Public Perception on “Hong Kong and Macao Vehicles Going North”: Text Mining on Sina Weibo

To promote the integration and development of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, the Chinese Government has introduced the policy “Hong Kong and Macao vehicles going north”. The public opinions are one of the bases for evaluating and optimizing policy. Sina Weibo is the main social media for Chinese to express their opinions. We collected Weibo posts related to the policy for sentiment analysis and topic modeling, and the results show that public sentiment is generally positive. There are differences in sentiment and topics between official and individuals. In terms of sentiment, official posts are more positive than individuals. In terms of topics, official posts mainly announce policy measures and report policy status. Individual posts focus on personal experience and social effects. To further understand the individual's feelings, individual posts were analyzed based on the social exchange theory. The results show that in terms of benefits, individuals are mainly concerned with the convenience of life, and in terms of costs, they are mainly concerned with social losses. Convenience of life is mainly reflected in the using of cars, consumption, traveling, and customs clearance. Social losses are mainly reflected in the risks caused by Hong Kong and Macau vehicles, the unfairness caused by the inequality of the three regions, and the discomfort of crowding public resources. These findings will help in the evaluation and improvement of the policy.