The concept of apublic energy fieldis central to public administration discourse theory. Its main idea is the facilitation of dialog between government and the public, on the basis of equality, to construct a public policy consensus. In contemporary society, social media provides new and distinctive channels for such interactions. Social media can, therefore, be conceived as a novel type ofpublic energy field. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, interactions between the Chinese government and the Chinese public (whether located in China or abroad) have been acutely reflected through WeChat official accounts. This article focuses on the COVID-19 pandemic and, through social media text mining and processing, analyzes the text topics and emotions covered. Basic principles of discourse validity, regarding this public energy field and two guarantee conditions, are applied to analyze the information exchange and dialog between the government and the public on COVID-19 through WeChat official accounts. It was found that the government’s WeChat official accounts have not yet formed a harmonious dialog space to balance the public energy field, and that the interaction between the government and the public has to be improved. The government’s social discourse had a significant influence on the public’s social discourse. Using text analysis, the study found that the government has published information on 11 topics related to the prevention and control of the pandemic. It can be argued that the public energyfieldpresented by both the government and the public effectively portrayed and reflected the actual situation of the pandemic in China.

This article addresses whether the promotion of China’s provincial leadership can be explained through economic growth or alternative factors (experience, education or having previously held a central government post). We use promotion definitions, based on official administrative rankings and a more accurate reflection of political-governmental power relationships, and five econometric models. Analysis is also located within specific scholarship about promotion in the Chinese bureaucracy, bureaucratic cultures and transitions from socialism. Findings suggested some support for the idea that economic growth records affected promotion in terms of the second definition and additional evidence to imply impacts from non-economic factors.