The purpose of the “Made in China 2025” strategy is to enhance the innovation capabilities of the local manufacturing industry and achieve green and sustainable development. The role of innovation in the development of manufacturing is a hotspot in academic research, though only a few studies have analyzed the interaction between green technology manufacturing efficiency and its external innovation capabilities. This study used the 2011–2017 Chinese A-share listed manufacturing companies as samples to discuss whether regional innovation capabilities can promote the improvement of green technology manufacturing efficiency. The results showed that a significant spatial correlation between regional innovation capability and green technology manufacturing efficiency was prevalent within spatial heterogeneous bounds. In addition, regional innovation capability directly promoted the effective manufacturing of green technology efficiency, which was strongest in the eastern region of the country. Regional innovation capabilities also had a positive effect on human capital and government revenue, thereby further enhancing the green technology efficiency of manufacturing through the intermediary effect. Based on the above conclusions, some policy recommendations are put forward to facilitate the improvement of China’s regional innovation capabilities in terms of green technology efficiency in manufacturing.

The urban network is an important method of spatial optimization, and measuring the development level of the urban network is a prerequisite for spatial optimization. Combining geographic information system (GIS) spatial analysis, social network analysis, and multidimensional scaling models, we explored the evolution of the urban network spatial structure in the Yangtze River Delta from 1990 to 2017 and proposed corresponding optimization measures. The results showed that the urban network spatial structure of the Yangtze River Delta has evolved from a single-center cluster with Shanghai as its core to a multi-center network with Shanghai as its core and Nanjing, Hangzhou, and Hefei as secondary cores. The density of the urban network has gradually expanded, but the strength of the connection between edge cities such as Chizhou, Suqian, and Quzhou and the core cities needs to be further improved. We found that the evolution of the urban network spatial structure has been driven by preferential attachment, path dependence, and differences in economic and industrial development. Finally, we propose optimizing the urban network spatial structure by strengthening the driving ability of the core cities, clarifying urban functions and development directions, and establishing a unified coordination mechanism. This paper enriches and deepens our understanding of the characteristics of the city network in the Yangtze River Delta, and provides a reference for the optimization of the urban network spatial structure.

A global pandemic Covid-19 led countries to take aggressive action regarding social management and crisis governance management system. The case of a pandemic discovered in Wuhan provides a lesson for the government worldwide to adopt. However, the government system in every country has its characteristics. This study aims to release the potential policy recommendation in Indonesia when Indonesia's regional autonomy system faces a challenge in the pandemic situation, such as the increase of competition between regions. Even more, the public service system becomes concerned with the ego regionality. The strengthening country's capacity system is vital in the regional autonomy system as well as the collaboration between central and local government in terms of containment of the spread of the pandemic. Used a political ecology approach and a descriptive- review method, this study was conducted by discussing how the government responds in the regional autonomy system at the beginning of the pandemic situation. The review results show that the local government's response relies on their capacities, such as budget, human resources, and leadership. However, challenges arise when central and local governments' action is not in line in terms of the regional autonomy system. The public and political communication among central and local governments should be rearranged with an integration under proper management, particularly in the first month of the pandemic situation.

As a public health emergency, the COVID-19 pandemic has attracted widespread attention from scholars worldwide. Combining social network models, GIS analysis and spatial econometric models, we explored the characteristics of the Wuhan population outflow network and factors affecting the number of COVID-19 cases. The results show that the Wuhan population outflow network has strong temporal and spatial heterogeneity. Cities in Hubei Province, central cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, and cities rich in tourism resources were the main destinations of Wuhan’s population inflow. The distribution of COVID-19 cases not only showed a strong spatial autocorrelation but also a hierarchical diffusion effect. The benchmark regression results showed that the population outflow from Wuhan determines the number of COVID-19 cases in other cities. Temperature was negatively correlated with the number of COVID-19 cases, while the PM2.5 concentration failed the significance test. Thus, the lower is the temperature, the greater are the survival and spread of the virus facilitated. Furthermore, cities with a higher population density and more employees in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River are more vulnerable to COVID-19. Finally, by replacing the weight matrix and setting instrumental variables, we proved the robustness of the above main conclusions.

China has gradually become an important world investor with the implementations of its “Going Global” and “Belt and Road” strategy initiatives. Indonesia is the world’s largest archipelagic country, and has the largest economy of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations). Therefore, Indonesia is an important node for China’s implementation of its “Belt and Road” initiative. However, the existing research results regarding China’s OFDI (Outward Foreign Direct Investment) in Indonesia have indicated that little focus has been placed on the distribution patterns and determinants at the provincial levels. In this study, spatial analysis and mathematical statistics methods were used to analyze the temporal and spatial pattern evolution characteristics of China’s OFDI in Indonesia for the period ranging from 2006 to 2016. Also, the mechanism of the pattern evolution was quantitatively identified. The results obtained in this research study indicated the following: (1) China’s OFDI in Indonesia was observed to be characterized by fluctuations in investment amounts and rising numbers of investment projects, also, the investment amounts and number of projects were spatially dispersed; (2) the overall spatial evolution of China’s OFDI in Indonesia was found to be characterized by certain patterns, such as “west higher than the east, and south higher than the north” patterns. Moreover, the direction of the investment gravity center was determined to be obviously distinct during different periods; (3) high-level investments were found to be focused in only a few provinces, meanwhile, the majority of the provinces continued to be in a low-level stable state of investment from China; (4) this study’s OLS (Ordinary Least Square) regression and step-wise regression models revealed that institutional factors, political relations, and human resources were the most important factors which had affected China’s OFDI in Indonesia during the study period.