Macao, China, is a mini-sized economy. As such, diversified production is difficult to achieve, which could create pronounced vulnerability for the economy. Nevertheless, 25 years after its return to China, the region’s GDP per capita remains among the highest in the world, employment opportunities have increased, prices remain relatively stable, government fiscal revenue is substantial and robust, and life expectancy exceeds those of advanced countries. These remarkable development achievements may be termed an economic miracle. How was this accomplished? This article examines multiple policies implemented by the Macao SAR Government, including significant improvements in public security, the introduction of market competition mechanisms to reform the gaming industry, the establishment of a comprehensive education system to vigorously develop education, the enhancement of welfare systems, and the expansion of infrastructure. The analysis leads to a core conclusion: Macao’s success stems from the synergistic and complementary effects of deliberate government policies and market forces. A stable government, a highly effective Legislative Council, and the enhanced professional competence of civil servants resulting from educational reforms have all contributed to economic development and social services. Meanwhile, the high proportion of indirect taxes from the gaming industry has endowed the SAR government with robust financial capacity, enabling it to provide the necessary material conditions for policy implementation.

Before the full-scale outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, China maintained a close relationship with Nazi Germany. After China declared war on Germany in 1941, Chiang Kai-shek, as the Supreme Commander of the China War Zone, adopted a policy toward Germany that was both complex and inherently contradictory. On the one hand, he linked Germany's military actions to China's resistance against Japan, attempting to leverage Allied cooperation against the Axis powers; on the other hand, he remained attentive to German military technology and formulated plans to harness German scientific and technical personnel for post-war reconstruction. However, Chiang’s assessments of the international situation were often overly idealistic. For example, his persistent belief that Japan would inevitably attack the Soviet Union and his expectations of utilizing German talents after Germany’s defeat were significantly misaligned with actual developments. Notably, Chiang adopted a policy that drew a clear distinction between the German populace and the Nazi regime when addressing the issue of defeated Germany. While this policy reflected a certain degree of pragmatic consideration, it also revealed his emphasis on Germany’s military modernization from a technical perspective, with insufficient reflection on the systemic and ideological roots of German militarism. Examining Chiang Kai-shek’s policies toward Germany after 1941 provides new perspectives for understanding the complexity of Sino-German relations during this period.

Based on the theory of multimodal metaphors, this study argues that the multimodal metaphor of Chinese culture-loaded words is a transitional process of “from penetration to mutual assistance” through semantic mapping. Additionally, the teaching should emphasize “contrast”: in the beginner level, “translation strategies” and “visualization methods” are used; in the intermediate level, the focus is on “old to new”; and in the advanced level, the guidance of “Chinese-style thinking” is provided. Regarding metaphors, the integrated course should focus on basic meanings, cultural connotations, comparison, and communication; the listening and speaking course should emphasize application scenarios, and the reading and writing course should focus on historical origins and written expressions. Based on the MAP model, this paper designs a teaching plan for Chinese culture-loaded words and evaluates its effectiveness through a comparative teaching experiment involving 20 participants. The results show that students who were taught using the multimodal metaphor method performed better than those taught using traditional methods, and the multimodal metaphor method proved more advantageous in enhancing vocabulary production. This study provides new perspectives and practical guidance for teaching culture-loaded words in international Chinese language education.

The Macao SAR Penal Code uses subjective intent as the decisive criterion for distinguishing between money laundering offenses and offenses of concealing or disguising criminal proceeds, whereas the Criminal Law of Mainland China focuses primarily on predicate crimes. The prevailing interpretation of “laundering” and the “funds” involved in China's mainland criminal law doctrine has, to some extent, deviated from the financial nature inherent in the crime of money laundering. In 2006, Amendment VI to the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China expanded the scope of money laundering offenses-a legislative response to FATF’s requirements regarding the expansion of predicate offenses. Moving forward, Mainland China should consider reverting to its more scientifically grounded framework prior to the 2006 amendment. It would be advisable to restore Article 191 as the exclusive provision for money laundering offenses and directly expand the scope of predicate offenses within this article. This study addresses emerging challenges in China’s anti-money laundering landscape by restoring conceptual coherence, logical consistency, and systematic integrity within the criminal framework, thereby enhancing alignment with international conventions and resolving normative inconsistencies arising from the criminalization of self-laundering.

The widespread future application of innovative technologies may trigger corresponding risks, including technological and political risks stemming from diversified technological creation, information and ethical risks caused by intelligent development, as well as social and institutional risks resulting from high-efficiency applications. As the legal domain most closely related to technological innovation, intellectual property law should abandon the deliberate, persistent, and irreversible nature of these future risks through institutional innovation. On one hand, intellectual property law should enrich its legislative purpose with “long-term stability of human society” as a key element. On the other hand, its regulatory framework should expand to include risk assessments encompassing private personal and property safety, as well as public interests involving social and national security. Furthermore, future intellectual property legal systems should adopt a human-centric collaborative approach to establish the theoretical foundations for transcending the territorial limitations of intellectual property rights.

Culture plays a crucial role in the design of locally developed Chinese language textbooks, raising important pedagogical questions regarding which cultures should be included, whose cultures are represented, and how these cultural elements are integrated. This study examines cultural representation in two localized Chinese textbooks: Across the Silk Road 2 (United Arab Emirates) and Everyday Chinese: Chinese Language Textbook for Thai Secondary Schools 3 & 4 (Thailand). Employing content analysis, the study systematically encodes and quantifies both the types and presentation patterns of cultural content. The findings reveal four major patterns: (1) a marked imbalance in cultural representation, with a predominant focus on the target language culture-especially contemporary Chinese culture-while local culture is marginally included and global culture is rarely addressed; (2) cultural content remains largely knowledge-oriented, lacking the depth necessary to foster critical reflection among learners; (3) the target language culture is typically presented in fixed textbook sections, whereas local culture appears in a fragmented and dispersed manner; and (4) intercultural comparisons between the target culture and local culture are present but limited in scope. Based on these findings, the study offers practical recommendations for the integration and design of cultural content in future locally compiled Chinese textbooks.

As an innovative form of education that integrates international Chinese education and vocational education, “Chinese + vocational skills” education is committed to meeting the dual needs of global learners for Chinese language and vocational development, reflecting China’s image as a responsible country with Chinese as its native language. Comparing with the experience of Japanese for vocational purposes, it is found that there are similarities in the “language + vocational skills” education between China and Japan in terms of empowering workers with vocational skills through language education, following the objective patterns of language globalization, and respecting learners’ needs. There is also partial overlap in the countries of origin of learners and the vocational sectors targeted. However, the two countries differ in terms of language acquisition environments and the mechanisms that activate deeper learning motivations. Through a comparative analysis of learners, learning motivations, teaching organizers, and teaching resource construction, it is found that Japan’s approach to vocational Japanese instruction offers valuable insights-including stronger intrinsic learner motivation, a joint public-private instructional model led by enterprises, and more flexible and open teaching resource construction. Drawing on these insights, we believe that “Chinese + vocational skills” education should: (1) enhance the management of learner motivation and increase the added value of Chinese learning; (2) encourage deeper participation of Chinese enterprises operating overseas in program implementation; and (3) improve the accessibility of teaching resources by building an open, inclusive, and user-friendly system for collaborative resource development and sharing.