Most previous studies have focused on the matching pattern of actual arable land and water resources in China. However, due to the lack of valid data about potential arable land resources, the matching pattern of potential arable land and water resources has seldom been investigated. In this paper, based on the potential arable land resources retrieved from remote sensing data, the matching degree of potential arable land resources with water resources in China was evaluated by using two indexes, i.e., water resource per unit area and Gini coefficient. First of all, according to the filter conditions suitable for crop cultivation, the spatial distribution of potential arable land area in China was retrieved from three indexes including DEM, slope and soil type. Then, the water resource per unit area of potential arable land in China were calculated, and the spatial matching degree of the raw water and soil resources in China was evaluated. Finally, we drew the Lorenz curve of water and land resources, calculated the Gini coefficient, and evaluated the overall matching pattern of water resource with potential arable land resource in China. The results showed that: 1) The potential arable land varied greatly in China that the area of potential arable land in northern China was much larger than that in southwestern China and east coastal regions. This indicated that in the future the potential arable land would be mainly located in the northern region. 2) There was a serious mismatching between the water resource and potential arable land resource in China. 3) The matching degree of water resource with potential arable land resource was extremely poor. About 80% of water resource served less than 23% of potential arable land in China. The Gini coefficient of water resource with arable land resource which was 0.712 in the whole country, was much higher than that of agricultural water use with farmland resources, which was 0.566. The matching degree of agricultural water and farmland resource was better than that of potential arable land and water resource, which was the result of human activities. This indicated that the Gini coefficient, calculated by the potential arable land without considering the water resource restriction, was much more suitable for expressing the matching degree of water and land resources. This study can provide scientific basis for us to take effective measures to adapt to the background matching pattern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]