The existence of geo-economic clubs must meet two conditions. First, per capita output within each club converges to a long-term stationary state. Second, per capita output between clubs diverges so that the rich become richer and the poor poorer. This paper proposes a production model to explain club divergence and uses both the unit root test and the decomposition of an inequality index to prove the existence of geo-economic clubs among the Chinese provinces based on real per capita GDP data from 1952 to 1997. The results reflect a serious problem of regional inequality and growth divergence in contemporary China. J. Comp. Econ., September 2001, 29 (3), pp. 466-484. University of Middlesex, London NW4 4BT; and University of Chongqing, China.