Industrial Transfer Research Articles

Impacts of Receiving International Industrial Transfer on China's Air Quality and Health Exceed Those of Export Trade.

Benefiting from international economic cooperation on income, technology diffusion, and employment, China also suffers its environmental and health impacts, from both international trade (IT), as is now widely understood, and international industrial transfer (IIT), which has been largely unrecognized. Here, we develop a comprehensive framework to estimate the impacts of exporting IT and receiving IIT. We find that China's emissions of CO2 and almost all air pollutants associated with IIT and IT together grew after 1997 but then declined after 2010, with the peak shares of national total emissions ranging 18-31% for different species. These sources further accounted for 3.8% of nationwide PM2.5 concentrations and 94,610 (76,000-112,040) premature deaths in 2012, and the values declined to 2.6% and 67,370 (52,390-81,810), respectively, for 2017. Separated, the contribution of IIT to those impacts was more than twice that of IT. Scenario analyses suggest that improving emission controls in its less-developed regions would effectively reduce the impact of economic globalization, but such a benefit could be largely offset by strengthened international economic cooperation. The outcomes provide a scientific basis for adjusting China's strategic roles in the international distribution of industrial production and its formulation of relevant environmental policies from a comprehensive perspective.

A novel cross-disciplinary approach for estimating spatio-temporal pattern and drivers of pollution transfer caused by industrial transfer processes

Food security is the basic requirement for human health and social stability. However, food pollution risk caused by economic development models, e.g., industrial transfer, is poorly understood. In this study, we developed and tested a point-area-domain cross-disciplinary approach to quantitatively estimate patterns and processes of soil and rice heavy metal (Pb, Hg and Cd) pollution risk caused by the fourth global industrial transfer process in CG Province of China. Our results indicate that the industrial transfer policy caused obvious cross-regional soil Pb, Hg and Cd pollution and industrial transfer. Industrial transfer process largely exacerbated rice Hg pollution risk in industrial transfer undertaking areas, mainly in the west (29.18%), periphery (28.38%) and south (25.88%) regions. The concentration increase in the west ranged from 0.0001 to 0.0775 mg/kg (mean±S.D. 0.00327 ± 0.00447, median 0.0026 mg/kg). The most important industries regarding rice Hg pollution in industrial transfer undertaking areas included special equipment (26.53%)>metal processing (11.93%)>communication equipment (11.25%)>chemical product (10.90%)> electrical machinery and equipment (9.59%). The pollution transfer was mainly attributed to environmental regulations, factor endowment and industrial structure. Our study highlights the importance for the integration of industrial transfer into food security and poverty reduction plans in the developing regions. Environmental implicationFood security is the basic requirement for human health and social stability. However, food pollution risk caused by economic development models, e.g., industrial transfer, is poorly understood. We developed and tested a point-area-domain cross-disciplinary approach to quantitatively estimate patterns and processes of soil and rice heavy metal pollution risk caused by the fourth global industrial transfer process. Our results suggest that industrial transfer process largely exacerbated soil and rice Hg pollution risk in the southeast coastal areas of China. Our study highlights the importance for the integration of industrial transfer into food security strategies in developing countries.

Research on the Mechanism and Development Trend of China's

Industrial transfer, as a significant economic phenomenon occurring during the process of globalization, has had a profound and far-reaching impact on China's economy since the beginning of the reform and opening-up. In recent years, the substantial relocation of industries from China has caused some concerns about economic downturn. This paper explores the influencing mechanisms of industrial transfer and the development trends of China's industrial transfer. Based on the two major factors affecting the industrial transfer process—real costs for enterprises and local administrative elements—the paper proposes suggestions for how the government and enterprises can maximize economic benefits through the cross-space flow of economic factors facilitated by industrial transfer. Ultimately, industrial transfer optimizes the regional development layout, accelerates the updating and iteration of industrial technology, and achieves high-quality economic development.

The impact of the digital economy on inter-city carbon transfer in China using the life cycle assessment model

The haven paradise hypothesis has been widely supported in the international carbon transfer, but there is still a lack of inter-city evidence. The emergence of the digital economy in recent years has introduced unprecedented opportunities and challenges for carbon emissions reduction and carbon transfer. As the world’s largest carbon emitter and a major player in the digital economy, exploring whether the pollution haven hypothesis exists among cities in China and how the digital economy affects inter-city carbon transfer is crucial for countries to optimize their domestic carbon reduction structures. To this end, this paper employs the 2012 and 2015 Chinese Urban Household Survey data alongside input-output tables based on the life cycle assessment method to quantify the inter-city carbon transfer. In addition, the impact and mechanisms of the digital economy on inter-city carbon transfer are explored using the two-way fixed effects model. The results show that 54% of Chinese cities’ carbon emissions come from outside, with third-tier cities bearing high carbon transfer pressures, indicating the presence of the pollution haven hypothesis. The digital economy exacerbates inter-city carbon transfer by promoting market integration and facilitating industrial transfer, and it mainly promotes the transfer of high-intensity carbon emissions to third-tier cities. Considering carbon emission reduction targets, mandatory environmental regulations have strengthened the effect of the digital economy on carbon transfer. Therefore, the Chinese government needs to properly address carbon transfer by improving the collaborative carbon reduction system, enhancing carbon emission reduction efficiency, and accelerating the equitable progress of the digital economy.

A unified heat transfer model for gas-liquid two-phase mixing process in a rectangular channel based on steady status identification

Gas-liquid two-phase flow in rectangular channels involves thermal energy, chemical industry, and other fields. However, it is difficult to identify steady flow status and unify heat transfer model owing to the changeable mixing process and the complex industrial environment. In this work, the time series decomposition technique (i.e., variational mode decomposition) and neural network algorithm (i.e., long short-term memory) are employed to identify the steady flow pattern of the gas-liquid mixing process in vertical rectangular channels. The heat transfer model of a single bubble in a rectangular channel is established based on the geometrical characteristics of the bubble. Results demonstrate that a 30-dimensional feature vector is extracted from the conductivity time series for flow pattern recognition. The feature parameters of each intrinsic mode function are period, minimum, maximum, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis. Average accuracy of the new model is 94.58% with the highest at 95.83% and the proposed new model improves the recognition accuracy of steady flow pattern by 2.54–6.93% compared with other models adopted in this work. The precision of the new hybrid model is the highest while the number of decomposition layers for the conductivity time series is 5 and the bubble flow exhibits the largest heat transfer area under the same conditions. The proposed hybrid model can be used to enhance the identification accuracy of bubble flow in rectangular channels, contributing to curtailing unneeded flow patterns in industrial processes. The heat transfer model of a single bubble can provide a unified and convenient method for calculating industrial heat transfer. These findings provide a useful guideline for engineering design and energy-saving in the fields of thermal energy and chemical industry.

Analysis and Enlightenment of the Reasons for Why China Can Get Rid of the Poverty Trap

In 2020, China successfully won the Tough Battle Against Poverty, and eliminated all absolute poverty in the society. China becomes the first developing country that completes the poverty reduction goal of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, and makes great contributions to the world poverty reduction. Most importantly, China escaped the Poverty Trap. According to the comparison between China and other countries that fall into the Poverty Trap, it is found that the environment for technological development, the potential economic growth, and the role of becoming the fourth "world factory" and the fourth international industrial transfer are all one of the factors that China can get out of the Poverty Trap. These factors ensure that Chinese economy can grow rapidly and also explain why China can avoid the Poverty Trap. Therefore, China should continue to vigorously develop its economy and technology to prevent poor households from returning to poverty and eliminate relatively poor populations.

System-Level Fault Diagnosis for an Industrial Wafer Transfer Robot with Multi-Component Failure Modes

In the manufacturing industry, robots are constantly operated at high speed, which degrades their performance by the degradation of internal components, eventually reaching failure. To address this issue, a framework for system-level fault diagnosis is proposed, which consists of extracting useful features from the motor control signal acquired during the operation, diagnosing the current health of each component using the features, and estimating the associated degradation in the robot system’s performance. Finally, a maintenance strategy is determined by evaluating how well the system performance is restored by the replacement of each component. The framework is demonstrated using the example of a wafer transfer robot in the semiconductor industry, in which the robot is operated under faults with various severities for two critical components: the harmonic drive and the timing belt. Features are extracted for the motor signal using wavelet packet decomposition, followed by feature selection by considering the trendability and separability of the fault severity. An artificial neural network model and Gaussian process regression are employed for the diagnosis of the components’ health and the system’s performance, respectively.

Soret-Dufour Mechanisms on Unsteady Boundary Layer Flow of Tangent Hyperbolic and Walters-B Nanoliquid

Thermal radiation, chemical reaction, and Soret-Dufour produce effects on the tangential hyperbolic and waters-B nanoliquid unsteady flow which are explored in this work due to their applications in oil and gas industry, microfluidics, aerospace and heat transfer enhancement. With the special interests in the combined Joule heating as well as viscous dissipation, the flow equations is developed to model the transport of species and thermal energy. By utilising the non-dimensional similarity variables, the equations are reduced to their dimensionless PDE form. Using the spectrum relaxation technique (SRM), the new PDES is numerically solved. The Gauss-Seidel SOR method is used to decouple and linearize equation systems. The study is carried out by investigating the graphs as flow parameters vary. It was found that the Brownian motion parameter enhances the rate of heat transfer. Furthermore, by reducing the hydrodynamic boundary layer, the introduction of magnetism was observed to decrease the speed of fluid motion.

The Study of Carbon Neutralization Effects with Green Credit: Evidence from a Panel Data Analysis for Interprovinces in China

Giving full play to carbon emission reduction of green credits is essential to achieve carbon neutrality. According to low-carbon pilot policies and the condition of industrial transfer, this paper first sorts those provinces into different research zones. The zones are as follows: (Ⅰ) the first and second batch of low-carbon municipalities and the first batch of pilot provinces (L1) and other provinces (L2) and (Ⅱ) strong industry transfer-out zone (STR), weak industry transfer-out zone (WTR), and industrial transfer-in area (TIR). Then, we employ a dynamic panel data model and systematic GMM (SYS-GMM) approach to empirically test the impact of green credit and nongreen credit on carbon emissions. Further, this paper analyzes how to coordinate two types of credits to achieve carbon neutrality. The results show that, first, at the national level, the nexus of green credit and carbon emissions with an inverted U-shaped curve and the current impact of green credit is still in the first half of the inverted U-shaped stage. The achievement of carbon neutrality is associated with the ratio structure of green credit to nongreen credit and the scale of green credit. Second, the achievement of carbon neutrality is with regional heterogeneity. The achievement of carbon neutrality is associated with the scale of green credit in L2 and TIR, but also with the ratio structure of nongreen credit to green credit in L2 and STR. However, the carbon neutralization effects with green credit are insignificant in L1 WTR. Finally, based on those conclusions, this paper puts forwards some suggestions to provide references for the policy formulation of green credits and carbon neutrality.

The Effect of Industrial Agglomeration on Agricultural Green Production Efficiency: Evidence from China

Understanding how industrial agglomeration affects agricultural green production efficiency is essential for green agricultural development. This study uses the super-efficient Epsilon-Based Measure (EBM) model and Global Malmquist–Luenberger (GML) index to measure and analyze the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics and core sources of dynamics of agricultural green production efficiency in China by using panel data from 30 Chinese provinces from 2006 to 2020. It also empirically investigates the relationships between industrial agglomeration, land transfer, and agricultural production efficiency. By using fixed, intermediary, and threshold effect models, the internal links between industrial agglomeration, land transfer, and agricultural green production efficiency are examined. The findings indicate the following. (1) The green production efficiency of Chinese agriculture exhibits the regional characteristics of being “high in the west and low in the east, high in the south and low in the north” in terms of space; in terms of time, the overall trend is that green production technology efficiency is growing, with an average annual growth rate of 11.45%, and the growth primarily depends on the “single-track drive” of green technological progress. (2) Industrial agglomeration significantly affects agricultural green production efficiency, green technology efficiency, and green technology change; the corresponding coefficient values are 0.115, 0.093, and 0.022. (3) According to the mechanism-of-action results, land transfer mediates the effects of industrial agglomeration on agricultural green production efficiency, green technology efficiency, and green technology change. These effects have effect values of 28.48%, 27.91%, and 47.75%, respectively. (4) The threshold effect’s findings demonstrate a double threshold effect of industrial agglomeration on the green production efficiency of agriculture in terms of land transfer, with threshold values of 1.468 and 3.891, respectively. As a result, this study suggests adhering to the idea of synergistic development, promoting agricultural green development, strengthening the development of industrial agglomerations, promoting the quality and efficiency of industry, improving land-transfer mechanisms, and placing a focus on resource efficiency improvements, as well as other policy recommendations.

The relationship between industrial transfer parks and county economic growth: Evidence from Guangdong Province, China

The Chinese government has taken the initiative to establish industrial transfer parks (ITPs), which are essential for the rational spatial allocation of production factors and for optimizing and upgrading the industrial structures to promote coordinated regional development. However, the literature does not offer a definitive conclusion on the relationship between the establishment of ITPs and the impacts of regional economic development. Focusing on Guangdong Province, this study analyzed panel data obtained from 57 counties between 2002 and 2019 and applied the staggered difference-in-differences (DID) method to systematically test the net effect of ITPs on county economic development. The results showed that (1) ITPs have induced a 1.70% increase in economic development across the county; (2) ITPs have impacted economic growth in eastern Guangdong, followed by western Guangdong, while no significant impacts were observed in the northern mountainous areas. (3) Additionally, as ITPs have been approved for establishment over time, the impact on economic development has increased. (4) The establishment of ITPs drives the evolution of county economic development through the three paths of industrial agglomeration, factor moderating, and administrative intervention. These findings can provide a reference for industrial transfer and regional coordinated development strategies. Emphasizing the active role of local governments in guiding the market is essential. Meanwhile, it is necessary to avoid excessive administrative intervention, areas undertaking industrial transfers should prioritize improving their industrial infrastructure support capabilities and establishing a long-term sustainable development mechanism for industrial transfer, integration, and revitalization.

Analysis on spatial structure characteristics and influencing factors of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region MICE cities.

Industrial upgrading and transfer is one of the three key areas in the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region. Meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) are important means of promoting industrial upgrading. Urban MICE industry, as an important carrier of event activities, become an important gripper for coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region. City exhibition space structure plays an dominant role in regional economic development, and it will greatly promote smooth implementation of the coordinated development strategy of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region. In this paper, 13 prefecture-level cities in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei were selected as research objects, and the data from 2012 to 2018 were selected to establish a gravity model of the attractiveness of MICE cities. With the help of UCINET software, the network density, centrality, cohesive subgroup and core-edge of nodes researches were obtained to analyze the spatial structure characteristics of the attractiveness of MICE cities in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region. The influencing factors of the spatial characteristics of MICE city attractiveness are analyzed by using geographically weighted regression model. The results show that: (1) Beijing, as the overall core area, act as a prominent role. Beijing strengthens the attraction to the superior resources of the surrounding areas, but the network of MICE cities tends to be unbalanced. (2) Overall space forms a subgroup from a single independent subgroup to a subgroup that is spatially separated from each other and acts as an intermediary channel to connect each other, and the core region decreases from 3 to 2. Langfang was removed from the list, leaving Beijing and Tianjin as the core. (3) The influence of supporting facilities, urban environment and population factors on the MICE city attractiveness of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region is increasing gradually. The influence of tourism development level on the MICE city attractiveness of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region is decreasing gradually. The influence of economic development level and Internet development level on the MICE city attractiveness of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region remains unchanged.

Uncovering the key mechanisms of differentiated carbon neutrality policy on cross-regional transfer of high-carbon industries in China

The carbon peaking and carbon neutrality strategy have become China's national strategy. Given the significant regional differences in China, the Chinese government has proposed “one policy for one province” guiding principle for carbon emission reduction. This study takes Tianjin as a representative of “a province-level city with high degree of industrialization and prominent emerging industries”, and Gansu Province a representative of “a province with a low degree of industrialization but the potential for green energy”. Using the integrated modeling frameworkthis study conducts a comparative analysis of the hidden flows generated by inter-provincial inward and outward transfers and extracts a feasible model for carbon neutrality transformation. The study also focuses on carbon emission, GDP changes, carbon hidden flow change in trade and carbon emission reduction path. By comparing the results, this study identifies the mechanism of the industrial spillover effect and carbon emission spillover effect between the two regions. Then it concludes the “cross-regional transfer mode of high-carbon industries” of industrial carbon neutral transformation: more carbon emission allowances are allocated to developing regions represented by Gansu Province, implement regionally differentiated carbon emission reduction constraint policies, and achieve industrial spatial transfer through more inter-provincial transfer. The paper found that in implementing a regionally differentiated carbon emission reduction constraint policy (DE scenario), the transfer of high-carbon industries can achieve the “superposition effect” through inter-provincial transfer. Accordingly, three carbon policy mechanisms for cross-regional transfer of high-carbon industries are summarized.

Real-Time Imaging and Quantitative Evolution for Pyrolysis of Carbon Dots-Encapsulated Metal-Organic Frameworks at the Nanoscale by In Situ Environmental Transmission Electron Microscopy.

The pyrolysis of metal-organic frameworks (MOF) has been widely used approach to generate hierarchical structures with the corresponding metal, metal carbide, or metal oxide nanoparticles embedded in a porous carbon matrix with a high specific surface area for industrial catalysis, energy storage and transfer, etc. MOF-derived heterogeneous catalysts can be constructed by the encapsulation of carbon dots (CDs) with plenty of hydroxyl and amine groups to enhance the performance of the final product. Controlled formation of metallic carbon structures at the nanoscale, especially matter cycling and transformation on the nanoscale interface, is important for the production of industrial catalysts as well as the research of materials science and engineering progress. However, the mass transfer at the nanoscale during the processing of MOF pyrolysis remains less understood due to the lack of direct observation. Herein, by using in situ environmental transmission electron microscopy, real-time imaging and quantitative evolution of porous carbon decorated with metal species by the pyrolysis of CDs-encapsulated zeolitic imidazolate framework-67 are achieved. The migration of Co, the flow of aggregates, and the growth of carbon nanotubes observed in the nanoscale pyrolysis laboratory working at 600 °C with an air atmosphere are present. Experimental studies based on reduction and oxidation reaction models reveal that the synergistic effect between doped graphite nitrogen and confined Co nanoparticles is beneficial for boosting catalytic performance.

Inter-regional cooperation in the transfers of energy-intensive industry: An evolutionary game approach

Transferring industries to clean energy-producing regions and improving energy efficiency are feasible and important strategies for regional control of energy consumption in energy-intensive industries of energy-rich regions. This paper constructs a three-party evolutionary game model including governments of transferred-in and -out regions, and energy-intensive enterprises. This model explores the cooperation mechanism of multi-players in the inter-regional transfer of energy-intensive industries under different policies and circumstances. The results are as follows. (1) Some certain conditions create a stable equilibrium state in which governments of transferred-in and -out regions choose a cooperative strategy, and the energy-intensive enterprises choose a transfer strategy. (2) Costs are key factors influencing the transfer of energy-intensive enterprises. Also, transferred-in regions should optimize their business environment and formulate their acceptance strategy based on their current energy consumption constraint and clean energy reserve situation. (3) The policy support from governments of transferred-in and -out regions can promote the orderly transfer of energy-intensive enterprises. The findings of this paper can provide a reference to formulate policies for the transfer of energy-intensive enterprises.

Evaluating the suitability of underground space development based on social and economic factors

ABSTRACT Ma’anshan City, located in the Yangtze River Delta region, is a demonstration city for handling the industrial transfer of the Nanjing, Hefei, and Wanjiang Metropolitan Areas in China. Developing and utilizing underground space can effectively alleviate the land scarcity issue in urban development. The suitability evaluation of underground space development in Ma’anshan City offers valuable information support for the economic and efficient use of land resources. Drawing on POI, night light radiance, and population data, this study selects six indices, including POI kernel density, road node connection rate, night light radiance in the most recent year, change amplitude of night light radiance over the years, population density in the most recent year, and change amplitude of population density over the years. The study conducts a comparative analysis of the suitability of underground space development in Ma’anshan City using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the Combination Weight Method. Comparing the results of AHP and Combination Weight Method reveals that the latter can identify a more extensive range of highly suitable development zones than the former. This study provides an effective method for evaluating the suitability of underground space development in urban planning, which contributes to promoting sustainable urban development.

A Study on the Spatial Distribution and Gradient Transfer of Atmospheric Pollution Intensive Industries Such as the Thermal Power Industry in Hebei Province

Owing to a long-term, extensive development model and inadequate industrial development planning, cases of atmospheric environment pollution frequently occur in Hebei province. By using such approaches as the Spatial Gini Coefficient, the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index and location entropy, this paper analyzes the spatial-distribution characteristics of atmospheric pollution-intensive industries such as the thermal power industry in Hebei province. As shown, atmospheric pollution-intensive industries, such as the thermal power industry in Hebei province, excessively cluster. As industrial agglomeration continuously intensifies, the spatial imbalance becomes increasingly prominent. Taking the number of days with excellent air quality as a benchmark, this paper divides prefecture-level cities of Hebei province into four types of industrial management and designs targeted strategies for the optimization of atmospheric pollution-intensive industries, such as the thermal power industry. In terms of policies, Type I and Type II cities are advised to strengthen the transfer of atmospheric pollution-intensive industries such as the thermal power industry, and Type III and Type IV cities are advised to improve capacities in atmospheric self-purification and green-technology innovation in a bid to help government departments to scientifically manage atmospheric pollution-intensive industries such as the thermal power industry.

Research on the Industrial Transfer from the Yangtze River Delta to Linyi City based on the Industrial Gradient Coefficient

The Yangtze River Delta region, represented by Shanghai, Zhejiang and Jiangsu, has grown as one of the most developed regions in China based on the acceptance of international industrial transfer. However, along with the rising factor costs, increasing environmental pressure and resource constraints, it has become a general trend to upgrade industrial structure, give priority to intensive, high technology and high value-added industries, some labor-intensive and capital-intensive industries is moved to other regions in the country. As the southern gate of Shandong Province, Linyi City is close to the Yangtze River Delta, with a common history, and complementary resources, and is an important hub connecting the north and south economies. It should take full advantage of its location, natural resources and labor resources to actively undertake the industrial transfer of the Yangtze River Delta and participate in the regional economic cooperation and development of the Yangtze River Delta. The difference in the development level between the transferring and taking over places is a prerequisite for industrial transfer, which can be measured by the industrial gradient coefficient, which shows the different levels of industrial gradients to determine the transferring industries in the Yangtze River Delta region; in addition, the relative industrial gradient coefficient is introduced to determine the industries Linyi can take over.

The Sustainability of Regional Innovation in China: Insights from Regional Innovation Values and Their Spatial Distribution

As the continuous improvement of the quality of innovation becomes increasingly significant for balanced regional development in China, it is critical to provide insights into the sustainability of regional innovation in China from the viewpoint of value. This study estimates regional innovation values based on an improved regional innovation value model incorporating patent values and a regional innovation indicator system. Data for invention patents as well as regional innovation indicators in 282 cities from 1987 to 2019 in China are utilized for estimation. Based on the estimated parameters and Monte Carlo simulation, city-level innovation values are calculated as benchmarks, along with provincial and regional innovation values, to analyze the patterns of the spatial distribution and agglomeration of regional innovation value. The findings are as follows. (1) The regional innovation value model provides an effective way to measure regional innovation in terms of value. (2) The regional innovation values are unevenly distributed; cities with higher innovation values are clustered in Eastern China, while most other cities have much lower innovation values. (3) The innovation values in Eastern China are notably higher, and the differences in innovation values between Eastern China and other regions are large and show a trend of first widening and then narrowing during the sample period. (4) The sustainability of regional innovation is not widely achieved, since highly concentrated innovation value is found in only a few regions in the eastern coastal areas. These findings suggest that promoting China’s innovation capacity and the sustainable development of technological innovation requires continually implementing innovation-driven development strategies, cultivating high-value innovation, optimizing industrial transfer, improving the layout of the national research infrastructure, giving full play to spatial spillover effects, and promoting interregional innovation information exchange in order to achieve the balanced and sustainable development of regional innovation.

Digital economy, industrial transformation and upgrading, and spatial transfer of carbon emissions: The paths for low-carbon transformation of Chinese cities

Under the background of increasingly fierce global economic competition and severe climate change, seeking new soft resource input is the key for China to break through the bottleneck of economic transformation. Based on the data from 278 Chinese cities from 2006 to 2019, multi-dimensional empirical tests were conducted to investigate the relationship between digital economy (DE) and spatial transfer of carbon emissions (CE). The results show that DE directly reduced CE. Mechanism analysis shows that DE reduced CE through local industrial transformation and upgrading (ITU). Spatial analysis shows that DE reduced local CE while aggravating neighboring CE. The spatial transfer of CE was attributed to the fact that when DE promoted the local ITU, it induced the transfer of the backward and polluting industries to neighboring regions, resulting in the spatial transfer of CE. Moreover, the spatial transfer effect of CE was maximum at 200 km. However, in recent years, rapid DE development has weakened the spatial transfer effect of CE. The results can provide insights into understanding the carbon refuge effect of industrial transfer in China in the context of DE and facilitate formulating appropriate industrial policies to promote inter-regional carbon reduction synergy. Thus, this study can provide a theoretical reference for achieving the dual-carbon target of China and the green economic recovery of other developing countries.