Are China's provincial boundaries misaligned?

Abstract

Using geographic information systems and digital elevation data, we investigate the hypothesis that the imperial Chinese state manipulated provincial borders to weaken the autonomy of Chinese regions. We find that China's present-day provincial borders, whose origin can be traced back to the thirteenth century, are highly misaligned with respect to physiographic features along China's North-South political fault line. Elsewhere, in regions that historically did not pose a fundamental threat to central authority, the degrees of misalignment are considerably lower. We interpret these findings as evidence of strategic manipulation of provincial boundaries. Our findings cast light on the spatial distribution of boundary misalignment and help identify the areas where the socioeconomic ramifications of misalignment—such as recurring cross-border pollution and inter-community disputes—are likely to be present.