Bipartisanship in the Shadow of China’s Rise: The Effect of External Threats on Internal Unity in the US Congress

Abstract In recent years, political analysts and media observers claim that taking a harder line against China has become one of the few remaining bipartisan issues left in a highly partisan US Congress. However, a closer look at China-related bills and resolutions reveals significant variation in the level of bipartisan support they receive. While some China-related legislation receives support from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers, others are supported by members of only one party. Under what conditions can Democrats and Republicans collaborate to deal with threats posed by China? In this research note, we examine two conditions under which the two parties jointly support a China-related measure. First, the proposed legislation is not related to US domestic affairs. Second, if the legislation is related to US domestic affairs, neither party claims the ownership of the issue addressed by the legislation. We created and analyzed a novel dataset that encompasses China-related legislation in the US House of Representatives between 2009 and 2022. Our empirical results show that bipartisan collaboration on China’s threats depends on the nature of the issue.