The Government Work Report (GWR) is an official document format of the Government of the People's Republic of China. Governments at all levels must release this report to the presidium and delegates of local People's Congresses (PC) and Political Consultative Conferences (PCC), commonly known as the "Lianghui" (Two Sessions), held annually. The GWR primarily includes the following components:
- Review and summarize the government's work during the previous year;
- Outline the current scope of government responsibilities and present the overall work plan for the year;
- Address government self-improvement initiatives and key tasks for the year.
This dataset systematically compiles the full texts of official work reports released by central, provincial, and municipal governments in China from 2000 to 2025. The database contains 26 central government reports, 1,097 provincial government reports, and 8,472 municipal government reports, totaling 9,595 original documents. Among these, 129 reports are provided as original PDF files, preserving the official layout; 8,343 reports are available in TXT format, facilitating in-depth analysis and mining. These reports, issued annually at People's Congresses (or their sessions), constitute core policy documents for studying China's political, economic, social, regional development, and policy evolution. They represent the most authoritative primary textual sources.
Unique Features of the Dataset
- Comprehensive Coverage Across Levels and Massive Text Corpus: This repository simultaneously covers central, provincial, and municipal GWRs. Its inclusion of 8,472 municipal reports provides irreplaceable foundational data for conducting regional comparative studies, analyzing local governance models, and researching policy diffusion—addressing the previous gap in systematically accessible municipal-level data.
- Long-term Continuous Tracking: Spanning a quarter-century (2000-2025), this continuous data offers a robust time-series foundation for longitudinal research on China's policy continuity, development strategy evolution (e.g., coordination of Five-Year Plans), socioeconomic transformation trajectories, and shifts in policy attention toward specific issues (e.g., environmental protection, poverty alleviation, technological innovation).
Data Application Value
- Academic Research: Analyze governmental function shifts, governance models, central-local relations, policy formulation and implementation, and official promotion logic (performance narratives); Study regional economic development strategies, industrial policy orientations, fiscal expenditure priorities, economic growth target setting and achievement, and business environment policy evolution; Track ecological civilization objectives, environmental policy intensity, and green development indicator setting and evaluation. Perform large-scale text analysis (leveraging TXT advantages), topic modeling, sentiment analysis, policy attention measurement, and policy diffusion network analysis.
- Business Decision-Making: Gain insights into local industrial development priorities, investment attraction policies, regional market potential, infrastructure planning (transportation, energy, etc.), and policy risk/opportunity assessment; Evaluate local governance capacity, fiscal stability, regional development prospects, and regional support levels for specific industries (e.g., new energy, digital economy).
- Policy Evaluation: Compare policy implementation effectiveness across regions, assess the coherence and achievement of policy goals, and provide historical reference points for policy optimization.
The CnOpenData Chinese Regional Government Work Report Database (2000-2025) stands out due to its authoritative sources (manually compiled from official platforms), three-tier coverage structure, large sample size (9,595 documents in total: 129 PDF + 8,343 TXT), intact original text (PDFs preserve formatting, TXT facilitates analysis), and long-term continuity. It offers a unique and highly reliable textual foundation for academic and industrial research into contemporary China's political-economic landscape, regional development disparities, and policy evolution trends. Whether conducting macro-level strategic analysis or micro-level regional policy studies and large-scale text mining, this database serves as indispensable core support, boasting exceptional academic and practical value.
Time Coverage
- Central Level: 2000-2025
- Provincial Level: 1979-2025
- Municipal Level: 1983-2025
Note: Coverage varies across regions.
Sample Data
Central Government Work Report Text Data
Provincial Government Work Report Text Data
Municipal Government Work Report Text Data
References
- Yu, Yongze, Sun, Pengbo, & Xuan, Ye. (2020). Has Local Government Environmental Goals Constraint Affected Industrial Transformation and Upgrading?. Economic Research Journal, (8). (余泳泽、孙鹏博、宣烨，2020)
- Zhan, Xinyu, & Liu, Wenbin. (2020). Chinese-Style Fiscal Decentralization and Local Economic Growth Target Management: Empirical Evidence from Provincial and Municipal Government Work Reports. Management World, (3). (詹新宇、刘文彬，2020)
- Yu, Yongze, Zhang, Shaohui, & Du, Yunsu. (2019). Local Economic Growth Targets Constraint and Manufacturing Export Technological Sophistication. The Journal of World Economy, (10). (余泳泽、张少辉、杜运苏，2019)
- Deng, Xuelin. (2015). Measuring the Transformation of Chinese Government Functions since the Reform and Opening Up: A Text Analysis of the State Council Government Work Reports (1978-2015). Chinese Public Administration, (8). (邓雪琳，2015)
- Ma, Liang. (2013). Officials’ Promotion Incentives and Government Performance Target Setting: An Empirical Study Using Chinese Provincial Panel Data. Journal of Public Management, (2). (马亮，2013)
Data Update Frequency
Periodic updates