A Study On The Action Logic Of U.S. Congressmen Joining The China-related Caucuses

The U.S.Congress is the legislature authorized by the U.S.Constitution.From the perspective of organizational structure,the informal member organization is one of the internal components of the huge U.S.Congress.The China-related congressional caucuses refer to informal member organizations in the U.S.Congress whose issues involve China.Up to now,it has been found that there are six specific caucuses focusing on China in the U.S.Congress through investigation,and their organizational development is different:Congressional Tibet Caucus,Congressional China Caucus and Hong Kong Caucus,these three organizations no longer exist.U.S.-China Working Group and Taiwan Caucus,the two organizations continue to develop steadily.The Tibet-concerned Congressional Human Rights Caucus has been transformed into a committee.The general position of China-related congressional caucuses is not friendly to China.Concretely speaking: U.S.-China Working Group is generally friendly,Congressional China Caucus is on guard against China,Hong Kong Caucus is non-beneficial,and the attitude of Tibet-concerned Congressional Human Rights Caucus,Congressional Tibet Caucus and Taiwan Caucus is clearly anti-China.The explanatory framework for the action logic of congressmen joining the China-related caucuses consists of seven influence factors at four levels: the constituency level includes the factors of demographic structure and connection with China;the congressional level includes the factor of member’s seniority;the individual level includes the factors of members’ ideology,interest and personal characteristic;the external factor is mainly influenced by interest groups.Through the empirical analysis of house representatives of the 116 th Congress joining the Taiwan Caucus,and the case analysis of Rick Larson and Judy Chu joining the China-related caucuses,it is believed that the above analyzing framework can basically explain the motivation of congressmen seeking to join the China-related congressional caucuses.