By Sun Zhiyan, Research Department of Development Strategy and Regional Economy, DRC

Research Report, No. 63, 2020 (Total 5807) 2020-3-30

Abstract: Based on 35 central cities (municipalities under the central government, provincial capitals and cities specially designated in the state plan), this paper employs the Baidu data on the total passenger volume, the total freight loads and the population migration figures between these cities to analyze the factor flow of China’s population and products and the changing trend of the city system and spatial structure during 2010- 2018. Generally, there is a flattening trend of the city system. The spatial network structure with multiple centers is taking shape. Stratification and regional polarization are increasingly prominent. In view of this, China’s regional development policy needs to further strengthen the role of spatial planning at the national level, promote more balanced pattern of industries in space, and tighten the risk prevention of unbalanced structure and regional polarization caused by the deepened division of the supply chain between different regions. More favorable policies need to be adopted to support the development of regional central cities, and to adapt to the development trend of the flattening spatial structure. The trans-regional data, information communication and sharing mechanism, the horizontal fiscal equilibrium mechanism and the integrated resources and factors allocation mechanism need to be promoted, so as to effectively control the regional monopoly in the development of digital economy.

Key words: digital economy, spatial system, regional integration