## 8 Discussion and Implications
For the other 29 provinces, the spatial patterns for IT service and e-commerce are similar in that they are concentrated in the eastern coastal provinces and in an east-west flank of provinces extending from Anhui and Zhejiang westward across Hubei and Chongqing to Sichuan and into Tibet. This vast area of over 300 million people has heightened e-commerce and IT services compared to provinces in the north, northwest, and south, a pattern calling for further investigation. The pattern for ICT infrastructure emphasizes, besides the megacity provinces of Beijing and Shanghai, levels in the north, mid-south, and eastern coast of a third to a half of the megacities, which supports the earlier point about infrastructure being spread widely. Tibet, however, has very low infrastructure with the exception of having the nation's highest mobile phone exchange capacity per capita, due to, we argue, Tibet's mobile phone dependence in its vast and rugged landscape. Besides the two megacities and Tianjin, which adjoins Beijing, the pattern for ICT use emphasizes Ningxia, Chongqing, and the east coast. Other than Ningxia, these areas are modern and encouraging for use, such that high per capita use in Ningxia, a province that is economically weak and sparsely populated, is unexplained. Overall, the cluster analysis patterns for four groups of variables portray considerable geographic differences among groups, which can inform the government on where the government could bring forward policy to even out or build specific technological capacities. Based on the findings, this research supports that the national government should consider the following policies. Continue to emphasize science and technology investment, especially in underserved provinces to reduce the gaps in IT services and e-commerce. View household income levels as essential to stimulating provincial ICT and emphasize steps to increase household income in less prosperous provinces. In educational planning for provinces, consider giving emphasis to the metric of number of teachers, as well as the training and quality of teachers. As ICT use gaps narrow, there remain specialized digital divides that will require new education and training with an abundance of appropriately trained teachers as a key factor. Plan to go farther in elevating the technological training and capacities of the non-Han population in provinces. Although this study shows positive associations of minorities with ICT infrastructure, the metrics might be changed from subscriptions, uses, and e-commerce prevalence to raising the quality of ICT participation, ICT teaching/learning, and specialized ICT services and e-services. Central government planners should take into account distinctive spatial \"hot spots\" and \"cold spots\" appropriate for each step in the progression ladder of ICT from access to use, specialized use, and outcomes. Knowing those hot and cold spots along the progression ladder might improve the geographic areas in which to focus specific planning projects. Many of these recommendations for this investigation are in concert with the 13 th and 14 th 5-year plans of the Chinese government [47; 65; 66; 67]. In the 13 th 5-year plan, innovation in science and technology was a leading emphasis, which ranged from strengthening ICT and internet infrastructure to enhanced and widespread training and education, encouraging businesses to conduct R&D, emphasizing resources, and establishing organizations for cutting-edge ICT innovation [66]. The emphasis is national, while specific regions are occasionally stressed. Our findings do support that the dependent variables largely increased significantly during the period of 2015-2020, which nearly matches the plan's period of 2016-2020. One sub-sector that was mostly not statistically significant in growth was IT services (Table 7), a type of purposeful use not specifically mentioned in the plan but clearly of importance in succeeding with large-scale ICT growth.