Studying the narrative of US policy towards China: introducing China-related political texts in Congress

Abstract

How the United States pursues its decoupling policies towards China is an essential topic in studying U.S.‒China relations. Although the U.S. policy orientation towards China can be examined from several perspectives, this study uses a text-mining approach by extracting the China-related legislation in the 115th–117th Congress to observe the activities of the U.S. Congress regarding the affairs of China. Our analysis shows that Congress has seen a surge in China-related legislation since the introduction of decoupling policies. At the same time, it has not improved its negative view of China and maintained a competitive attitude in the economic, scientific and technological, and military fields after party rotation. It is worth noting that Congress under the Biden administration has placed greater emphasis on ideological competition, requiring allies who share common values to work together to counter the ‘Chinese threat’ in various areas. In this article, it is found that congressional legislation, as important political texts, conceal value judgements and institutional orientations that guide and constrain diplomatic practice. Political texts, ideology, and power are intertwined and shape the current U.S. congressional diplomatic strategy towards China.