Abstract: This paper interprets China industrial structure isomorphism from the perspective of intra-industry based on China interregional input-output table 2002. The results verify the existence of China's industrial structure isomorphism and reveal its discrepancy at industrial and regional levels. This study points out that the industrial structure analysis at broad industry-category level may overestimate the extent of industrial structure isomorphism. It is observed from the intra-industry assessment that the intra-industry trade has become a significant form of China's inter-provincial trade connections, although the inter-industry trade is still dominant in the natural resource oriented regions. The intra-industry trade can be affected by factors such as diversity of the positions in the industrial chain, the similarity of demand preference of different provinces etc. Through the combined analysis of industrial structure isomorphism and intra-industry trade, it is emphasized in the study that the regional integration should not be judged using industrial structure isomorphism as the only criterion. Interregional economic linkages can be achieved through intra-industry trade, which means in the case of the coexistence of industrial isomorphism and intra-industry trade, industrial isomorphism will not necessarily impede the regional integration.

Key words: industrial structure isomorphism, intra-industry trade, interregional input-output analysis, China-IRIO 2002, regional integration