After The Cold War, The U.s. Congress To China Proposal And Vote On Study

The louder "voice" of the U.S. Congress towards China after the Cold War has reflected not only the "renaissance" of Congress power over foreign affairs in the United States since 1970s, but also the particular era. After the Cold War, the U.S. Congress members' strategic perception of China greatly changed; the latent contradictions which already existed between China and the U.S. began to show up; the peaceful development of China's economy was seen as a potential "threat". Owing to all these factors, the U.S. Congress found itself fully involved in China policy, instead of being relatively silent about China issue when dealing with its foreign affairs. Of those congressional actions which had a significant impact on U.S policy toward China, the majority began with the congressmen's bills and resolutions. Moreover, it cannot be ignored that the U.S. Congress participates in foreign decision-making basically by their voting right, though they do have various means. The U.S. Congress has enhanced their intervention and participation in the U.S policy towards China, mainly through frequently introducing bills and resolutions concerning China and using their voting right empowered by the Constitution.Of the bills and resolutions concerning China introduced by the Congress after the Cold War, political issues, military and security issues, Taiwan issue, as well as economic and trade issues are mainly covered. By means of the congressional dimensionality analysis method, this thesis makes a specific analysis of the bills and resolutions concerning China voted by the Congress sessions, of which the political issues, security issues, Taiwan issue, and economic and trade issues are given specific analysis. Among these bills and resolutions, the overwhelming majority was "anti-China" and against the sound development of Sino-US relations, which manifested the U.S. Congress' dissatisfaction and vigilance with China. As for the political issues, the U.S. Congress believed Chinese government was "undemocratic" by constantly "violating" human rights and "interfering with" religious freedom. As for military and security issues, the Congress exaggerated "China military threat theory", overstated China's military modernization, accused China of lack of transparency in military development, and held that the military development of the mainland was a "threat" to the "democratic" Taiwan as well as U.S. security. As for Taiwan issue, the U.S. Congress took a pro-Taiwan attitude, mainly reflected in its political and value system, its perception of cross-strait military development, and its arms sales. As for economic and trade issues, the Congress saw China as America's rival and exaggerated the "China economic threat theory". However, this perception of China is held not by a particular party or a particular session of Congress, but by all sessions of Congress, the most important legislative body in the United States, in the post-Cold War period.The U.S. Congressmen's voting decision making is a sequential process. In order to avoid a wide range of information search and simplify decision-making process, the U.S. Congress pursues a simple decision rule. But in the voting process, the consensus voting phenomenon would frequently occur in the U.S. Congress. The consensus voting decision model should be seen as Congressmen's response to the various decisional problems, because they have to face the heavy voting task, limited time, their own limited cognitive capacities, and their assessment of the political consequences of their decisions. When it comes to voting on bills and resolutions regarding China, the consensus decision behavior is the most typical group decision-making rule of Congress on political issue, security issue, as well as Taiwan issue, which typically embodies the consensus decision model. The Congressmen's typical consensus voting behavior on political issues, security issues and Taiwan issue is mainly due to a high degree of ideological consensus, the negative domestic political atmosphere and their limited knowledge of China. On the contrary, the consensus model has no strong explanation on voting upon economic and trade issues concerning China. Since Sino-America economic and trade exchanges are closely related with diverse domestic interests, the Congress is to be affected to certain extent by such factors as constituency interests, party interests, interest groups, as well as an overall interests strategy towards China.The U.S. Congress' deep involvement in China policy has greatly restrained the United States Department administration's China policy and has had a great impact on the Sino-US relations. Through legislative means, the Congress has monitored, assessed and "promoted" China's human rights mechanism, thus venting its idealistic diplomatic complex in U.S. human rights diplomacy. What is more important is that, the U.S. Congress' perception of China's political image has directly influenced the U.S.' orientation of China. Again through legislative means, the U.S. Congress has monitored, assessed and contained the administrative departments' China security policy mechanism. By applying the rights from the Constitution to regulate foreign trade, the Congress has actively participated in China export control policy-making. On Taiwan issue, the U.S. Congress greatly promotes the continued arms sales to Taiwan and enhances the substantive relationship between the U.S. and Taiwan. Different from other issues on China after the Cold War, the U.S. Congress has had both positive and negative roles in China-US economic and trade relations. It is often a "troublemaker" under certain circumstances, and it is also a "booster" of healthy and steady development of China-US economic and trade relations. That the U.S. Congress has the dual characters reflects its ambivalence on China-US economic and trade relations. In general, with the reestablishment of its authoritativeness on foreign affairs after the Cold War, the U.S. Congress has had greater negative role than positive effect on Sino-US relations. This shows to a certain extent that the Sino-US relations would develop toward a bright future on a way of twists and turns.