In 2020, when China was about to complete its first centenary goal of building a well-off society in an all-around way, the outbreak of COVID-19 gravely affected the productive activities and daily lives of its people, posing new challenges to its regional economic development. In the meantime, China noticed that the world was on the brink of a technological revolution and that the booming digital economy became an increasingly important driver for its regional economic transformation. Faced with these changes in domestic and international situations, China sought to create a situation where its economic regions reinforce one another and jointly actualize high-quality development by creatively adopting the “dual-circulation” (domestic circulation & international circulation) development strategy and incorporating this strategy within its new policies regarding the new-era regional economic development.