Regional economic vulnerability based on investment and financing network attacks

Amidst challenges like industrial shifts, financial systemic risks, and COVID-19 impacts, assessing China's regional economic vulnerability is crucial for sustainable growth. Traditional methods, using static economic indicators, fail to capture the dynamic nature and interconnectedness of regional economic vulnerabilities. Our study introduces a dynamic framework, grounded in complex network attacking and optimizing theory, to analyze regional economic vulnerability through the lens of cross-regional investment and financing ties. We utilize inter-company investment and financing data from Qichacha to build a regional economic network, simulating disturbances and evaluating the impact of various attack strategies on network performance. The analysis shows that targeting major cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen maximizes economic vulnerability. Conversely, the best strategy to bolster regional resilience involves enhancing connections with smaller, often overlooked cities, which is vital for overall economic robustness. To achieve sustainable and coordinated regional economic development, the study advocates for the simultaneous stabilization of economic linkages in core urban agglomerations, while enhancing the robustness of the regional economy by encouraging investment in small and medium-sized enterprises in small towns in remote areas in the network.