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Abstract
This paper introduces a unique phenomenon with a distinctive Chinese regulatory approach. Since 1994, the Consumer Rights Protection Law has afforded consumers the right to seek punitive damages in instances of fraudulent practices. This has given rise to a special profession with Chinese characteristics: professional consumers. Their status as enigmatic figures is a consequence of the fluctuating stance of public authorities. Thirty years of consistent inconsistency has been a rarity in China's legislative history. The year 2024 marks the 30th anniversary of the enactment of the CRPL, China's Consumer Rights Protection Law and the birth of its implementing regulation. It is an opportune moment to reassess the regulatory system that enabled this group and reconstruct it for the future. This paper presents a comprehensive regulatory review of the emergence, growth, and projected decline of professional consumers. It examines the reasons for this long-standing regulatory inconsistency through a detailed investigation of China's legal system. It concludes by projecting two upcoming legal positions. The first is the transformation under the state's co-governance strategy. The second is the displacement by procuratorial public interest litigation. Although seemingly contradictory, these two positions exemplify a distinctive Chinese approach to the co-governance strategy, which is characterized by the preponderance of public authority.

Land use change models are important tools for understanding geographical phenomena and their dynamic interactions with other systems. They play a key role in the fields of land resource management, spatial science and urban planning. Among all land use change models, cellular automata (CA) have been widely explored and used in the literature, with considerable contributions to theories, methods and corresponding applications all around the world. An important issue with CA models is the unavoidable precision-loss with traditional raster-based CA and the demand of high-accuracy modelling tools. In this thesis, a vector-based CA model is proposed, implemented as prototype, and then integrated with artificial intelligence algorithms and a planning support system. Taking Ipswich City, South East Queensland (SEQ) Region, Australia as the study region, the thesis provides a comprehensive exploration of vector-based CA modelling, with macro and micro spatial variables, qualitative and quantitative evaluation. Key topics assessed are the comparison, simulation and evaluation of vector and raster-based CA models; the effects of spatial heterogeneity and partitioned transition rules at multi-level spatial scales; the integration of vector-based CA model with planning support system for predicting future scenario developments. In general, the thesis has explored multiple research points of vector-based CA modelling, with a mixture of data sources. The characteristics and mechanisms of historical and future residential expansion, as well as its connection with government policies and social-economic factors, have been analysed and illustrated. In conclusion, vector-based CA model could reduce the sensitivity of cell size and computation time effectively, identify the nonlinear connections between spatial variables and land use patterns, as well as forecasting the future development in a logical and coherent way.

The diffusion of performance budgeting into China asks the question: how may China approach this task? This research examines the experience of performance budgeting in the United States, and explores the desirability of a utilization-driven approach to implement performance budgeting in China. This article argues that, given what we have known from experiences in other countries, a utilization driven approach, an approach that means to design a performance measurement system that clearly identifies the users of information and the intended uses, holds the promise in China's unique historical, political and cultural environment.

Active participation from all stakeholders in the budget process is one of the key issues to the integration of performance information with budgeting. While individual stakeholders' participation is cited as important by various studies, participation pattern, that is, how they engage relative to each other in performance measurement, is less known. Empirical studies on participation patterns and their collective impact on performance budgeting are scarce. Using the survey data collected in Georgia, this study conducted a cluster analysis in order to further provide a dynamic understanding of the mechanism and structure of a participative process in performance budgeting. The findings suggest that participation pattern is a different construct than individual participation and that the effective patterns vary by the purpose for which performance information is used. In addition, the patterns that are open to external professionals and citizens, with shared responsibilities among the agencies, executive offices and the legislative branch, and tailored to various purposes are more likely to be effective in integrating performance information with management and budgeting.

The diffusion of performance budgeting into China asks the question: how may China approach this task? This research examines the experience of performance budgeting in the United States, and explores the desirability of a utilization-driven approach to implement performance budgeting in China. This article argues that, given what we have known from experiences in other countries, a utilization driven approach, an approach that means to design a performance measurement system that clearly identifies the users of information and the intended uses, holds the promise in China's unique historical, political and cultural environment.

Although performance‐based budgeting requirements are pervasive, what remains a challenge is how to gain the support from all stakeholders in the budget process that are essential to the integration of performance information with budgeting. This study examines the perspective and role of state agencies on performance budgeting. The finding indicates that for agencies to conduct performance‐informed budgeting, the focus needs to be on elevating managerial capacity to use performance information, and improving measurement quality. Moreover, it is crucial to recognize that performance budgeting is a collaborative process in which each participant plays a valuable role.