Towards a 'synergy' of text mining and critical discourse analysis: a corpus-assisted discourse study of imagining China in Hong Kong political discourse.

This study focuses on analyzing how three former Chief Executives (CEs) of Hong Kong—Chee-hwa Tung (1997–2005), Donald Tsang (2005–2012), and Chun-ying Leung (2012–2017)—discursively construct Hong Kong's relations to China in their public English speeches during the first two decades after the 1997 handover. Employing a corpus-assisted discourse study (CADS) approach that integrates text mining via the KH Coder software with the discourse-historical approach (DHA) of critical discourse analysis (CDA), the research identifies differences in thematic focus, discursive strategies, and linguistic metaphors among the three CEs. Tung emphasizes Hong Kong as a unidirectional "gateway" to China and highlights potential "opportunities," reflecting early uncertainties post-handover; Tsang foregrounds Hong Kong's premier international status as a "gateway" and stresses actual "advantages," particularly economic ties like CEPA; Leung shifts to the metaphor of Hong Kong as a bidirectional "super-connector," emphasizing political advantages linked to "One Country, Two Systems" and the "Belt and Road" initiative. These variations correspond to evolving socio-political contexts and the changing nature of Hong Kong-China relations over time.