The Chinese path to modernization provides fundamental guidelines and direction for building a strong cultural and tourism nation, while the development of a cultural and tourism powerhouse serves as a key practical vehicle for advancing Chinese modernization. The two are mutually reinforcing and progressing in synergy. This roundtable discussion brings together experts from multiple fields, including human geography, tourism management, and cultural industries. The core insights are distilled into three key areas: (1) China's tourism theory must undergo a paradigm shift from "following and explaining" to "leading and pioneering". It should be positioned within the broader national modernization drive, empowering high-quality development, cultural inheritance, and common prosperity. (2) It is crucial to cultivate new quality productive forces in the cultural and tourism sectors through technological innovation. Digital technologies should be leveraged to dismantle information silos, enhance resource allocation efficiency, and foster cross-regional collaboration. (3) A high-quality talent development system needs to be constructed. This system must respond to industry transformations driven by "digital-intelligent empowerment" and "cultural empowerment" by optimizing disciplinary structures, curriculum design, and talent cultivation mechanisms, thereby providing sustained human capital support for building a strong cultural and tourism nation.
Establishing a sound system of rights over state-owned agricultural land in reclamation areas is fundamental to fulfilling the responsibilities of the owner of all-natural resource assets, deepening agricultural reclamation reforms, and ensuring national food security. This research addresses the long-standing problems of unclear types of rights, ambiguous powers and functions, and normative gaps concerning state-owned agricultural land in reclamation areas. It constructs a four-tier structure of "ownership of state-owned agricultural land—state-owned agricultural land use right—contractual land management right—land management right", thereby laying a clear legal foundation for these resource assets. The results show that: (1) Clearly defining the land use right, contractual land management right, and land management right over state-owned agricultural land as usufructuary rights, while strictly delineating their legal sources, subjects, and scope of application, can fundamentally transform agricultural land governance from an administratively vague model to one based on precise legal relationships. (2) Innovatively, it proposes that the establishment of the land management right must satisfy the dual requirements of "a transfer term of five years or longer" and "transfer by means that creat a real right (rather than a mere contractual right)". Furthermore, through a purposive restrictive interpretation of the term "lease" (chuzu) in the Civil Code, this approach clearly distinguishes between the creation of real rights [via methods such as "subcontracting" (zhuanbo) or "equity contribution"] and the creation of creditor's rights (via lease), thereby effectively promoting internal coherence within the legal system. The research not only completes the legal construction of the rights system for state-owned agricultural land in reclamation areas but also provides a comprehensive institutional solution with both doctrinal coherence and practical operability for promoting its capitalization and large-scale operation.
Establishing and improving the compensation system for damage to state-owned natural resource assets is a key institutional arrangement for safeguarding owners' rights and interests, deepening reform of the natural resource asset management system, and promoting ecological civilization construction. Based on the specific allocation of claim rights under the separation of ownership rights and regulatory powers within a principal-agent framework, the necessity of the compensation system as a core vehicle for realizing state ownership of natural resources lies in filling the gap in remedies for asset-related losses. Its institutional orientation is to internalize damage into the cost borne by responsible parties through civil liability, thereby safeguarding owners' rights and interests. On this basis, an institutional framework is constructed, comprising compensation subjects, claim approaches, compensation methods, compensation scope, and compensation standards. A full-process implementation pathway is established, including clue discovery, damage identification, liability attribution and enforcement, ecological restoration and financial compensation, and supervisory safeguards, and a categorized response strategy for damage compensation in the natural resource domain is further explored, following the principle of administrative remedies as the primary approach, with judicial remedies as the ultimate safeguard. By clarifying remedial pathways for state-owned natural resource assets and strengthening the function of the damage compensation system, this study contributes to consolidating the institutional foundation of state ownership of natural resources and improving the natural resource property rights system.
Against the backdrop of globalization and regional integration, human activities exert an increasingly significant impact on ecosystems. Therefore, in-depth exploration of the human-nature coupling mechanism in the Dongting Lake region holds important scientific and practical significance for promoting harmonious coexistence between humans and nature in the area. Therefore, this study analyzes the spatiotemporal evolution, spatial matching characteristics, and coupling process mechanisms of human-nature relationships in the Dongting Lake region from 2000 to 2023. It employs a four-quadrant diagram method and a partial least squares-structural equation modeling based on human footprint (HF) and ecological environment quality index (EQI). Results indicate that: (1) From 2000 to 2023, HF increased by 30.34%, while EQI declined by 8.24%. The spatial distribution of human footprints presents a mesh pattern with built-up areas as the core and low human footprints around them. Areas with high ecological environment quality mostly overlap with forest land. (2) From 2000 to 2023, Spatial matching results of human-nature coupling revealed a decrease in areas with low HF and high EQI, while areas classified as "low HF-low EQI" significantly expanded. From 2000 to 2023, the proportion of regions exhibiting significant changes in human-land relationships increased from 67.59% to 79.15%. (3) Population size, economic development, and ecosystem structure and function significantly influence human-land coupling. Among these, ecosystem function exerts a negative effect, while ecosystem structure, population size, and economic development exert positive effects. This study identifies effective spatial pathways for implementing zoned management and differentiated restoration strategies in the Dongting Lake region, providing scientific basis for ecological restoration regulation and achieving harmonious coexistence between humans and nature in complex environmental areas across China and globally.
As a landmark spatial carrier of significant milestone value along the Red Army's Long March route, the Sichuan-Yunnan-Guizhou (Chuan-Dian-Qian) region of the Long March National Cultural Parks of China combines high-recognition cultural tourism brand value with the function of transmitting red culture, serving as an important example of innovative integrated development mechanisms for red tourism. In the context of virtual-physical interactive scenarios, it is imperative to deeply analyze the core of supply-demand relationships through the lens of tourism spatial mismatch, in order to address regional development imbalances and promote cultural continuity, industrial upgrading, and cross-regional coordinated development. Using data on A-level tourist attractions and network attention in the Chuan-Dian-Qian region from 2013 to 2022, this study applies the Tourist Attraction Abundance Index and a spatial mismatch model to explore the spatiotemporal evolution patterns and driving mechanisms of tourism spatial mismatch at both the city-prefecture and county-district scales. The findings reveal that: (1) Spatiotemporal distribution: Both tourist attraction abundance and network attention show an S-shaped upward trend. Tourist attractions are densely distributed in the east and sparser in the west, evolving from multi-centers to a networked structure, with two major cores formed: Southeast Guizhou-Anshun-Guiyang and Zunyi-Luzhou-Yibin. High network attention has shifted from a dispersed to an agglomerated pattern, forming clusters in Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Zunyi city, and others. (2) Mismatch relationships: At the city-prefecture scale, moderate mismatch dominates, showing a "negative-positive-negative" differentiation from northwest to southeast. At the county-district scale, low mismatch and positive mismatch are predominant. (3) Scale sensitivity: Spatial mismatch exhibits relativity and scale sensitivity across different scales. Approximately 69% of city-prefectures and counties exhibit consistent mismatch directions, while 31% show scale-based differentiation. Regions with "positive mismatch at city-prefecture scale but negative at county scale" need to enhance resource integration and image recognition to build integrated red-agri-tourism brands. Regions with "negative mismatch at city-prefecture scale but positive at county-distinct scale" should focus on resource linkage, tourist flow connectivity, and regional coordination to promote high-quality development of red cultural tourism and rural revitalization.
As ecological civilization enters a new stage of systematic governance, coordinating pollution reduction, carbon reduction, green development, and economic growth has become central to Chinese modernization. As a pivotal institutional innovation, China's protected area system is transitioning to a historic stage centered on national parks. Assessing the multi-objective synergistic effects of this transformation is both theoretically valuable and practically urgent. This study constructs a "Human-Land-Space" analytical framework to elucidate the mechanisms through which protected area restructuring affects multi-dimensional objectives. Using panel data from 275 counties in Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu (2009-2023), we empirically examine the giant panda habitat, a region fully transitioned from nature reserves to a national park system, as a typical case. Results show that national park construction significantly enhances county-level synergies in pollution reduction, carbon reduction, green development, and economic growth, demonstrating policy continuity and cumulative effects with existing nature reserves. These synergies arise from dual mechanisms: proactive government-led ecological restoration and spatial governance, coupled with efficient market-driven green industrial development. The policy also generates positive spatial spillovers, driving pollution/carbon reduction and growth in neighboring counties, with stronger effects observed in non-priority environmental protection cities and resource-based cities. This study reveals the synergistic governance logic underlying China's protected area transformation, offering empirical evidence and policy insights for optimizing national park-centered governance systems.
Digital new infrastructure provides technical support and scenario innovation for the consumption upgrade of cultural tourism, thereby serving as an important measure to enhance people's well-being. Based on the "Broadband China" pilot policy as a quasi‑natural experiment, and using panel data of 110 cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2010 to 2023, this paper applies multi‑period difference‑in‑differences, mediation, and spatial difference‑in‑differences models to explore the impact mechanism of digital new infrastructure on people's well‑being. The results show that: (1) Digital new infrastructure will have a significant positive impact on the improvement of people's well-being in the study area, and this remains true after a series of tests. (2) Digital new infrastructure can enhance people's well-being by expanding the scale of cultural and tourism consumption, but it is difficult to improve people's well-being by optimizing the structure of cultural and tourism consumption. (3) For tourist cities and upstream regions, the digital new infrastructure has a stronger promoting effect on people's well-being. (4) The impact of digital new infrastructure on people's well-being has a positive spatial spillover effect, which can significantly enhance the people's well-being of geographically adjacent cities and those with similar economic development characteristics. The conclusion provides a feasible path for promoting the high-quality development of the new cultural and tourism industry centered on digital new infrastructure and facilitating the goal of "boosting consumer demand". It can also offer empirical evidence for local governments to actively plan and advance the strategic layout of digital new infrastructure to enhance people's well-being.
Investigating the exact impact and underlying mechanisms of household special dietary needs on the price premium of ecological agricultural products is of critical importance. Therefore, this research facilitates overcoming the ongoing market dilemma regarding value transformation and effectively drives the high-quality development of the agricultural sector. Drawing upon a comprehensive micro-level dataset systematically derived from consumption questionnaires involving 3714 households, this study conducts a rigorous empirical investigation. To thoroughly analyze these dynamics, the research employs baseline regression methodologies alongside moderation and mediation effect models. The empirical findings comprehensively reveal the following three dimensions: First, throughout the entire research period, nine distinct categories of ecological agricultural products demonstrated a prominent structural divergence between their intrinsic "value" and actual market "price". Within this context, products including fruits and cereals exhibited a clearly pronounced phenomenon of "relative consumer surplus". Conversely, specific product categories such as oil-bearing crops, dried goods, and tea encountered a distinctly significant "premium barrier" within the consumer market. Second, the increase in household special dietary needs significantly elevates the willingness to pay a premium for eco-agricultural products. This enhancement is particularly pronounced concerning the low-sugar, low-fat, and high-calcium dietary needs of the elderly, as well as the increased willingness to pay a premium for cereals and root crops. Third, an in-depth examination of the underlying mechanisms indicates that the community information network serves as the core mediating variable, ultimately accounting for a substantial contribution rate of 56.4% to the overall effect. Furthermore, the analysis determines that consumers' perceived health utility exerts only a limited moderating effect within this structural relationship. Ultimately, the findings derived from this study provide highly valuable decision-making references for executing precise market segmentation and successfully facilitating the value transformation of eco-agricultural products.
Amid a new technological revolution intertwined with geopolitical rivalry, rare earth—critical for AI, new-energy and advanced military systems—have become a frontline of great-power competition. Western often stress the threat posed by China's dominant position while overlooking the interdependence produced by the global division of labor, thereby obscuring the true hierarchy of the global rare earth system and masking risks faced by China. By constructing a global rare earth independence network, this paper finds that: (1) Global interdependence has steadily strengthened while unilateral dependence has generally weakened. (2) The largest unilateral advantages occur in Australia (upstream) and China (midstream and upstream), whereas the greatest unilateral disadvantages appear in China (upstream and midstream) and Germany (downstream). (3) Australia, Myanmar and Japan constitute the terminal nodes of dependency-transmission paths in upstream, midstream and downstream segments respectively. (4) China exhibits the highest risk upstream, worsening risk midstream and improving conditions downstream, in contrast to the global pattern of relatively low upstream but high downstream risk. And (5) endowments, market relations, and policy environments jointly drive the formation of the global rare earth interdependence system.
Achieving common prosperity is the core requirement of Chinese-style modernization, and the forestry industry is an important way to promote coordinated regional development. Based on Amartya Sen's substantive freedom theory, this paper constructs a comprehensive analytical framework to explore the dual mechanism of forestry industry agglomeration as an economic growth engine and a driving force for improving people's well-being. Taking 281 prefecture-level cities in China from 2003 to 2023 as research samples, this paper empirically tests the economic growth effect and income distribution effect of forestry industry agglomeration from the perspective of dynamic mechanism, and analyzes its development effect, sharing effect and sustainability effect from the manifestation dimension. On this basis, it verifies the compound correlation among various effects layer by layer and clarifies the internal path of forestry industry agglomeration boosting regional common prosperity. The results show that forestry industry agglomeration has a significant positive linear effect on economic growth and a linear restraining effect on income disparity. It presents a continuous and steady positive linear impact on sharing effect, and a U-shaped relationship with development effect and sustainability effect. Obvious regional heterogeneity exists in agglomeration effects. Regions with superior resource endowment, industrial resilience and environmental regulation intensity achieve more prominent and higher-quality agglomeration benefits, and the effects vary greatly among different resource-based cities. The mediation effect test proves that forestry industry agglomeration realizes common prosperity mainly via absorbing non-agricultural employment, increasing added value of primary forestry industry and popularizing green production technologies. This paper proposes a refined and differentiated policy system to fully tap the multi-functional value of forestry industry agglomeration, and provide theoretical support and practical reference for advancing regional common prosperity.
China has pursued the large-scale development of wind and solar resources as part of its strategy to address global climate change and ensure energy security. However, the associated negative eco-environmental effects are emerging as a critical constraint on the sustainable development of new energy. At present, the conflict between energy production and ecological conservation in the development and utilization of wind and solar resources is becoming increasingly pronounced. This tension stems fundamentally from the difficulty of internalizing ecological costs, as well as from deficiencies in planning and management. The eco-environment-oriented development (EOD) model offers a novel pathway for resolving this dilemma by shifting the focus of wind and solar development from single-dimensional energy production toward the maximization of multiple benefits. This paper constructs a theoretical framework for wind and solar resource development grounded in the EOD concept, organized around a logic of orientation, core mechanism, and objective. Within this framework, ecological protection serves as the fundamental orientation, the realization of economic benefits constitutes the operational core, and alignment with national strategic goals represents the overarching objective. Building on this framework, the paper proposes that future efforts should advance along three interconnected dimensions: lifecycle-based ecological planning, integrated industrial development through "wind/solar +" models, and multi-stakeholder collaborative governance. The EOD-based approach to wind and solar resource utilization presented in this study provides both theoretical support and practical reference for the ecological planning and environmental risk management of major national energy projects.
The effective implementation of the cultivated land protection responsibility system serves as a prerequisite for safeguarding national food security. By constructing an analytical framework of "responsibility pressure-institutional response", this study takes 69 typical cases from cultivated land protection supervision bulletins between 2019 and 2023 as samples, and employs Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA) and fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to explore the influencing factors and configurational paths for the implementation of the cultivated land protection responsibility system. The findings show that the effectiveness of the implementation of the cultivated land protection responsibility system results from the synergistic effects of accountability pressure, peer pressure, cultivated land protection, grain production, provincial institutions, municipal institutions, economic development level, and infrastructure. These multiple factors jointly form three configurational paths: "problem-driven type", "resource-driven type", and "pressure-response type". Specifically, the "problem-driven type" responds to higher-level accountability by improving municipal institutional construction; the "resource-driven type" is driven by directly facing higher-level accountability pressure, mobilizing local resources, and issuing municipal policies; the "pressure-response type" responds to higher-level accountability pressure and inter-jurisdictional competitive pressure by formulating municipal institutions and raising the economic development level. The research results not only provide theoretical support for understanding the implementation of the cultivated land protection responsibility system, but also offer practical guidance for local governments to effectively fulfill their cultivated land protection responsibilities.
Urban spatial growth is a dynamic process driven by multiple factors, yet systematic understanding of its evolution in complex-terrain river basins remains limited. In this paper, the kernel density analysis is used to describe the spatial layout of the city, the slope spectrum analysis is used to identify the three-dimensional growth mode of the city, and the growth dynamics are described in combination with the urban spatial expansion parameters. Through the analysis of the urban spatial growth process and mechanism of the Yuanjiang River Basin, the findings reveal that: (1) The urban space of the study area has evolved from the pattern of "living by water and fortifying strategic points" to "water point axis". Driven by socio-economic factors, a distinct "slope-climbing" trend has emerged, leading to gentle-slope growth, moderate-slope extension and steep-slope breakthrough under terrain variations. (2) Under complex terrain, the scale of urban built-up land exhibits unique phased characteristics and typological differentiation. Between 1980 and 2023, the peak values of urban construction land consistently occurred within the slope interval of [1°, 2°). Among the growth types, gentle-slope growth cities are concentrated in areas with slopes below 10°, expanding in concentric or sectoral forms; moderate-slope extension cities are mainly distributed in areas with slopes below 15°, showing continuous belt-shaped morphologies; supported by economic and technological advancements, steep-slope breakthrough cities are expanding to areas above 15° in a layered or leapfrog way. (3) The growth of urban space originates from the nonlinear interaction of natural, economic and social forces. Accordingly, the optimization path is proposed from the perspectives of basin-system governance and terrain adaptation, offering an empirical basis and decision-making reference for the classified governance and differentiated regulation of territorial space in complex terrain regions.
Climate change is intensifying globally, with greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector drawing growing concern. In recent years, the return of migrant workers has become increasingly pronounced, presenting new opportunities for low-carbon transition in agricultural production. Drawing on survey data from 1075 rice farmers in Sichuan province, this study employs two-stage least squares and other econometric methods to empirically examine the impact of returning migrant workers on agricultural carbon emissions and the underlying mechanisms. The findings indicate that the return of migrant workers to farming significantly reduces agricultural carbon emissions. This effect is achieved through three key pathways: enhancing awareness of green production, increasing demand for land transfer, and expanding investment in agricultural production. Moreover, the emission reduction effect is more pronounced among returnees who are voluntary, early-returning, full-time engaged in farming, or located in plain areas. To fully realize the potential of returning migrant workers in agricultural carbon reduction, governments should strengthen guidance and training on green production practices, improve supportive policies for land transfer and agricultural investment, and implement differentiated incentive measures. These strategies would help create favorable production conditions and development opportunities for returnees, encourage more migrant workers to return to farming, and collectively accelerate the low-carbon transition in agricultural production.
In the context of concurrent globalization and climate change, whether agricultural trade openness can serve as an effective pathway for global collaborative agricultural carbon reduction remains a critical research topic. Using panel data from 162 countries spanning 1992 to 2023, this study quantitatively assesses the impact, mechanisms, and spatial spillover effects of agricultural trade openness on agricultural carbon reduction. Results indicate that agricultural trade openness effectively promotes global agricultural carbon reduction; this carbon reduction effect is more pronounced in developed countries, nations with high levels of government intervention, and those with robust digital infrastructure; agricultural trade openness positively contributes to agricultural carbon reduction through scale, technology, and structural effects; and the carbon-reducing impact of agricultural trade openness exhibits spatial spillover effects, indirectly promoting agricultural carbon reduction in economically dependent and geographically proximate countries. Countries should steadfastly advance high-level agricultural trade openness; implement differentiated strategies to maximize scale, technology, and structural effects; and leverage spatial spillover effects to build a global carbon mitigation community.
Accurately identifying the spatial association network characteristics of China's agricultural carbon marginal abatement costs (MAC) and scientifically delineating management zones is of great significance for advancing interregional low-carbon collaborative governance, improving the precision of policy implementation, and accelerating the green and low-carbon transition of agriculture. Using a non-parametric SBM approach, this study estimates China's agricultural carbon MAC for the period 2000-2023, and then integrates a modified gravity model with social network analysis to characterize the structure and driving factors of the spatial association network of agricultural carbon MAC, based on which zoning-based control strategies are proposed. The results show that: (1) China's agricultural carbon MAC exhibits an increasing trend, rising from 734.10 yuan/t in 2000 to 1820.78 yuan/t in 2023. Meanwhile, China's agricultural carbon abatement governance may feature a regional "emissions-cost asymmetry" phenomenon. (2) The spatial association network of agricultural carbon MAC has become increasingly complex, with strengthened interregional linkages and a pronounced core-periphery structure, in which a small number of provincial-level regions occupy the network core. (3) The QAP regression results indicate that differences in cropping structure, agricultural industrial structure, rural human capital, agricultural mechanization level, geographical adjacency, agricultural technology level, and governmental attention to agriculture are the dominant determinants shaping the spatial association network. (4) Following a zoning logic of "cost characteristics-association structure-system attributes", four management zones are identified and corresponding differentiated control strategies are proposed. These findings can help narrow interregional disparities in marginal abatement costs, optimize cross-regional low-carbon collaboration patterns, and promote the coordinated achievement of high-quality agricultural development and China's "dual-carbon" goals.
