Big data reveals differences of topics in China's local "two sessions" and U.S. Congress

BEIJING, March 6 (Xinhua) -- A Big Data analysis by Xinhua News Agency of high-frequency words mentioned by legislatures and media since January 2023 has indicated the vastly different focuses of U.S. and Chinese lawmakers.

Half a month in, the 118th U.S. Congress, convened on Jan. 3, was off to a sluggish start, with lawmakers dwelling on such topics as "Biden," "Trump," "party," "election," "Russia," "China," "military" and "national security."

Data captured from more than 6,350 pieces of information, including reports from media outlets such as The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Guardian, as well as official releases, showed that "Biden" and "Trump" were almost equally important as hot topics, mainly due to a debate over an alleged voter fraud during the 2020 American presidential election.

In comparison, Chinese local "two sessions," which include meetings of its legislature and political advisory body at the local level at same period, discussed intensively "development." Other hot words also included "economy," "people," "health care," "green environment," "education," "COVID-19," "democratic consultation," "rural affairs" and "innovation," according to data captured from 3,170 related media reports in the first half of January.

The tag cloud analysis above has indeed shed some light on what lawmakers in the two countries really care about.

A clear difference is: throughout its lengthy meetings, the U.S. Congress did not mention "people" as much as a key topic, but spent much time on "Russia," "China," "military" and "national security." This stands as another example of Washington's interests in war and inciting conflicts as opposed to China's governing philosophy of prioritizing the people's interests.

Taking another close look at the U.S. Congressional sessions, the survey also finds that those lawmakers hardly stopped attacking each other or seizing each and every opportunity to shift blame. Discussions on issues such as "health care," "education," "green," "tax," "COVID-19," "climate," as well as "Ukraine," "technology," "trade," "energy" and "immigration" all ended with partisan battles.

Though both sides highlighted "economy," U.S. lawmakers seem to concentrate on "energy," "trade" and "tax" more specifically, while Chinese legislators tend to focus more on "innovation," "modernization," "talent and education," "technology," "tourism" and "openness."

U.S. politicians have been using the Russia-Ukraine conflict as a bonanza for hegemonic pursuit when its own people are suffering the burden of high inflation. And in the trade war Washington waged against Beijing, it was the American people that paid for the additional tariffs imposed on the Chinese goods.

Moreover, the tax cuts put in place by the previous U.S. administration have in fact allowed billionaires in the United States to pay less, which has further widened the wealth gap in the country. And the Democratic administration that tended to tax the wealthiest and the biggest corporations, has also failed to fulfill campaign promises.