Abstract:In December 2023, the Central Economic Work Conference put forward a major strategy of optimizing the layout of major productive forces and strengthening the construction of the national strategic hinterland. The CPC Central Committee attaches great importance to the development of the western region. In April 2024, General Secretary Xi Jinping visited Chongqing, emphasizing that the construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle is a major strategic decision made by the CPC Central Committee. The 2024 Government Work Report also emphasizes the importance of strengthening the construction of the national strategic hinterland. As the name suggests, a strategic hinterland is relative to a coastal (border) area. Therefore, the central and western regions will certainly be the key areas for the construction of the national strategic hinterland. The Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle is located in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, thousands of kilometers away from the eastern coastal areas. With a large population, vast land, abundant natural resources, large economic scale, strong scientific and technological strength and special strategic position, the region is one of Chinas most ideal core bearing areas for building a national strategic hinterland in the new era. This paper first reviews the remarkable achievements of the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle in terms of economic growth, population agglomeration, scientific and technological innovation, industrial development, market cultivation and opening up since the beginning of this century, analyzes the opportunities and challenges of cultivating new productive forces and improving the quality of development in the region, and finally puts forward policy suggestions for the construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle in the new era as the core carrying area of the national strategic hinterland.

Abstract:Strengthening the construction of national strategic hinterlands is the implementation of the strategic deployment of guaranteeing the new development pattern with a new security pattern proposed by the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, demonstrating the significant strategic considerations of the CPC Central Committee in coordinating and realizing the dynamic balance of the high-quality development and high-level security. As a specific national strategic hinterland, superimposed on the development trend of urban agglomerations becoming spatial growth poles and factor carriers of regional development, it is of significant importance for Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle to actively serve and integrate into the construction of the national strategic hinterland in the new era. The national strategic hinterland is adjacent to the national-level growth poles or pilot regions, possessing the foundation for high-quality economic development and industrial undertaking capability. It can support the overall economic operation, undertake industry transfer, provide resource supply, and ensure ecological security during general or special periods, and serve the overall national strategic development. The core carrier area of national strategic hinterlands is the important positioning of the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle in the construction of the national strategic hinterland, which undertakes the pursuit of high-quality development of making overall development planning based on one region. It embodies the value attributes of the CPC Central Committee in coordinating high-quality development and high-level security, being a key space where locality and systematicity coexist, an important growth pole driving the high-quality development of various strategic hinterlands. The core carrier area of national strategic hinterlands in the new era shall have development advantages such as active economic organizations, complete industrial categories, sufficient factor supply, and perfect infrastructure. Currently, the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle possesses comparative advantages of building the core carrier area of national strategic hinterlands in the new era, including a solid and comprehensive development foundation and industrial system, the key technological innovation strength to maintain and stabilize the industry chains, industry backup and undertaking capacity that serves the overall situation, and factor supply and facility support for both peacetime and wartime. However, there are weaknesses of incomplete regional spatial structure development, low efficiency in transforming high-tech achievements, and homogeneity of industries and low visibility within the region. In the future, the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle shall build a backup base for national key strategic industries with strategic thinking, develop a regional innovation system and model of independent innovation with innovative thinking, create a strategic base for ensuring the supply of Chinas important primary products with thinking that can deal with worst-case scenarios, and improve the industrial system for both peacetime and wartime and swift responses to emergencies with thinking that can deal with extreme-case scenarios, striving to build a core carrier area of national strategic hinterlands in the new era.

Abstract:With the increasing emphasis on the strategic position of regional synergy development policies in China, increasing studies on regional synergy have been paid attention to by the academic community, but the current academic community has yet to elucidate the bottleneck causes and solutions of regional synergy, as well as the corresponding new mechanisms of regional synergy. This study attempts to focus on this, to sort out the mechanisms of regional synergy bottlenecks and new mechanisms of regional synergy at the theoretical level, as well as to test the two theoretical frameworks at the empirical level through case studies and questionnaire surveys on the collaboration of Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle in promoting the standardization of institutional affairs. The case study found that in the case of institution affairs, for instance, there are governance scale differences in the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle, which together with the central policy regulation constitute the internal and external motivation for synergy, driving the willingness of the Chengdu-Chongqing region to deepen the cooperation and involve in the regional synergy; At the same time, the phenomenon of local protectionism is also in the standardization of institutional affairs in the collaborative work, and impede the synergistic development of the construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle. The questionnaire data further validated the results of the case study: it is important to promote the synergistic region to strengthen the administrative governance synergy and to promote the unity of the governance scale, and the implementation of the standardization of Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle can help promote the synergistic development of the region, while the standardization of the administrative governance synergy also enhances the synergistic and mutual trust awareness of the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle, and eliminates, to a certain extent, the administrative barriers and local protectionism; The current Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle cadres involved in the synergistic reward and punishment mechanism is deficient, the administrative governance synergy needs to be developed, and the local sense of propriety needs to be further resolved. Based on this, this study argues that the phenomenon of local protection is a governance product derived from Chinas longstanding regional division of governance, and that eliminating local protectionism and strengthening regional integration thinking may become an inevitable requirement for breaking the bottleneck of synergy, while administrative collaborative governance based on the perspective of administrative scale may become an inevitable path choice for regional synergy through the construction of a governance scale that is compatible with the regional space. In addition, synergy is a process of continuous development and transformation based on the time vector, and local governments should seek reasonable regional synergy by firmly grasping the three core elements of regional synergy, namely, motivation-path-purpose in different stages.

Abstract:The 14th Five Year Plan clearly proposes to promote the deep integration of modern service industry with advanced manufacturing industry and modern agriculture, and accelerate the digitization of service industry. Stabilizing and optimizing the construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing Double-city Economic Circle is a major measure to build a dual cycle strategic layout. Improving the level of industrial integration and development not only provides a solid foundation for enhancing the international competitiveness of industries in Chengdu-Chongqing region, but also provides an important path for accelerating the overall upgrading of the dual circulation industrial chain. The article first uses the entropy weight method and the modified model of coupling coordination degree model to evaluate the development level of the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries in the Chengdu-Chongqing Double-city Economic Circle from 2010 to 2020, as well as the coupling coordination level between industrial systems, and characterizes its spatiotemporal distribution pattern. Further, the paper constructs a panel data model to comprehensively test the dynamic factors that affect the industrial integration and development of Chengdu Chongqing Double-city Economic Circle. The research results show that: firstly, the overall level of industrial development in the Chengdu-Chongqing Double-city Economic Circle is on the rise, with relatively low agricultural index, stable industrial development and significant increase in service industry index. Secondly, within the study area, the development level of Chengdu-Chongqing Double-city Economic Circle industrial integration is concentrated between 0.30 and 0.49, and the overall coordination degree is low. The distribution range of regions with high levels of industrial integration and development has evolved from north to south, gradually becoming a ring. Thirdly, technological progress, talent resources, and infrastructure are positively driving the integration and development of industries in the Chengdu-Chongqing Double-city Economic Circle. Market demand, fiscal finance, and foreign trade are underutilized as drivers influenced by the fragmentation of administrative power. In response to the above issues, the article proposes policy recommendations from accelerating the construction of regional market integration, enhancing the modernization level of the industrial chain, and improving industrial regional cooperation mechanisms.

Abstract:Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration is an important economic growth pole leading the development and opening up of the western region. It is of great significance to improve its level of urban resilience for promoting the high-quality development of the western region and the coordinated regional development of China. Based on the five-dimensional evaluation framework of economy-society-ecology-infrastructure-population, this paper selects 26 indicators to construct an evaluation index system. By using the entropy-weight-TOPSIS evaluation model and obstacle degree model, the paper analyzes and identifies the spatio-temporal evolution characteristics of urban resilience and its obstacle factors in Cheng-Chongqing urban agglomeration from 2010 to 2019. The results show that:1) From the perspective of spatial and temporal pattern evolution, the urban resilience of Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration is gradually increasing and the spatial differences are gradually decreasing; the overall level of urban resilience is low, and the number of cities with low resilience and lower resilience are large and widely distributed, showing a spatial distribution pattern of high in northwest and southeast, low in central and western regions. 2) According to the identification results of obstacle factors, the obstacles to the improvement of urban resilience of Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration as a whole and its cities mainly focus on the subsystems of social resilience and infrastructure resilience. The main factors involved were medical insurance coverage, the proportion of students in ordinary (specialized) science schools, the number of health institutions, the number of public transport vehicles per 10 000 people, the density of drainage pipes and population density in built-up areas.

Abstract:Scientific and reasonable adjustment of urban administrative division is an effective way to improve national governance capacity and promote local development, and the policy of withdrawing counties into districts is an important way of administrative division adjustment in recent years. Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle(abbr. CCEC) is positioned as an important economic center with national influence, so it needs to be systematically studied from both theoretical and empirical aspects whether the policy of withdrawing counties into districts can become a strong thrust for regional economic development. Based on the panel data of 101 sample counties from 2010 to 2019, using a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods, this paper explores the impact of policy implementation on the economic development of CCEC through the double difference model from the perspective of the specific counties and the overall economic circle. So that we can comprehensively study and judge the impact of the policy of withdrawing counties into districts on economic development, zoning adjustment and industrial structure optimization. The results show that the implementation of the policy of withdrawing counties into districts has a significant role in promoting the development of county economies in CCEC, which can accelerate the process of economic development. The implementation effect of the policy of withdrawing counties into districts has obvious regional differences, among which the implementation effect of Chongqing is better than that of Sichuan. The promotion effect of policy implementation is short-term, and it needs to go through a certain adaptation period to fully allocate municipal resources to drive the development of county economy. The incentive effect will gradually weaken over time. Further mechanism analysis shows that industrial agglomeration effect plays a significant role in promoting the economic development of policy implementation areas. The implementation of the policy of withdrawing counties into districts can promote the economic development of CCEC by the industrial agglomeration effect brought by the expansion the city scale and the agglomeration of a large number of enterprises in the region. Industrial agglomeration effect can reduce transportation costs, improve information exchange and improve the efficiency of division of labor and cooperation, and accelerate the high-quality economic development of CCEC. To optimize and adjust the administrative division of CCEC, we should consider the development conditions of each region and implement the division adjustment policy according to local conditions; coordinate the economic development relationship between the central urban area and the surrounding counties, and timely adjust the functional orientation of the urban area and the development pattern of the county according to the future development plan of the region; improve the economic efficiency of policy implementation, scientifically and reasonably tap the potential of resources, and optimize the connotation of zoning adjustment. Starting from the theoretical hypothesis and through a series of empirical analysis and test, this paper makes an in-depth discussion on the economic effect of the county economic zoning adjustment of the typical inland economic growth pole, which is conducive to expand the research on the impact effect of zoning adjustment, and can provide a certain reference for the optimization of local government administrative zoning.

Abstract:The construction of Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle is an important regional development strategy of China.It promotes the formation of domestic circulation, and the formation of domestic and international double circulation of the new pattern of development.The key to the construction of twin city economic circle is to promote the coordinated development of Chengdu-Chongqing region,optimize the regional economic layout, and form high-quality growth poles.In order to enrich the theory of regional coordinated development, this paper introduces the functionalism theory and uses the classical theory to explain the internal logic and path strategy of the coordinated development of Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle.The research shows that the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle should take the economic and social coordination as the goal, use the ramification to start the original power, give full play to the spillover power,mobilize the initiative of the government, elites, enterprises and institutions, and build a systematic regional cooperative development organizational structure.The paper points out that the construction of Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle needs to go through five stages: dismantling barriers, unblocking connections, forming alliances, regional identity and deepening coordination.At the same time, Chengdu-Chongqing region needs to explore the driving force of coordinated development, maintain the balance of interests, and promote the coordinated linkage of policies,economy,society and the rule of law. With the help of functionalism theory, this paper studies the coordinated development of Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle, which is of reference significance to enrich the theory of regional coordinated development in China and guide the construction of Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle.

Abstract:The collaborative governance of Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle is an important opportunity to promote the high-quality development of Chengdu-Chongqing region and the key to promote regional collaborative governance lies in the effective integration of governance actions, the interaction of governance resources and policy learning. In order to explore the logic of collaborative governance of Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle and provide Chengdu-Chongqing experience for Chinas regional collaborative governance.This paper takes 351 intergovernmental collaborative governance policy texts of Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle as the research blueprint and carries out content-coding analysis from the perspective of network analysis of institutional collective action theoretical framework. The research focuses on individual network analysis and overall network analysis and introduces the concept of strong and weak linkages to see into the collaborative governance process of the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle. The results show that the collaborative governance network of Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle has experienced the evolution from limited sharing network to dual-core leadership network, and the primary role of Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle is gradually obvious; the secondary system of internal collaborative governance of Chengdu-Chongqing region has basically formed, which promotes the coordination and integration of the overall system action; administrative and regional segregation are the main obstacles of collaborative governance of Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle,which need to be coordinated and be promoted with function as the leading factor by the provincial government at the higher level. In the future, the collaborative governance of Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle needs to focus on the creation of collaborative mechanisms, optimization of spatial layout, and policy coordination and convergence, so as to jointly create a new pattern of collaborative governance of Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle.

Abstract:In order to understand the research status, hotspot and frontier of Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle, and provide analysis reference for further research, this paper selects CNKI database as literature search engine, and uses CiteSpace 5.5.R2 visual analysis software to analyze spatiotemporal features and keyword of Chengdu-Chongqing literatures. Through bibliometrics, this paper mainly analyzes the temporal distribution characteristics such as annual publishing trend, literature citation, and spatial characteristics such as discipline distribution, fund distribution, author and organization distribution. Through the visual analysis of keywords, it draws the co-occurrence map of keywords, time line map, clustering view, time zone view and the distribution map of emergent words to deeply analyze the research hotspots and research frontier. The results of quantitative analysis show that there are a large number of research documents in the field of Chengdu-Chongqing region. However, there is a lack of articles with high recognition in this field, the number of continuous in-depth research documents is small. The cooperation and exchange between authors and research institutions are scarce, and an influential group of authors or institutions has not yet been formed. There are few interdisciplinary research literatures, and the breadth and depth of research in this field need to be developed. In addition, the investment in all aspects of Chengdu-Chongqing area is not enough. Relevant institutions should increase the research investment to improve the research quality. The visual analysis results show that: the high-frequency keywords of relevant research literature of Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle tend to be diversified, and Chengdu-Chongqing economic zone is the key word with the highest frequency. According to the time zone chart, the research is divided into five stages, and the literature development of each stage is consistent with the policy background at that time. Emerging words show that in recent years, Chengdu-Chongqing research has been constantly refined. By combing the basic context behind the literature research, this paper points out the economic development process of Cheng-Chongqing region, the problems in the study of Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle and its development prospects, which provides a useful reference for further research.

Abstract:Based on the fifth and sixth census data, this paper takes 16 prefecture-level and above urban administrative units in Chengdu-Chongqing city cluster as the research object, and conducts comprehensive calculation and analysis of their shrinking spatial pattern, basic features and formation mechanism. The results show the following:1)13 out of the 16 cities of Chengdu-Chongqing city cluster are contracting, accounting for 81.25% of the total urban area, mainly concentrated in the central region of Chengdu-Chongqing city cluster. Three of them are in a non-shrinking state, accounting for 18.75% of the total urban population, and they mainly distribute on both sides of the urban agglomerations. The shrinkage of 14 municipal districts accounted for 29.79% of the total. The contraction phenomenon occurred in 64 city jurisdiction counties, accounting for 65.98 percent of the total number of cities jurisdiction counties. 2) The overall type of shrink city can be divided into three major types:global contraction, marginal contraction and local contraction. The global contraction includes 5 cities, accounting for about 38.46% of the total contraction cities, all located in the central part of Chengdu-Chongqing city cluster and showing continuous development trend. The marginal contraction mainly includes 4 cities, accounting for 30.77% of the total contraction. Local contraction mainly includes 4 cities, accounting for about 30.77% of the shrinking cities, mainly distributed in the central marginal region of Chengdu-Chongqing city cluster, non-shrinking municipal districts (counties) are surrounded by shrinking towns.3) The number of young children and working-age people has been decreasing, the number of the elderly population has been increasing and the burden of social support has been increasing; The population of education showed a trend of continuous increase, and the proportion of people with bachelors degree or above increased significantly. The proportion of the employed population in the primary industry has declined dramatically, while that of the employed population in the secondary and tertiary industries has increased significantly, and the proportion of the employed population in the secondary industry has increased the most. 4) Based on the analysis of the formation mechanism of urban shrinkage, the central citys siphon effect, the lack of employment in the transformation of industrial structure, the increasing aging trend of population, natural factors and the appropriate interventions of the government constitute the key mechanism of urban contraction of Chengdu-Chongqing city cluster.