Object/Meaning Analyzing the cross-strait economic development trends can help to realize the grasp of the new dynamics of cross-strait development and then gain insight into the frontier direction of economic development in the future.

Methods/Procedures The comprehensive search was conducted on China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) for the literature on the cross-strait economic cooperation from 1994 to 2023, and 1879 pieces of literature were finally included after the screening. Then, the Citespace was used to conduct a visual analysis to explore the evolution trend, research hotspots and subject areas of the cross-strait economic cooperation.

Results/Conclusions The results found that: this research area has experienced the stages of slow and steady growth and rapid and fluctuating growth, and its evolutionary trend has a distinctive epochal and policy-oriented nature. The directions of mainland investment, both sides of the Taiwan strait, and economic and trade cooperation have been the research hotspots for a long time. The research keywords such as the cross-strait cooperation, new mode of development, ECFA and the cross-strait integration and development were not only the current research hotspots of cross-strait economic cooperation, but also the emphasis of analysis in the future.