Abstract: Innovation corridors are an important spatial vehicle for advancing coordinated regional innovation. Their development in China is now moving from initial experimentation to accelerated implementation, and the practical difficulties that have emerged call for systematic theorization and reflection. This paper summarizes two overall features of innovation corridor development in China: the coexistence of top-down and bottom-up driving paths, and spatial forms that vary by scale and type. It then analyzes four major practical dilemmas: conceptual bias, insufficient endogenous momentum, weak overall coordination, and an inadequate evaluation system. On this basis, the paper discusses the theoretical foundations of innovation corridor development from three perspectives: conceptual connotation, spatial organization, and spatial performance. It argues that an innovation corridor should be understood primarily as a cross-boundary innovation ecosystem; that multi-chain synergy and network formation constitute the basic logic of its spatial organization; and that network externalities should be a key dimension in evaluating its spatial performance.