ChatGPT has become an emerging thing of widespread concern in society, demonstrating immense potential and application value in various fields, and has become one of the hot research topics in China’s academic community. Using CiteSpace, SPSS, and VOSviewer software, employing knowledge graph visualization analysis methods, this study constructs and interprets the “Co-authorship Network of ChatGPT Research Results in China” “Co-occurrence Network of Keywords in ChatGPT Research Results in China” and “Cluster Map of Co-occurrence Keywords in ChatGPT Research in China” to clarify the characteristics of the time distribution, author distribution, journal distribution, and research theme distribution in the field of ChatGPT research in China. The study finds that ChatGPT research in China began in early 2023 and has shown a rapid growth trend. ChatGPT research in China is in its infancy, lacking a large group of highly productive authors. Although ChatGPT research in China has achieved a certain level of collaboration, the overall scale of cooperation is not large. Currently, ChatGPT research in China not only involves the technology underlying the ChatGPT model but also includes content related to the application of ChatGPT in digital government, intelligent communication, and information resource management. ChatGPT research in China focuses on four main themes: technology, education, information intelligence, and ethics. This study provides the theoretical basis and scientific guidance for the theoretical research and application exploration of ChatGPT in China.