The economic hierarchy, linkage, and directions between the three northeastern provinces of China and Russian Far East

The economic hierarchy index, economic linkage model, and economic membership model are used to study the economic hierarchy, linkage, and direction of Northeast China and Russian Far East from 2005 to 2020, using the three northeastern provinces of China and 11 Far East federal subjects of Russia as the research objects. The findings are as follows: (1) There is a major polarization effect between developed affluent economic regions and stagnant isolated backward regions in the economic rankings in the 11 Russian Far East federal subjects from 2005 to 2020. (2) The three northeastern provinces of China have more economic linkages with their near Russian neighbors— the east‐oriented Primorsky Territory, the north‐oriented Amur Region, and the north‐oriented Khabarovsk Territory, than with their farther neighbors— the Chukotka Autonomous Area, Magadan Region, and Kamchatka Territory. (3) From 2005 to 2020, the Primorsky Territory has been serving as the focal point of economic linkages between Russian Far East and Northeast China, showing the expanding outward pattern resembling the concentric circles.