Clarifying the spatio-temporal development gap and the endogenous contributions of China's new quality productive forces provides a solid foundation for decision-making aimed at accelerating the formation and developing new quality productive forces according to local conditions. Drawing on the theoretical framework of the "Element-Structure-Function" of the new quality productive forces system, this study measured the cultivation and development degree of new quality productive forces across 282 cities in China from 2011 to 2021, utilizing multi-source data and double-improved coupling coordination degree model. Through machine learning regression prediction and SHAP visualization methods, this study analyzed the spatio-temporal dynamics and development gaps of new quality productive forces in Chinese cities, while identifying the contributions of various subsystems and variables. The findings of this study are as follows: (1) The absolute level of cultivation and development of new quality productive forces in Chinese cities has continued to rise, exhibiting a spatial distribution pattern of "cluster strengthening" and "hinterland improvement". Some cities have achieved breakthrough progress in "stage transition", though overall, the cities remained in a transitional phase from "cultivation and formation" to "coordinated improvement". (2) A clear "block segmentation" pattern has emerged in the cultivation and development of new quality productive forces across Chinese cities. The high-value areas in the north are concentrated in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and Shandong Peninsula regions. The development momentum of the Central China Plains urban agglomeration is prominent, while the northeast region demonstrates a north-south differentiation pattern. The northwest region is predicted to exhibit a "hammer-shaped" low-value area. The high-value areas in the south are primarily distributed in the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Guangdong-Fujian-Zhejiang coastal areas, and the Chengdu-Chongqing region. The Guangdong-Fujian-Zhejiang coastal areas, along with their adjacent regions, are predicted to show significant development momentum, while a "belt-shaped" low-value area will emerge from the middle reaches of the Yangtze River to the Beibu Gulf region. (3) The development process of new quality productive forces in Chinese cities has shifted from being predominantly driven by "factor enhancement" to a more balanced model involving both "factor enhancement" and "structural optimization". The construction of digital new infrastructure has made the most substantial positive contribution to the new quality productive forces. Optimizing the policy support framework and productivity distribution structure represents an effective lever for promoting the advancement of new quality productive forces.

New quality productive forces contribute significantly to the effective development of tourism, and an understanding of the mechanism underlying the influence of new quality productive forces on tourism total factor productivity is important. However, the influence of new quality productive forces on the tourism industry has not yet been extended to tourism total factor productivity. In this study, panel data from 2009 to 2023 from 108 cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt were analyzed to assess new quality productive forces and tourism total factor productivity, examining both spatial and temporal characteristics, to elucidate the mechanism underlying the effects of new quality productive forces in the Yangtze River Economic Belt on tourism total factor productivity. The results indicated that: (1) The level of new quality productive forces exhibited a steady upward trend, with a decreasing distribution pattern with Shanghai, Wuhan, and Chongqing at the core. (2) The total factor productivity of tourism showed an oblique 'N'-shaped trend, characterized by an initial increase and subsequent decrease and followed by a further increase, with a decreasing gradient of 'upstream-middlestream-downstream. (3) New quality productive forces had a positive impact on tourism total factor productivity, characterized as 'upstream > downstream > midstream', which was found to influence tourism total factor productivity through technological breakthroughs, innovative allocation of production factors, and the in-depth transformation and upgrading. A single threshold effect was observed, with the level of development of the digital economy representing the threshold, which showed an increasing marginal effect. In the future, to fully realize the potential of new quality productive forces in the tourism sector, it would be necessary to accelerate integrated development of new quality productive forces with the tourism industry, strengthen associations of tourism industry chains between regions, and promote the creation and development of the digital economy.

The domestic and international dual-circulation strategy is not only an application and summary of China's participation in the global production network (GPN) for regional development, but also opens up new perspectives and practical opportunities for GPN research. This paper focuses on Huawei, a company most profoundly affected by the Sino-US geopolitical crisis. By using the data from global suppliers of key components of Huawei's typical models, the P30 Pro in 2020 and the Mate 60 Pro in 2023, it explores the reconstruction characteristics and driving mechanisms of the GPN of these suppliers. The findings are as follows: (1) Based on the classification of GPN 2.0 enterprise actor types, the GPN of Huawei mobile phones can be divided into high-value R&D, medium-value specialized, low-value standardized, and OEM assembly networks. These networks exhibit distinct hierarchical features and significant spatial differences. (2) Sino-US trade frictions have drastically altered the pattern of Huawei's global suppliers, which has shifted from being spread across East Asia, Western Europe, and North America to being highly concentrated in East Asia. The structure and organization of the global production network constructed by Huawei have also been profoundly reconfigured. (3) Under the GPN 2.0 framework, there are three main dynamic factors affecting the reconstruction of Huawei's global production network. The first is the cost-capacity ratio. Relying on local comparative advantages and increased R&D investment helps optimize production efficiency. The second is environmental risks. In the face of geopolitical risks, Huawei has made important strategic adjustments, establishing a new industrial ecosystem with more domestic enterprises. The third is market motivation. The plan for the domestic substitution of components, combined with local government incentives, provides vital support for Huawei to gain a leading position in the global market.

The new energy vehicle industry represents a significant direction in the global vehicle industry's transformation and upgrading, and its innovation network structural holes exert a profound influence on the efficiency of technology diffusion as well as industrial competitiveness. By constructing a "network-space" dual-dimensional analysis framework and integrating the incoPat global patent database, this study examined the pattern of structural holes and the spatial models of China's new energy vehicle industry innovation network during the period from 1985 to 2021. The results are as follows: (1) The number of structural holes has been on the rise. State-owned enterprises, private enterprises and scientific research institutions are the main entities, predominantly distributed in the southeastern part of China. Among them, state-owned enterprises have the broadest distribution. Private enterprises display a conspicuous tendency towards urban agglomerations, while scientific research institutions exhibit a more pronounced administrative orientation. The location preference of foreign-funded enterprises is concentrated and stable. (2) The structural hole innovation network is becoming looser, as its small-world characteristic gradually diminishes and its control over cross-domain information or resources weakens. The innovation connection has gradually shifted from being dominated mainly by the inner low-grade structural holes to the inner high-grade structural holes. (3) The innovation cooperation within the structural holes of state-owned enterprises, private enterprises and foreign-funded enterprises demonstrates a significant trend of internalization, while the structural holes of scientific research institutions always show a collaborative innovation paradigm mainly driven by external sources. (4) From the perspective of spatial model, state-owned enterprises, private enterprises, scientific research institutions and foreign-funded enterprises exhibit the hierarchical structure model, group structure model, radiation structure model and flat structure model, respectively. This study can provide research reference for the optimal allocation of innovation resources and collaborative innovation in China's new energy vehicle industry.

The new energy mode for inter-city travel is crucial for promoting the comprehensive green transformation of the transport industry, among which the first issue to address is identifying the spatial patterns and influencing factors of electric vehicle (EV) inter-city travel. This study takes Guangdong province as a case study and utilizes big data from the expressway online toll collection (OTC) system for March 2024. By integrating complex network analysis, the random forest algorithm, and ridge regression, it explores the spatial patterns of EV inter-city travel and identifies the key influencing factors. The conclusions are as follows: (1) The EV inter-city travel is dominated by pure electric vehicles, which exhibit greater traffic flows and broader coverage compared to hybrid electric vehicles. The dominant flows within the EV networks break the geographical barrier of the Pearl River estuary, resulting in spatial structures that differ from the traditional "dual-core" model centered around Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Instead, a "three-pillar" structure emerges, comprising Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai. (2) The scale of EV inter-city travel is closely related to the distribution of transportation hubs. Based on the K-means clustering algorithm, the pure electric vehicle network can be divided into four subgroups, namely the airport county subgroup, the high-speed railway county subgroup, the Pearl River Delta subgroup, and the Guangdong peripheral county subgroup. (3) The differences in reciprocity and convenience of EV inter-city travel on both sides of the Pearl River estuary are minimal. Notably, Xiangzhou district, the Zhongshan City Center Group, Jinwan District, and other key nodes characterized by high reciprocity coefficients and triangle density have also emerged on the west coast. (4) The service industry workforce, permanent population, highway network density, and new energy enterprises are the main factors affecting the scale of EV inter-city travel. This study explores the spatial distribution pattern of electric vehicles from the perspective of inter-city travel, enhancing mobility theory by focusing on the novel traffic flows.

The study enriches the dimensions of social infrastructure research by introducing the concept of "marginalized social infrastructure", deepening the understanding and interpretation of the role of social infrastructure within the framework of urban governance. Taking the Jingle North and South Areas of Longhua district in Shenzhen as an example, the research focuses on the formation of marginalized groups driven by social infrastructure and the transformation of urban governance strategies. The study finds that the marginalized social infrastructure centered around the original Sanhe Talent Market and its surrounding low-cost living facilities not only provides a low-cost living space for the "Sanhe group" but also shapes its unique social ecology, lifestyle, and group identity, becoming a grassroots practice through which the group distances itself from mainstream social norms, while simultaneously reinforcing their self-marginalization. In urban governance practice, the government gradually regulates and improves these marginalized facilities through a multi-stakeholder collaborative model, promoting the enhancement of spatial quality and social order in the Sanhe area. The research points out that while acknowledging the positive functions of social infrastructure in serving the public, it is also essential to recognize the role of marginalized social infrastructure within the traditional urban governance system. The social infrastructure relied upon by marginalized groups can also become an important medium for pluralistic urban governance by reshaping the governance process in reverse.

As trade globalization rises, its impact on industrial upgrading in latecomer countries is uncertain, with coexisting low-end lock-in and upgrading phenomena. Using 6-digit BACI-CEPII trade data from 2001 to 2019, this paper explores how a country's trade network embeddedness affects export industry upgrading, considering technological and organizational coordination difficulties, measured by industrial technological complexity and chain length. Key findings: (1) High trade network embeddedness positively impacts export industry upgrading, with distinct paths; latecomers initially develop short-chain industries, shifting to long-chain as they reach middle/high-income stages, while developed countries focus on long-chain upgrading. (2) Trade network embedding facilitates upgrading by expanding niche markets and accessing high-quality intermediates. (3) China currently favors short-chain industry development, relying less on the global trade network than other developing countries. Based on the empirical results, this study concludes that the S-shaped meandering upgrading pattern further improves the theory of globalization and regional industrial upgrading, and at the same time proposes a development path strategy for China's high-quality development from the perspective of international industries.

The traditional core-periphery theory emphasizes the proximity of local space, while it ignores the mechanism of network links to shape innovation space. Based on the data of high-tech enterprises and their patent cooperation in 2022, this study takes Chengdu and Chongqing as examples to investigate the innovation space. Through the application of ArcGIS clustering, social network analysis, and non-parametric testing, a total of 147 innovation units in Chengdu (76) and Chongqing (71) were identified. This study further explores the influence of the geography-network dual combination structure on innovation output and systematically analyzes the heterogeneity of the four combinations in terms of innovation output within the two cities. The results indicate that despite the circular structure and significant spatial similarity of the two cities, their innovation networks exhibit notable differences. Specifically, Chengdu has a larger network scale and higher connection intensity, forming a "star-ray" network, whereas Chongqing is a typical example of "zigzag" extension and heterogeneous network connection. By incorporating the characteristics of both spatial similarity and network difference, we identified a geography-network dual structure of innovation space in megacities, comprising four types of innovation units. Network core-geography core (C-C type) and network periphery-geography periphery (P-P type) are the advantages and disadvantages of urban innovation space, respectively. The innovation output of Chengdu network core-geography periphery (C-P type) (network advantage) and Chongqing network periphery-geography core (P-C type) (geography advantage) did not lag behind their respective C-C innovation units, indicating that the peripheral areas can also achieve efficient innovation output in the context of network embedding or geography agglomeration. This study applies the "core-periphery" theory in the urban context, and clarifies the similarities and differences between the dual combination structure of geography and network on the innovative development of different cities, which contributes to break the inherent perception of innovation in the urban periphery, and thus promotes the understanding of the interrelationship between the periphery and innovation in megacities and the types of innovation units.

The vast territory of China has nurtured a rich variety of unique cultural customs, resulting in substantial cultural distinctions between regions. This study attempts to reveal the impact of cultural differences on migrants' settlement intention from the interdisciplinary perspective of population and geography. Based on the 2017 China Migrants Dynamic Survey (CMDS 2017) data, this study constructs the concept of "Cultural Differences" according to food culture, dialect culture and family name culture. Results show that cultural differences between destination and origin has a significant negative impact on migrants' settlement intention, and the negative effects of cultural differences and geographic distance on settlement intention have a superimposed effect, with geographic distance further weakening settlement intention in areas where cultural differences is farther away, and cultural differences further decreasing settlement intention in areas where geographic distance is farther away. The sub-dimensional analysis shows that dietary cultural differences, dialectal cultural differences, and family name cultural differences exert a significant negative effect on migrants' settlement intention. Migrants who are elderly, lower-income, or rural-to-urban migrants, are more likely to leave the city due to cultural differences. Migrants living in eastern cities, provincial capitals, large cities, and economically developed cities are more likely to stay due to cultural inclusiveness advantages in these cities. Mechanism analysis shows that cultural differences reduces migrants' settlement intention by weakening their sense of identity as locals, reinforcing their custom attachment to hometown, widening their differences in hygiene habits from locals and inhibiting their social interaction with locals. Migrants' cultural coping strategies such as the participation of community and social activities at destination, as well as cultural governance initiatives such as enhancing urban cultural service levels and building civilized city could assist migrants in integrating into cities' mainstream culture, and mitigate the negative effect of cultural differences on migrants' settlement intention. The study provides an empirical basis for explaining migrants' settlement intention from the perspective of cultural adaptability, and also puts forward recommendations for cities to improve cultural governance and flesh out citizenization programs.