Measuring the economic centrality of the Chinese urban network

In recent years, global concern has arisen regarding the significant changes in economic centrality in the Chinese urban system induced by informatisation, globalisation and regionalisation. This study aimed to establish a quantitative method based on a comprehensive analysis of economic centrality in the urban system and to apply this to a case study of the Chinese urban system. This paper, based on the analysis of three key factors – hinterland or large spatial scale; co-operation with a division of urban economy or competitive substitution relationship; and reliance on its own resources or a service network (in the case of an enterprise) – argues that economic centrality in an urban network is complex and is based on the size, network and headquarter economy (HQE) of a city. This paper demonstrates that the increasing importance of the network economy and the HQE does not displace that of a city's size, thus indicating that a city's size is still relevant but no longer a primary factor. The results prove that the methods used in this study permitted an effective analysis of the economic centrality in the Chinese urban system. The authors, therefore, hope that this paper can provide a frame of reference for analysing economic centrality in urban systems of developing countries.