This study integrates fine-tuned large language models (LLMs) with Query-by-Committee (QBC) active learning to analyze 1,863 Chinese policy documents on new energy vehicles (2009–2024). The approach demonstrates how fine-tuning and active learning enable accurate, scalable, and transparent policy-text analysis across five analytical dimensions. The results reveal a distinctive pattern of central–local coordination—the Drive–Adaptation model—where the central government provides strategic direction while local governments adapt implementation to regional conditions. The study contributes a replicable AI-based framework for planning research and clarifies a planning-relevant governance logic of adaptive coordination in emerging innovation-driven industries.
AgizaAhmedMostagirMohamedRedaSherief. 2024. “PoliTune: Analyzing the Impact of Data Selection and Fine-Tuning on Economic and Political Biases in Large Language Models.” Proceedings of the AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society7 (1): 2–12. doi:10.1609/aies.v7i1.31612.
2.
AlghamdiAbdulazizMohaisenDavid. 2024. “Through the Looking Glass: LLM-based Analysis of AR/VR Android Applications Privacy Policies.” 2024 International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (ICMLA), Miami, 534–39. Piscataway: IEEE.
3.
AlizadehMeysamKubliMaëlSameiZeynabDehghaniShirinZahedivafaMohammadmasihaBermeoJuan D.KorobeynikovaMariaGilardiFabrizio. 2025. “Open-Source LLMs for Text Annotation: A Practical Guide for Model Setting and Fine-Tuning.” Journal of Computational Social Science8 (1): 17. doi:10.1007/s42001-024-00345-9.
4.
Argamon-EngelsonShlomoDaganIdo. 1999. “Committee-Based Sample Selection for Probabilistic Classifiers.” Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research11:335–60. doi:10.1613/jair.612.
5.
BarbieriElisaDi TommasoMarco R.BonniniStefano. 2012. “Industrial Development Policies and Performances in Southern China: Beyond the Specialised Industrial Cluster Program.” China Economic Review23 (3): 613–25. doi:10.1016/j.chieco.2010.12.005.
6.
BarnettJuliaKieslichKimonDiakopoulosNicholas. 2024. “Simulating Policy Impacts: Developing a Generative Scenario Writing Method to Evaluate the Perceived Effects of Regulation.” Proceedings of the AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society7 (1): 82–93. doi:10.1609/aies.v7i1.31620.
7.
BerkePhilipGodschalkDavid. 2009. “Searching for the Good Plan: A Meta-Analysis of Plan Quality Studies.” Journal of Planning Literature23 (3): 227–40. doi:10.1177/0885412208327014.
8.
BrinkleyCatherineStahmerCarl. 2024. “What Is in a Plan? Using Natural Language Processing to Read 461 California City General Plans.” Journal of Planning Education and Research44 (2): 632–48. doi:10.1177/0739456X21995890.
9.
BurnsRyanWelkerPreston. 2023. “Interstitiality in the Smart City: More than Top-down and Bottom-up Smartness.” Urban Studies60 (2): 308–24. doi:10.1177/00420980221097590.
10.
CaiYueyueNordinNor AkmarPanatikSiti Aisyah. 2024. “A Textual Analysis of the Chinese Global Talent Management Policy: From a Policy Instruments Perspective.” Sage Open14 (4): 21582440241300485. doi:10.1177/21582440241300485.
11.
ChungJae Ho. 1995. “Studies of Central-Provincial Relations in the People’s Republic of China: A Midterm Appraisal.” China Quarterly142:487–508.
12.
Cohen-BlankshtainGalitNijkampPeterVan MontfortKees. 2004. “Modelling ICT Perceptions and Views of Urban Front-Liners.” Urban Studies41 (13): 2647–67. doi:10.1080/0042098042000294600.
13.
CoyleDianeMuhtarAdam. 2023. “Assessing Policy Co-Ordination in Government: Text and Network Analysis of the UK’s Economic Strategies.” European Journal of Political Economy79 (September): 102402. doi:10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2023.102402.
14.
CuccaRobertaRanciCostanzo. 2022. “Urban Policy in Times of Crisis: The Policy Capacity of European Cities and the Role of Multi-Level Governance.” Urban Affairs Review58 (6): 1493–1522. doi:10.1177/10780874211041710.
15.
DaiYishuXuLimeiZhangXuFuYanlingDongWei. 2024. “Promoting Sustainable Development: A Study of China’s Bicycle Sharing Industry Policies Based on Text Analysis.” Research in Transportation Business & Management52 (January): 101085. doi:10.1016/j.rtbm.2023.101085.
16.
DongFengLiuYajie. 2020. “Policy Evolution and Effect Evaluation of New-Energy Vehicle Industry in China.” Resources Policy67:101655. doi:10.1016/j.resourpol.2020.101655.
17.
EatonSarahKostkaGenia. 2014. “Authoritarian Environmentalism Undermined? Local Leaders’ Time Horizons and Environmental Policy Implementation in China.” The China Quarterly218 (June): 359–80. doi:10.1017/S0305741014000356.
18.
EhsanFarheenHabibSalmanGulzarMuhammad MajidGuoJunhuaMuyeenS. M.KamwaInnocent. 2024. “Assessing Policy Influence on Electric Vehicle Adoption in China: An in-Depth Study.” Energy Strategy Reviews 54 (July): 101471. doi:10.1016/j.esr.2024.101471.
19.
FanYongmaoYangHongshan. 2019. “How Is Public Housing Policy Implemented in China? A Tentative Analysis of the Local Implementation of Four Major Programs.” The American Review of Public Administration49 (3): 372–85. doi:10.1177/0275074018761807.
20.
FreundYoavSeungH. SebastianShamirEliTishbyNaftali. 1997. “Selective Sampling Using the Query by Committee Algorithm.” Machine Learning28 (2): 133–68. doi:10.1023/A:1007330508534.
21.
FuXinyuBrinkleyCatherineSanchezThomas W.LiChaosu. 2024. “Text Mining Public Feedback on Urban Densification Plan Change in Hamilton, New Zealand.” Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science52:23998083241272097. doi:10.1177/23998083241272097.
22.
FuXinyuLiChaosuZhaiWei. 2023. “Using Natural Language Processing to Read Plans: A Study of 78 Resilience Plans From the 100 Resilient Cities Network.” Journal of the American Planning Association89 (1): 107–19. doi:10.1080/01944363.2022.2038659.
23.
FuXinyuWangRuoniuLiChaosu. 2024. “Can ChatGPT Evaluate Plans?”Journal of the American Planning Association90 (3): 525–36. doi:10.1080/01944363.2023.2271893.
24.
GrimmerJustinStewartBrandon M.2013. “Text as Data: The Promise and Pitfalls of Automatic Content Analysis Methods for Political Texts.” Political Analysis21 (3): 267–97. doi:10.1093/pan/mps028.
25.
GruppiMaurícioDanSohamMurugesanKeerthiramChaudhurySubhajit. 2025. “On the effects of fine-tuning language models for text-based reinforcement learning.” Proceedings of the 31st International Conference on Computational Linguistics, Abu Dhabi, 6649–58.
26.
GuyadeenDave. 2018. “Do Practicing Planners Value Plan Quality? Insights from a Survey of Planning Professionals in Ontario, Canada.” Journal of the American Planning Association84 (1): 21–32. doi:10.1080/01944363.2017.1404486.
27.
HanShuihuaMoYudiLiuZhenyuanLeiChengYeZhen. 2024. “The Impact of Public Climate Change Concern on Sustainable Product Consumption: A Case Study of New Energy Vehicles in China.” Annals of Operations Research342 (1): 323–53. doi:10.1007/s10479-023-05774-9.
28.
HeilmannSebastianPerryElizabeth J.2011. Mao’s Invisible Hand: The Political Foundations of Adaptive Governance in China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center.
29.
HollibaughGary E.2019. “The Use of Text as Data Methods in Public Administration: A Review and an Application to Agency Priorities.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory29 (3): 474–90. doi:10.1093/jopart/muy045.
30.
HölscherKatharinaFrantzeskakiNikiMcPhearsonTimonLoorbachDerk. 2019. “Capacities for Urban Transformations Governance and the Case of New York City.” Cities94:186–99. doi:10.1016/j.cities.2019.05.037.
31.
HowlettMichaelMukherjeeIshani. 2014. “Policy Design and Non-Design: Towards a Spectrum of Policy Formulation Types.” Politics and Governance2 (2): 57–71. doi:10.17645/pag.v2i2.149.
32.
HuaiSongyaoVan De VoordeTim. 2022. “Which Environmental Features Contribute to Positive and Negative Perceptions of Urban Parks? A Cross-Cultural Comparison Using Online Reviews and Natural Language Processing Methods.” Landscape and Urban Planning 218 (February): 104307. doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2021.104307.
33.
JakonenOlli Ilmari. 2025. “Smart Cities, Virtual Futures? Interests of Urban Actors in Mediating Digital Technology and Urban Space in Tallinn, Estonia.” Urban Studies62 (1): 52–68. doi:10.1177/00420980241245871.
34.
JiZhanheng. 2024. “Market-Incentive Environmental Regulation and Performance of New Energy Vehicle Enterprises: Evidence from the Dual Credit Policy in China.” Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy: Focusing on Technology Research, Innovation, Demonstration, Insights and Policy Issues for Sustainable Technologies26 (10): 3411–26.
35.
JiangZhangsheng. 2023. “Policy Incentives, Government Subsidies, and Technological Innovation in New Energy Vehicle Enterprises: Evidence from China.” Energy Policy177:113527. doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2023.113527.
36.
Kassens-NoorEvaWilsonMarkKotval-KaramchandaniZeenatCaiMengDecaminadaTravis. 2024. “Living with Autonomy: Public Perceptions of an AI-Mediated Future.” Journal of Planning Education and Research44 (1): 375–86. doi:10.1177/0739456X20984529.
37.
KimByungjunYooMinjooParkKeon ChulLeeKyeo ReKimJang Hyun. 2021. “A Value of Civic Voices for Smart City: A Big Data Analysis of Civic Queries Posed by Seoul Citizens.” Cities108 (January): 102941. doi:10.1016/j.cities.2020.102941.
38.
KuhlmannStefanStegmaierPeterKonradKornelia. 2019. “The Tentative Governance of Emerging Science and Technology—A Conceptual Introduction.” Research Policy48 (5): 1091–97. doi:10.1016/j.respol.2019.01.006.
39.
LandisJ. RichardKochGary G.1977. “The Measurement of Observer Agreement for Categorical Data.” Biometrics33 (1): 159. doi:10.2307/2529310.
40.
LeeJinhyukYoonWonjinKimSungdongKimDonghyeonKimSunkyuSoChan HoKangJaewoo. 2020. “BioBERT: A Pre-Trained Biomedical Language Representation Model for Biomedical Text Mining.” Bioinformatics36 (4): 1234–40. doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/btz682.
41.
LemolaTarmo. 2002. “Convergence of National Science and Technology Policies: The Case of Finland.” Research Policy31 (8–9): 1481–90.
42.
LiJianzhong. 2020. “Charging Chinese Future: The Roadmap of China’s Policy for New Energy Automotive Industry.” International Journal of Hydrogen Energy45 (20): 11409–23. doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2020.02.075.
43.
LiLinda Chelan. 2010. “Central-local Relations in the People’s Republic of China: Trends, Processes and Impacts for Policy Implementation.” Public Administration and Development30 (3): 177–90. doi:10.1002/pad.573.
44.
LieberthalKennethOksenbergMichel. 2020. Policy Making in China: Leaders, Structures, and Processes. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
45.
LinderStephen H.PetersB. Guy. 1988. “The Analysis of Design or the Design of Analysis?”Review of Policy Research7 (4): 738–50. doi:10.1111/j.1541-1338.1988.tb00892.x.
46.
LiuXiaoZhengYananDuZhengxiaoDingMingQianYujieYangZhilinTangJie. 2023. “GPT Understands, too.” AI Open5:208–15. doi:10.1016/j.aiopen.2023.08.012.
47.
MacleodGordonGoodwinMark. 1999. “Space, Scale and State Strategy: Rethinking Urban and Regional Governance.” Progress in Human Geography23 (4): 503–27. doi:10.1191/030913299669861026.
48.
McGuirkPaulineBakerTomSissonAlistairDowlingRobynMaalsenSophia. 2022. “Innovating Urban Governance: A Research Agenda.” Progress in Human Geography46 (6): 1391–1412. doi:10.1177/03091325221127298.
49.
MeijerAlbertBolívarManuel Pedro Rodríguez. 2016. “Governing the Smart City: A Review of the Literature on Smart Urban Governance.” International Review of Administrative Sciences82 (2): 392–408. doi:10.1177/0020852314564308.
50.
MosbachMariusPimentelTiagoRavfogelShauliKlakowDietrichElazarYanai. 2023. “Few-shot Fine-tuning vs. in-context Learning: A Fair Comparison Evaluation.” Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: ACL 2023, Toronto, 12284–314.
51.
MoynihanDonald P.SossJoe. 2014. “Policy Feedback and the Politics of Administration.” Public Administration Review74 (3): 320–32. doi:10.1111/puar.12200.
52.
MullinM.DaleyD. M.2010. “Working with the State: Exploring Interagency Collaboration within a Federalist System.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory20 (4): 757–78. doi:10.1093/jopart/mup029.
53.
NahmJonas. 2017. “Exploiting the Implementation Gap: Policy Divergence and Industrial Upgrading in China’s Wind and Solar Sectors.” The China Quarterly231:705–27. doi:10.1017/S030574101700090X.
54.
NamTaewooPardoTheresa A.2011. “Conceptualizing Smart City with Dimensions of Technology, People and Institutions.” Proceedings of the 12th Annual International Digital Government Research Conference: Digital Government Innovation in Challenging Times, College Park, 282–91. doi:10.1145/2037556.2037602.
55.
NanYanFengTieyingHuYuqunQiXinzhu. 2020. “Understanding Aging Policies in China: A Bibliometric Analysis of Policy Documents, 1978–2019.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health17 (16): 5956. doi:10.3390/ijerph17165956.
56.
NgWillieDashManoranjan. 2006. “An Evaluation of Progressive Sampling for Imbalanced Data Sets.” Sixth IEEE International Conference on Data Mining – Workshops, Hong Kong, 657–61. doi:10.1109/icdmw.2006.28.
57.
NoringLuiseOhlerLaura PriscaStruthersDavid. 2021. “City Government Capacity and Patterns in Urban Development Project Governance.” Urban Affairs Review57 (5): 1343–71. doi:10.1177/1078087419897808.
58.
PengZhong-RenLuKai-FaLiuYangheZhaiWei. 2024. “The Pathway of Urban Planning AI: From Planning Support to Plan-Making.” Journal of Planning Education and Research44 (4): 2263–79. doi:10.1177/0739456X231180568.
59.
PetekAnaZgurićBornaŠinkoMarjetaPetkovićKrešimirMuntaMarioKovačićMarkoKekezAnkaBaketaNikola. 2022. “From Hierarchy to Continuum: Classifying the Technical Dimension of Policy Goals.” Policy Sciences55 (4): 715–36. doi:10.1007/s11077-022-09476-0.
60.
QuLuLiYanwei. 2019. “Research on Industrial Policy from the Perspective of Demand-Side Open Innovation—A Case Study of Shenzhen New Energy Vehicle Industry.” Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity5 (2): 31. doi:10.3390/joitmc5020031.
61.
RanchodRushil. 2020. “The Data-Technology Nexus in South African Secondary Cities: The Challenges to Smart Governance.” Urban Studies57 (16): 3281–98. doi:10.1177/0042098019896974.
62.
RolandGérard. 2000. Transition and Economics: Politics, Markets, and Firms. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
63.
RooijBenjamin vanZhuQiaoqiaoNaLiQiliangWang. 2017. “Centralizing Trends and Pollution Law Enforcement in China.” The China Quarterly231 (August): 583–606. doi:10.1017/s0305741017000935.
64.
RothwellRoyZegveldWalter. 1985. Reindustrialization and Technology. London: Longman.
65.
SepehrPouya. 2025. “Mundane Urban Governance and AI Oversight: The Case of Vienna’s Intelligent Pedestrian Traffic Lights.” Journal of Urban Technology32:93–110. doi:10.1080/10630732.2024.2302280.
66.
SeungH. SebastianOpperM.SompolinskyH.1992. “Query by Committee.” Proceedings of the Fifth Workshop on Computational Learning Theory, San Mateo, CA, 287–94. doi:10.1145/130385.130417.
67.
ShiLeiDuJunpingLiangMeiyuKouFeifei. 2019. “Dynamic Topic Modeling via Self-Aggregation for Short Text Streams.” Peer-to-Peer Networking and Applications12 (5): 1403–17. doi:10.1007/s12083-018-0692-7.
68.
StevensMark R.LylesWardBerkePhilip R.2014. “Measuring and Reporting Intercoder Reliability in Plan Quality Evaluation Research.” Journal of Planning Education and Research34 (1): 77–93. doi:10.1177/0739456X13513614.
69.
TanMark Junjie. 2021. “Are People Happier in Locations of High Property Value? Spatial Temporal Analytics of Activity Frequency, Public Sentiment and Housing Price Using Twitter Data.” Applied Geography132:102474. doi:10.1016/j.apgeog.2021.102474.
70.
UrbachPeter. 1989. “X—Random Sampling and the Principles of Estimation.” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society89 (1): 143–64. doi:10.1093/aristotelian/89.1.143.
71.
Vargas-CalderónVladimirCamargoJorge E.2019. “Characterization of Citizens Using Word2vec and Latent Topic Analysis in a Large Set of Tweets.” Cities92 (September): 187–96. doi:10.1016/j.cities.2019.03.019.
72.
WeimerDavid L.1993. “The Current State of Design Craft: Borrowing, Tinkering, and Problem Solving.” Public Administration Review53 (2): 110. doi:10.2307/976703.
73.
WilkersonJohnCasasAndreu. 2017. “Large-Scale Computerized Text Analysis in Political Science: Opportunities and Challenges.” Annual Review of Political Science20 (1): 529–44. doi:10.1146/annurev-polisci-052615-025542.
74.
WilliamsonGraham R.2003. “Misrepresenting Random Sampling? A Systematic Review of Research Papers in the Journal of Advanced Nursing.” Journal of Advanced Nursing44 (3): 278–88. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2648.2003.02803.x.
75.
WongChristineKarplusValerie J.2017. “China’s War on Air Pollution: Can Existing Governance Structures Support New Ambitions?”The China Quarterly231 (September): 662–84. doi:10.1017/S0305741017000947.
76.
WuJingZuidemaChristianGugerellKatharina. 2018. “Experimenting with Decentralized Energy Governance in China: The Case of New Energy Demonstration City Program.” Journal of Cleaner Production189:830–38. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.04.123.
77.
XuLeiSuJun. 2016. “From Government to Market and from Producer to Consumer: Transition of Policy Mix towards Clean Mobility in China.” Energy Policy96 (September): 328–40. doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2016.05.038.
78.
YangChaoHuangCui. 2022. “Quantitative Mapping of the Evolution of AI Policy Distribution, Targets and Focuses over Three Decades in China.” Technological Forecasting and Social Change174 (January): 121188. doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2021.121188.
79.
YangHongshanYiHongtao. 2023. “Frontiers of Policy Process Research in China.” Review of Policy Research40 (4): 484–89. doi:10.1111/ropr.12558.
80.
ZarateDanielBallMichelleProkofievaMariaKostakosVassilisStavropoulosVasileios. 2023. “Identifying Self-Disclosed Anxiety on Twitter: A Natural Language Processing Approach.” Psychiatry Research330 (December): 115579. doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2023.115579.
81.
ZhanX.LoC. W.-H.TangS.-Y.2014. “Contextual Changes and Environmental Policy Implementation: A Longitudinal Study of Street-Level Bureaucrats in Guangzhou, China.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory24 (4): 1005–35. doi:10.1093/jopart/mut004.
82.
ZhangGuoshuaiWuJiajiTanMingzhouYangZhongjieChengQingyuHanHong. 2020. “Learning to Predict U.S. Policy Change Using New York Times Corpus with Pre-Trained Language Model.” Multimedia Tools and Applications79:34227–40.
83.
ZhangTingwei. 2000. “Land Market Forces and Government’s Role in Sprawl: The Case of China.” Cities17 (2): 123–35. doi:10.1016/S0264-2751(00)00007-X.
84.
ZhangXiaobo. 2006. “Fiscal Decentralization and Political Centralization in China: Implications for Growth and Inequality.” Journal of Comparative Economics34:713–26. doi:10.1016/j.jce.2006.08.006.
ZhuXufeng. 2017. “Inter-Regional Diffusion of Policy Innovation in China: A Comparative Case Study.” Asian Journal of Political Science25 (3): 266–86.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
