Uncovering Xi Jinping's Policy Agenda: Text As Data Approach

Abstract

How many agendas has Xi Jinping put forth and promoted since taking office in 2012, and what are the types of agendas? How much of political attention has each agenda received, and how has the allocation of attention changed over time? We utilize a dataset of presidential statements, speeches, and reports from 2012 to 2022 and employed automated text analysis to identify major topics and terms associated with each topic. Our analysis reveals the identification of about 25 distinct policy agendas across diverse policy domains, with remarkable temporal variations between agendas in terms of the amount of leadership attention. Particularly, we find a significant shift in both the substance and relative weight of policy agendas between the first and second terms of Xi's tenure, indicating his adaptation and responses to changing domestic and foreign policy environments.