial intelligence, which could provide important enlightenment for the maintenance of political security of the Party in terms of top level design, governance practice and international cooperation.

The “Indo-Pacific” strategy is a new diplomatic strategy implemented by the Indian government in the “Indo-Pacific” region in order to expand the space for survival and development. India examines the value and status of the “Indo-Pacific” region in its foreign strategy from the perspectives of geopolitics and geoeconomy. India‘s “Indo-Pacific” strategy aims to win the recognition of global powers, achieve a multi-polar world order, promote the Act East policy and ensure that the Indian Ocean is actually the “ocean of India”. With the increasing attention attached to the “Indo-Pacific” region by countries as the US, China, Australia, and Japan, as well as the formation of a new strategic pattern in the region, India, that wants to make a difference in the indopacific region, will certainly take new strategic measures. Faced with the new strategic situation in the indo-pacific region, what kind of countermeasures India will adopt is noteworthy. Based on the current situation, the Indian Ocean oriented strategy, active participation strategy, and integration strategy will become the prior choice of India. Admittedly, the possibility remains that India will adopt the exclusive strategy under special circumstances.

The increasing influence of cities in international affairs has made it one of the important actors of global governance. At present, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provides opportunities for cities to enhance governance and participate in the global agenda. On one hand, the agenda provides institutional space for cities’ participation, and the SDG 11 is the city’s sustainable development. Hence, in the governance of localization, cities need to continuously innovate in economic, social, and environmental policies in order to meet the requirements of related goals and indicators. On the other hand, cities has become an important channels for promoting international cooperation and has become an important platform to support and spread the core concept and best practices of the 2030 Agenda. The 2030 Agenda serves as a global action plan and needs to be continuously internalized and implemented within cities. It can be said that cities as a sub-national actors have already become indispensable blocks in multi-actor and multi-level governance system constructed by the 2030 Agenda.

Visions on maritime security of China and the US afford an important perspective for understanding the maritime strategic interaction between China and the US and China-US relations. Although both countries advocate maritime security, there is a huge difference in visions on maritime security of China and the US, and a sharp contrast is witnessed in how to ensure maritime security. China's maritime security policy takes its root in the security dilemma, and the policy is made to seek maritime security, national security and sustainable development of the nation. However, the US policy, in line with Pax Americana, is implemented to promote maritime hegemony and go after ultimate maritime security. The two countries have conducted a confrontational contest in the field of maritime security. The US takes a traditional means of defending the established powers against the rising powers to deal with Chinas rise in maritime influence. Despite with no intent to challenge the maritime hegemony of the US and aspiring for an equitable new maritime order, China objectively remodels the existing maritime order and ocean rules dominated by the US to a certain extent.

Since the 1880s, with the improvement of the maritime power of the US, its diplomatic strategy towards Chile has accordingly changed. Due to the contest of commercial interests between Chile and the US, the US mediation of the South American Pacific War was obviously biased towards Peru and Bolivia. Furthermore, it indirectly participated in the Chilean civil war, secretly provided assistance to the Balmaceda administration, and even sent the Navy to directly participate in the evacuation of political exiles. The essence of the opposition between the two sides lies in the following fact: the US is dissatisfied with Chile's exclusive possession of saltpeter, making full use of the instability of the saltpeter economy which has been a drag to the construction of Chilean navy, and hyping up the “Baltimore Incident” for political gains against the context of the collapse of international saltpeter market and the reversal of the two countries’ naval strengths. For the first time, the US Navy made a public attack on Chile, forcing the latter to compromise. After the incident, “Monroe doctrine” was no longer just a “rumor” of taking a free ride on the British navy's safe and secure train, which laid a solid foundation for the formation of the US maritime power in the Western Hemisphere. Therefore, it is particularly necessary to understand the precedent of the US Navy's intervention in the Chilean judicial trial in the Baltimore Incident 100 years ago, which provides clues to understand the US naval compulsory diplomacy in the process of the South China Sea arbitration.

In trade relations, one country's trade expectations will directly affect its trade policies towards other countries. Generally speaking, positive expectations are conducive to peaceful coexistence, while negative expectations will lead to conflicts. Trade disputes provoked by the US against China show the negative trade expectations of the US, which results from a combination of endogenous and exogenous factors. Endogenous factors include structural problems between China and the US, the expansion of the China-US trade deficit, conservatism atmosphere in the US, and the resulting cognitive bias towards China's system. Meanwhile, exogenous factors, such as the rapid development of manufacturing industry in Southeast Asia and the North Korean issue, have exacerbated the negative expectations of the US. Trade frictions have done great damage to the global multilateral trading system and rules, and will ultimately cause destruction to both sides. China should strive to resolve trade disputes through negotiations, actively guide the United States to form a positive expectation of trade with China and avoid destruction to both sides.

International order results from the interplay of concepts, institutions, and powers in particular international environments. Any major change in the international affairs has an important impact on the international economic order and even changes it to a greater or lesser extent. The paper aims to contribute in the following aspects in order to make up for inadequacies in the existing research. Firstly, the authors try to define and explain the international economic order in the perspective of structured concept and system science, and propose a main analytical framework, including the essential meaning and generative dimensions at the primary level, environments in narrow and broad senses at the second level, and qualitative indicators at the third level. Secondly, the paper summarizes the threedimensional mechanism of “concept-institution-power”, discussing the operational rules underpinning international economic order shaped by concept, institution, and power. Thirdly, the authors analyze the changeability and moldability based on the components and environments of the international economic order as well as the role of the hegemon and great powers. Fourthly, according to the moldability in the aforementioned aspects of international economic order and the threedimensional mechanism, the article explores the feasible path and effective measures to promote Chinas international status, strategic strength, as well as the development of international economic order in a more equitable and reasonable direction.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) will face great challenges in governance in the coming years. Policymakers increasingly turn to the plurilateralism with forms of closed Plurilateral Agreements and open Critical Mass Agreements, as a new strategy for global trade governance. WTO may develop into a “club of clubs”. The rise of plurilateralism, meanwhile, creates both opportunities and risks. Plurilateralism may revitalize global trade and modernize the WTO, while it may also fragmentize the global trade regime and disenfranchise countries. The paper argues that policymakers should make use of the efficiency and effectiveness of plurilateral governance while controlling its negative impact on the WTO and global trade system. To make the best of plurilateralism which is effective and sustainable, it must be integrated with multilateral norms and principles. Any plurilateral approach should provide room for flexibility in order to promote the eventual convergence at the multilateral level.