Abstract: Abstract: In this study, Siping City, Jilin Province as an old industrial city in Northeast China, was used as the research area to analyze and discuss the driving forces of its construction occupation of arable land. Kernel density estimation was applied to analyze the spatial pattern of cultivated land used for construction in Siping City from 2009 to 2015, on the basis of which, the principal component analysis method was applied to analyze the driving forces of the cultivated land used for construction, and GIS and SPSS software were the analysis platforms. ArcGIS was used to overlay analysis of the cultivated land shape layers in 2009 and the construction land shape layers in 2015, and then we got an analysis base map with the scale of 1:2 500 000. Through the analysis we knew that in 2009-2015, the land for construction in Siping City expanded by 6 590.75 hm2, with an average annual increase of 1 098.46 hm2, of which 76.56% was converted from cultivated land. The analysis base map with the scale of 1:2 500 000 was converted to a point layer by ArcGIS, and then the Kernel density estimation method was applied to analyze the point layer. The results showed that the spatial distribution of cultivated land used for construction in Siping City presented the characteristics of being dense in east and sparse in west. The degree of spatial agglomeration could be divided into 5 levels, and spread along urban centers and roads, which was a multi-core expansion. Principal component analysis method was used to analyze the 19 indicators which were selected from the 4 aspects of economy, society, population, and policy. The results showed that the driving forces of cultivated land used for construction in Siping City from 2009 to 2015 were industrial structure, people's living standards, industrial enterprise development and road traffic divisors, which belong to economy, society, and policy factors. Among them, the industrial structure and people's living standards were the main controlling divisors and the main driving forces. Compared with many existing studies, there was a big difference that urbanization and population factors had less driving force for the cultivated land used for construction in Siping City during 2009-2015. Furthermore, due to the timeliness and instability of policy factors, some policy driving divisors were difficult to quantify and could not be included in the evaluation index system. For example, the Siping Economic Development Zone and Hongzui Economic and Technological Development Zone were established with a planning which was permitted, and 1 612 hm2 construction scope accounted for 1.14% of the total construction land area in Siping City. Moreover, the proposal of area development strategy for the integration of Sili urban areas in 2014 led to the rapid development of the connecting belt between Lishu County and Siping City, and the rapid expansion of construction land. Therefore, among the policy factors, in addition to road traffic, the establishment of development zones and the adjustment of administrative divisions also had driving effect on the occupation of cultivated land by construction in Siping City. It is necessary to break the systemic, institutional, and structural problems in Siping City, reduce government intervention, improve market vitality, adjust the industrial structure of Siping City and the proportion of heavy industry in the national economy, vigorously develop new industries, and scientifically plan to increase the intensive use of land.