A Study Of The 107^th To 112^th United States Congress's China Bill ?2001-2012?

Congress is the highest legislative institution established under The Constitution of the United States. Ever since its establishment, Congress not only plays an important role in domestic politics, it also functions as an integral part of the American government in shaping foreign policy, and so is its China policy.As the Legislative Branch of the "separation of the three powers" system, the 107th to 112th Congress continues to follow its tradition of influencing the framing of United States'China Policy by making legislations that provide policy directives and cooperative support to the United State government. However, Congress's China policy has shown some characteristics that are different from the past in response to the changing domestic and international environment.This study collects China Bill of the 107th to 112th Congress for performing sorting and analytical works, with the objective of straightening out China Bill's area of concern, influence and characteristics. Building on these finding, and by following closely on its new trend, this thesis makes prospective forecast of Congress's China policy in the near future.This thesis is comprised of five chapters, an Introduction and a Review.The Introduction portion presents the purposes, dynamics, innovations, and difficulties of this research paper, basic structure of the main body, and bibliographical information.Chapter One introduces the pattern of how the 107th-112th Congress influences China issues.Based on the power granted by the United Stated Constitution, Congress can constraint President's decision on foreign policy in three major aspects:Firstly, legislative supervision of the practice of Government foreign policy. Secondly, control of Federal Budgets. Thirdly, restructures and reforms government organizations, and influences the appointment of government officials.Chapter Two discusses the influences of subsidiary organizations of Congress on China issues.In addition to the activities of the Senate and House congressional committees, for the sake of adapting to the new situation of the development of Sino-U.S. relation in the 21st century, Congress established the "United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission" (USCC); the "Congress-Executive Commission on the People's Republic of China" (CECC); and the "United States Senate-China Inter-parliamentary Group" for deepening the understanding of China. Despite these organizations'attitude, motive, purpose and issues somewhat vary, however, it is evident that they all strive to elevate their discourse power in China affairs. In fact, congressional committees, USCC and CECC cause significant influence on United States'China policy.Chapter Three is a quantitative analysis and a summary of the characteristics of China Bill of the recent congresses:Firstly,74% China Bill does not bear a "China" caption, many important Chinese polices are bundled in Federal government's "Authorization Acts" and "Appropriation Acts" that are not easily detected. Secondly, they are detrimental to the benign development of Sino-U.S. relation. Thirdly, with regard to the consideration of China Bill in the House and the Senate, it shows certain characteristics. Turnaround time for completing the legislative process is fast, it takes 16 days for a house bill and 2 days for a senate bill. These observations find that China Bill does not arouse controversy among legislators, and comparatively speaking, consensus is more likely built in the Senate than in the House. In addition, "unanimous consent", "no objection" and "voice vote" are non-roll call characteristics of China Bill.Chapter Four presents the contents of China Bill.Detailed provisions of law relating to China affairs are extracted from the lengthy and tedious appropriations acts, authorization acts and other acts. Scrutiny of the contents, clauses, and policy implications finds some subtle changes in the United States' China policy, it also identifies certain negative China Bill and reveals its real nature, such as, intervention of China internal affairs, intention to split China, and damage to Sino-U.S. relation.Chapter Five is a case study of typical China Bill in three aspects:One aspect is politics, this portion carries the heaviest weight of China Bill, and most of them cause negative influence on Sino-U.S. relation, such as:Firstly, in the case the?Expressing for support of "freedom" in Hong Kong?, this type of China Bill reflects the tradition of Congress's enthusiasm in exporting American democracy, and the concepts of some legislators' direct intervention into the affairs of the development of Hong Kong's political system.Secondly, in the case of ?Participation of Taiwan in World Health Organization?, some congressmen continuously applying the concepts of "no-state boundary" and "cross-state boundary" to strongly recommend Taiwan to participate in international organizations of sovereign states, they even make recommendations to overthrow Government's established "One China" policy.Thirdly, in the case of?Fourteenth Dalai Lama Congressional Gold Medal Act)), Congressman makes excuses for religious freedom to support Dalai Lama's intention to split China. Judging from speeches retrieved from Congressman's debate records, it reveals that Dalai Lama started cultivating and building friendly relationship with Congress in the 1980s, utilizing its influence to pressure President and government departments to support his "Tibet view".The second aspect is Energy. In the case of Congress's obstruction to the acquisition of United Oil Company of California by China National Offshore Oil Company, analysis of the issue of competition for energy between China and the United States shows the ambivalent attitude of Congress toward bi-lateral trade, financial investment and real economic investment from China, which attitude triggers a series of trade protectionism measures targeting China.The third aspect is Culture. This type of China bill includes education exchange, science and technology exchange, arts and craft exchange, sports exchange, etc., In the case of Congress's recognition of the contribution of the Confucian philosophy made to East Asia and South-East Asia's social and political systems, it shows the progress of the development of the Sino-U.S. people-to-people communication in the 21st century, China's effort in advocating Chinese culture throughout the United States, and the official mechanism for promoting cultural exchange between the peoples of both countries.The Review portion is a conclusion of this study.Firstly, it analyzes China Bill's major areas of concern, its characteristics and causing reasons. It finds that most of Congress's politicized China Bill causes negative influences involving peril to China's sovereignty, intervention of Chinese internal affairs, and violation of the three "Sino-U.S. Joint-Communiques". Secondly, it discusses several aspects of China Bill, especially those successfully legislated ones, in relation to its influence on government China policy under the Bush and the Obama administrations. During this period, the overall objective of China Bill and government China policy do not have fundamental difference, it is considered as a kind of mutual support and coordination relationship.In respect of ideological guidance, there is no doubt that while government is engaging with China, Congress pushes the peaceful evolution of China's political system, and imposes on China "stake-holder's responsibility" in order to maintain U.S.'s position as a global hegemony. The difference between Congress and Executive Branch is attributed to their legal foundation, and attitude and stance toward the three "Sino-U.S. Joint-Communiques", there are similarities and variances. Using?Taiwan Relations Act))as an example, Congress is obviously in violation of the three Joint-Communiques, and Government often takes advantage of this bill for seeking the best American interests while dealing with its Chinese counterpart. However, both the Bush administration and the Obama administration reiterate "One China", oppose "Taiwan Independence" and "One China, One Taiwan", thus, in this regard, President varies largely with Congress. Finally, in accordance with the emerging issues of China Bill, the writer elucidates his observations and makes prospective forecasts. Following the continuing and deepening development of the 21st century Sino-U.S. relation, while Congress will remain paying attention to traditional issues, such as, political, diplomatic, military and security issues, it is also starting to expand into new fields, such as, energy, education, commercial investment, people-to-people communication, environmental protection, etc., all these indicate Congress's broader and deeper involvement in China affairs as reflected in the new trend of China Bill.Based on this new trend, the author thinks that, Congress's cold-war era political issues are somewhat gradually fading out, and it will then change course for emphasizing on economic and cultural issues. Such change will be likely reflected in United States' China policy in the medium-term future, and therefore, in anticipation of Congress taking a pragmatic approach to legislate China Bill that enables positive influences on Sino-U.S. relation is deemed probable.