The border area plays a key role in national security and China's opening to the outside world. In the context of the Belt and Road Initiative and national strategy of opening up, the border area is embracing important development opportunities. The geo-economy serves as an important field of geopolitics. It is helpful to enrich the study of border geography by making use of China's special national conditions and the complex geographical environment of the border. The border is characterized by multi-scale, multi-feature, evolutionary and a variety of perspectives. The border geographical research should focus more on geopolitics, spatial structure and sustainable development of the border, as well as evolution of governance structure. This paper reveals the sustainable development path of border areas, which is different from those of coastal and inland development, enriches the border research in the perspective of geo-economics, as well as provides scientific and technological support for the development of policy making in China's border areas.

geo-economics  /  border geography  /  research framework  /  the Belt and Road Initiative