Shortage and uneven distribution of water resources in China is becoming a serious constraint of sustainable development of the society and its economy. Being based on the systems theory, this paper discusses the coordinated relationship between the social-economic development, the ecological environment and the water resources of China. A special evaluation model has been developed and applied in order to compute the comprehensive evaluation index of water resource carrying capacity on the basis of selecting available annual data for each province of China, describe the water resource carrying capacity for each province, and, next, evaluate the total resource carrying capacity for China. As obvious from the results, the water resources do not match with the distribution of the population and with the state of economy. Chinese southwestern provinces have a relatively large potential of water carrying capacity. The Yangtze River basin, the Pearl River basin and the eastern coastal areas no longer possess an advantage in the water carrying capacity. Some regions, such as the North China Plain, and Northwestern China, e.g. Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, and Gansu Province experience severe shortage of water resources, since the water supply system is overloaded.

This paper, concerning uneven development in China, empirically analyzes the core-periphery gradient of manufacturing industries across provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities), and assesses the extent to which these provinces have changed in recent years. Since China's reform and opening-up, the spatial structure of the economy has presented a significant core-periphery pattern, the core evidently skewing towards east-coastal areas. With the deepening of market reforms and expansion of globalization, industrial location is gradually in line with the development advantages of provinces. The core provinces specialize in those industries characterized by strong forward and backward linkages, as well as a high consumption ratio, a high degree of increasing returns to scale, and labor or human-capital intensity. However, it is the opposite with regard to peripheral provinces, in addition, energy intensive industries are gradually concentrating in these areas. To a certain degree, the comparative advantage theory and new economic geography identify the underlying forces that determine the spatial distribution of manufacturing industries in China. This paper indicates that the industrialization of regions along different gradients becomes unsynchronized will be a long-term trend. Within a certain period, regions are bound to develop industrial sectors in line with their respective characteristics and development stage. A core-periphery pattern of industries also indicates that industrial development differentials across regions arise because of not only the uneven distribution of industries but also the inconsistent evolving trends of industrial structure for each province.

This study empirically explores the formation of interregional cultural barriers that affect spatial spillovers within the framework of institutional distance based on evidence of regional industrial evolution in China. With dialect as the proxy of culture, this study finds that, first, regional cultural differences will hinder the spatial spillovers of industrial evolution, but the formation of cultural barriers is not only related to culture itself but also closely related to the formal institutional distance between regions. Second, when there is inter‐regional formal institutional distance, formal institutions are insufficient to shape the economic order, and cultural factors with the attributes of informal institutions will become an alternative arrangement to regulate inter‐regional interaction through trust and information mechanisms. The construction of mutual trust based on cultural affinity can reduce the uncertainty of inter‐regional interactions. However, this trust mechanism is regulated by formal institutions and will be significantly weakened with the reduction in formal institutional distance. In addition, information diffusion is easier in regions of cultural homogeneity. However, this information mechanism is often confined to a small social network, and it tends to be weaker as economic society becomes increasingly open and complex.