Competition, Confrontation, and Confusion: An Examination of U.S. Foreign Policy Towards China and its Implications in the Legislative and Executive Branches

This thesis examines U.S. foreign policy towards China in the legislative and executive branches of government, compares the two approaches, and analyses the perceptions of these policies by the Chinese. Over the last ten years, there has been a significant surge in interest in U.S. foreign policy towards China in the executive branch and notably the legislative branch. However, there has been limited scholarly exploration aimed at comprehending the relationships among these policies. This thesis seeks to address this gap by analyzing U.S. foreign policy towards China in the legislative and executive branch independently and in comparison with each other. It focuses on three specific case studies - the Belt and Road Initiative, U.S. relations with Taiwan, and the human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang - to analyze the different policy approaches towards China in the legislative and executive branches. Ultimately, the two branches often work with each other and sometimes against each other in crafting a competition-focused foreign policy towards China. Congress tends to be more aggressive and hawkish than the executive branch, who tends to be more reserved. These gaps in policies are significant not only because they result in fewer concrete results, but also because they present a disjointed message to Beijing. Having disjointed policies creates confusion and can lead to rash, uninformed, and potentially dangerous decisions on both sides. This thesis argues that there are instances of incoherent and disjoined policies towards China between the two branches and suggests that they must work to produce more complementary policies and ensure that their policies are not being misperceived.