2025 Volume 28 Pages 23-34
This study aims to visualize the policy characteristics and evolution of China’s Western Development Strategy using text mining techniques. A total of 1,466 policy documents issued by central and local governments between 2000 and 2023 were analyzed through frequency analysis, co-occurrence network analysis, and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA). The results show that in the first stage (2000–2004), the strategy primarily focused on infrastructure development and economic growth, with notable emphasis on preferential measures for enterprises and the promotion of opening-up. The second stage (2005–2009) emphasized institutional development, including regional cooperation, institutional reform, and the promotion of socialist principles. In the third stage (2010–2023), attention shifted toward the development of soft infrastructure, such as human resource cultivation and public service enhancement, along with the promotion of the digital economy, fostering of emerging industries, institutionalized environmental protection policies, and strengthening of international cooperation—elements often overlooked in previous qualitative studies. Across all periods, political stability and national integration consistently accompanied economic development. Future research directions include incorporating analyses of public opinion and social responses, verifying the alignment between policy priorities and actual outcomes using socio-economic statistics, and applying dynamic analytical methods such as HDP-LDA to capture the temporal evolution of policies.
