Abstract: This paper aims to clarify the research achievements of China’s digital economy, tap into hot topics and frontier research, and identify the shortcomings of existing research by summarizing the development of digital economy research in China, thus providing reference for further research. Visual analysis is made on 1339 papers whose title involves “digital economy” in CNKI via CiteSpace. The results show that the research on digital economy in China started in 2000, and has been increasing rapidly since 2017. The number of papers is expected to maintain a high level of growth. Meanwhile, cooperation between researchers and institutions is weak. The research directions mainly fall into four fields, theoretical research, empirical analysis research, digital and real economy research as well as digital economy and taxation research. Future research on digital economy in China should be further deepened, the quantity and quality of research results should be improved, research perspectives should be broadened, and interdisciplinary research should be conducted.

Key words: digital economy, CiteSpace, China, digital economy research