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Since the Anthropocene epoch, the geopolitical environment in the South China Sea has become complex due to the involvement of neighboring and extraterritorial powers, and China's maritime rights and interests are constantly being restricted, squeezed and challenged. Starting from the geographical environment, geographical relationship and geographical structure of the natural and social gene subsystems, this paper divides three types of ancient-hereditary toponymic DNA, modern-variant toponymy DNA and modern-complex toponymy DNA from the logical starting point of placenames. A country-specific geo-environmental analysis framework for geographical names in the Nanhai Zhudao. The results showed that: 1) the names of the Nanhai Zhudao (South China Sea islands) were determined through the interaction of natural genetic and social genetic subsystems. 2) Considering cause-effect correlation, the source flow of the names of the Nanhai Zhudao from "owner-other-owner" led to the changes in genetics, mutation, and compounding in the transcription and expression of toponymic genes. For construction, the neighboring or extraterritorial powers used illegal means to build new geopolitical relationships for multilateral competition for maritime resources and maritime rights in the South China Sea. 3) The origin of the names of the Nanhai Zhudao was determined to be an interactive coupling process of spatial and material dominant genes and conceptual and historical evolutionary recessive genes in terms of gene transcription and expression..

The relationship between the geographical environment and international politics is the main concern in geopolitical research. The existing publications were either inclined to environmental determinism, focused on the geographical imagination constructed by subjective discourse, or investigated the elements in the geographical environment as a whole to explore their interaction with politics. Evidently, discussion is lacking on how geo-entities use the spatial (structure) differentiation of geographical environments to act on power space and their geo-setting effects. Combining theoretical construction and case analysis, this study demonstrates the medium properties of geographical environment and its difference in efficiency of transmission power by proposing the concept of "geographical medium," and clarifies the geopolitical functions of different geographical mediums. Taking Ukraine as a case, the spatial practice of geo-entities mining is revealed herein; furthermore, the role of medium properties of the geographical environment in the enactment of power and their geo-setting effects are demonstrated. The results show that: (1) located in the geostrategic intersection zone, the geographical environment of Ukraine has a significant medium property, which provides a spatial intermediary for actors to establish power in Ukraine; (2) the geopolitical functions of various medium elements in Ukraine's geographical environment and their power transmission effectiveness to actors are significantly different. Geographical position and topography are geo-security functions. Natural resources have powerful geo-economic functions. Political parties and nationalities have strong geopolitical functions, while languages and religions have more prominent geocultural functions. The media attributes of natural resources, political parties, nationalities, and religions are strong; by contrast, the media attributes of geographical location and topography are gradually weakening; (3) different geo-entities (interest groups) compete to use the medium properties of the geographical environment to enact power, so that their geo-potential in Ukraine has alternating growth and decline, which intensifies turbulence in Ukraine's geo-setting. Finally, exploring the spatial practice and its effects of power exertion from the perspective of geographical media has enlightening significance for enhancing China's geopolitical influence abroad.

The inherent geo-strategic attributes of the "Belt and Road" initiative are inevitably impacted by geo-risks. Latin America is a critical practice space for the "Belt and Road" initiative. As a natural extension of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, it plays a pivotal role in the "Belt and Road" initiative. However, there is a lack of systematic research on the geo-risks faced by the "Belt and Road" initiative in Latin America. The study aims to measure the geo-risk index faced by the 33 sovereign countries of the "Belt and Road" initiative in Latin America and its spatial differentiation pattern; further, it aims to analyze the driving factors in the spatial differentiation pattern of geo-risk. It seeks to provide support for deepening the cooperation between Chinese domestic enterprises and organizations and Latin American countries, within the framework of the "Belt and Road" initiative. Starting with the international, regional, and domestic scales, a Latin American geo-risk evaluation index system based on the "Belt and Road" was constructed. This study uses the entropy-expert scoring method to determine the weight of each index, evaluates the geo-risks of 33 sovereign countries in Latin America, and uses geographic detectors to accurately identify the driving factor groups in the spatial differentiation pattern of geo-risks in the three major geographical regions of Latin America. The research indicates the following: (1) The geo-risk spatial heterogeneity of Latin America based on the "Belt and Road" is obvious. The geo-risk index, international geo-risk index, regional geo-risk index, political risk, and ecological environmental risk under domestic geo-risks are the highest in South America, followed by Mexico and Central America, and the lowest in the Caribbean; the domestic geo-risk is the highest in Mexico and Central America, followed by South America, and the lowest in the Caribbean; the economic risk is the highest in South America, followed by the Caribbean, while it is the lowest in Mexico and Central America; the highest social risk is in the Caribbean, followed by South America, while it is the lowest in the Caribbean; the risk of bilateral relations is the highest in Mexico and Central America, the second highest in the Caribbean, and the lowest in South America. (2) The influence of each factor group on the geo-risk spatial differentiation pattern in the three major geographical regions is different. The factor groups with a relatively large impact on South America are mainly political risk, international geo-risk, and social risk, while those with a relatively large impact on Mexico and Central America are mainly economic risks, bilateral relationship risks, international geo-risks, political risks, and other factor groups. The factor groups with a relatively large impact on the Caribbean are mainly social risks, international geo-risks, political risks, and bilateral relationship risks. To some extent, the study enriches the geo-risk evaluation system and provides a reference for conducting geo-risk evaluations. Meanwhile, it may also serve as a reference for domestic enterprises and organizations to avoid risks in their cooperation with Latin American countries within the framework of the "Belt and Road" initiative.

Optimizing production–living–ecological space (PLES) can benefit territorial space planning and sustainable development in China. Thus, spatiotemporal evolution characteristics and influence factor analyses are vital. Laiwu, China, was selected as the study area due to its complex terrain and development history. A multitemporal land-use and land-cover classification extracted from Landsat remote-sensing images for 2001–2018 and the self-organizing map method were combined to identify the area's multitemporal PLES. The PLES evolution trajectories were extracted based on the multitemporal PLES. The main factors influencing the PLES spatiotemporal evolution differences were revealed using the random-forest-based factor importance evaluation method. The results showed that changes in the PLES trajectories occupied ∼ 18% of the study area. The ecological space recovery type was mainly observed in previously stable ecological space areas. Changes in the production space expansion (PSE) and living space expansion were mainly agglomerated in the fringe areas of previously stable production–ecological and living space lands. Distance from early built-up areas was the main factor influencing PLES expansion. Ecological space was mainly distributed far away from built-up areas, and living and production spaces were mainly distributed near the built-up areas. Additionally, the slope of the terrain affected the spatial distribution of PLES expansion to a certain extent, and the gross domestic product clearly affected the distribution of PSE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]