Against China’s drive to build world-class ports, and addressing the issue of the separation of competitiveness and network attributes in existing research, this study targets major Chinese ports to construct an integrated evaluation framework. To that effect, port connectivity is measured using four standard network centrality indicators: degree centrality, closeness centrality, betweenness centrality, and eigenvector centrality. Connectivity and competitiveness are evaluated, with competitiveness covering infrastructure, productivity and the economic environment, to identify performance gaps and provide differentiated improvement paths. The results show Shanghai, Ningbo, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou being in the first tier, with connectivity and competitiveness as the core factors influencing port performance. The findings suggest that hub ports should prioritize the growth of international direct routes, while other major ports should strengthen weak infrastructure and pursue differentiated quality upgrading. Local port and maritime authorities are advised to allocate resources based on tiered differentiation, in order to avoid homogeneous competition and the waste of scarce resources. By integrating connectivity and competitiveness into a unified framework, this study offers a more holistic approach to port performance evaluation.
Zhang et al. (Mon,) studied this question.