In recent years, the “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) promoted by the Chinese government has attracted a significant amount of international trade and transnational investment and other businesses. Accordingly, country risk assessment should be granted priority in the decision-making process for these projects. Based on a comprehensive consideration of important relevant countries and the availability of data of countries along the BRI, this paper uses data from 49 countries along the BRI between 2014–2019 and establishes a national risk-evaluation system for the BRI from four dimensions (i.e., political, economic, social, and investment). This paper adopts the Grey correlation analysis based on the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (Grey-TOPSIS) method to identify and evaluate the risk of countries along the BRI. Geographic Information System (GIS) maps are drawn according to the criteria for classifying the five risk levels to show the rank of the four aspects of risk scores along the BRI in 2019 and the rank of overall country risk scores during the period 2014–2019. The proposed conclusion and policy implications can help the Chinese government and companies to make informed decisions and minimize potential risks.

Enhancing energy efficiency is globally regarded as an effective way to reduce carbon emissions. In recent years, the energy efficiency of China has gradually improved; however, energy consumption and CO₂ emissions are still increasing. To better understand the reasons for this, we evaluated the energy rebound effect (RE) of 30 provinces in China over the period 2001–2017 by employing stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) and the system generalized method of moments (system-GMM) approach, and explored the extent to which the RE affects CO₂ emissions. Asymmetric and regional heterogeneity analyses were also conducted. The results indicate that the national average RE was 90.47% in the short run, and 78.17% in the long run, during the sample period. Most of the provinces experienced a partial RE, with a backfire effect occurring in some provinces such as Guangxi and Henan. The RE was associated with significant increases in CO₂ emissions; specifically, a 1% increase in the short-run RE led to an increase in CO₂ emissions of approximately 0.818%, and a 1% increase in the long-run RE resulted in an increase in CO₂ emissions of approximately 0.695%. Moreover, significant regional differences existed in the impact of the RE on CO₂ emissions; in regions with high emissions and a high RE, the CO₂ reduction effect from the marginal decline in the RE was much more pronounced than that in other regions.

By constructing a translogarithmic stochastic frontier production model, this study explores the total factor productivity (TFP) of service-oriented manufacturing in 30 provinces in China during 2004–2020. We carried out decomposition analysis to understand in greater depth the potential drivers of TFP growth. The results show that the overall TFP of service-oriented manufacturing continuously improved during the sample period; however, the overall growth rate showed a significant slowing trend, and the contribution of TFP growth to output growth is still low. The industrial growth of service-oriented manufacturing is mainly driven by capital input, and the transformation of its growth mode from extensive to intensive has not yet been realized. Furthermore, there exists significant regional and sub-sectoral heterogeneity in the TFP growth of the industry. The decomposition of TFP growth shows that technological progress and technical efficiency are the main sources of TFP growth, but the growth rate of technological progress is declining gradually, and its driving effect on TFP is weakening. The deterioration of both scale and allocation efficiency hinders the improvement of TFP in service-oriented manufacturing, and there is still room for the industry to improve its TFP level by improving scale efficiency and allocation efficiency.

A series of novel amine triphenolate iron complexes were synthesized and characterized using UV, IR, elemental analysis, and high-resolution mass spectrometry. These complexes were applied to the ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of cyclohexene oxide (CHO), demonstrating excellent activity (TOF > 11050 h⁻¹) in the absence of a co-catalyst. In addition, complex C1 maintained the dimer in the presence of the reaction substrate CHO, catalyzing the ring-opening polymerization of CHO to PCHO through bimetallic synergy. Furthermore, a two-component system consisting of iron complexes and TBAB displayed the ability to catalyze the reaction of CHO with CO₂, resulting in the formation of cis-cyclic carbonate with high selectivity. Complex C4 exhibited the highest catalytic activity, achieving 80% conversion of CHO at a CHO/C4/TBAB molar ratio of 2000/1/8 and a CO₂ pressure of 3 MPa for 16 h at 100 °C, while maintaining >99% selectivity of cis-cyclic carbonates, which demonstrated good conversion and selectivity.