The U.s. Congress And The Security Decision-making In China (1989-2003)

This thesis focuses on the U.S. Congressional influence on the U.S. Security Policy towards China (USPC) since 1989. It is approached from a "System-Subject-Object-Process" theoretical framework. The author studies the evolution of U.S. National Security Strategy, U.S. Asia-Pacific Security Strategy and U.S Security Policy towards China in the Post-Cold War era from the aforementioned "System" level in a historical perspective. The structural factors of the U.S. Congress, which exerts their influence on the USPC, are then studied at the "Subject" level. As for the "Object" and "Process" level, the author subdivides the USPC into 3 categories, strategic security policies, crisis security policies and structural security polices. Four cases are selected for careful study according to these three security policies.U.S. Asia-Pacific Security strategy has undergone great change since the end of the cold war. The USPC has thus grown increasingly complexity over the last decade, which is characterized by both cooperativeness and deterrence. This dual characteristic offers the Congress both the opportunity and motivation to play a more active role in the USPC.The author also analyzes the structural factors that motivate congressional influence on the USPC, which includes the constitutional powers' bases, the committee system, the congressional architecture and the assistances to congressman etc. The means of congressional influence include: legislative, investigative, supervisory and other informal means. The Congress is also subjected to ideology, partisanship, and special interest groups.The case study on "The China Threat" analyzes the influence of the Congress on U.S. Strategic perspective towards China. This case demonstrates the Congress's capacity to create a negative decision-making environment within the U.S. government. Through a careful study of the management of the 1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis, the author concludes that the Congress plays little role during the crisis itself and its influence is usually expressed in the form of feedback after the crisis. The arms sales to Taiwan and U.S. export management policy towards China are the remaining two case studies of structural security policies. These studies conclude that the Congress has long exerted an important role in arms sales to Taiwan by demanding participation in the decision-making process. As to U.S. export management policy towards China, the Congress not only contributes to policy-making through legislation, it also plays an important part by monitoring the executive branch and restricting policy implementation.The author summarizes the congressional influence on the USPC as: "shaping"-The Congress plays an important role in influencing the policy-making environment for the Administration and affecting all three areas of U.S. security policy, "Participating"-The Congress contributes to the USPC via legislation, "Restricting"- The Congress polices the USPC policy-making and implementation through hearings and investigations.