Research on the spatial differentiation characteristics and classification strategies of China's intangible cultural heritage protection capability

China is a vast country with significant disparities in economic development, resource endowment, and policy implementation, leading to uneven comprehensive capacities for intangible cultural heritage (ICH) protection across regions. The "one-size-fits-all" protection strategy fails to adapt to local contexts and cannot effectively guarantee the preservation and transmission of ICH. Therefore, it is essential to formulate region-specific ICH protection strategies based on local characteristics and needs. Drawing on cultural ecology and sustainable development theories, this study selects 336 administrative regions as research units and constructs a comprehensive evaluation index system for ICH protection capacity from four dimensions: economic development, tourism resources and infrastructure, socio-cultural environment, and policy and regulatory frameworks. Employing range standardization, entropy weight method, and K-means clustering, this research conducts a multi-level analysis of ICH protection capacities and spatial distribution patterns at both cultural district and city levels, identifying distinct typologies of ICH protection zones with shared characteristics. Findings indicate that the Wuyue Cultural District demonstrates the highest average protection capacity, while eastern cultural districts have emerged as ICH protection hubs due to their economic and policy advantages. Conversely, most western and remote regions face challenges stemming from underdeveloped infrastructure and insufficient policy implementation. At the city level, a gradient distribution pattern centered on core cities is observed, yielding five typologies of ICH protection zones: cultural-leading core type, cultural-tourism collaborative development type, eco-cultural tourism potential type, balanced development general type, and development-warning type. Based on these findings, the study proposes implementing classified guidance for ICH protection, encouraging regions to leverage their comparative advantages while addressing weakness. At the national level, dynamic regulatory mechanisms and cross-regional coordination platforms should be established to foster a virtuous cycle system of "protection-transmission-utilization-feedback," thereby achieving mutual empowerment between ICH conservation and regional economic revitalization.