In order to understand the general themes and specific subjects members of Congress refer to when tweeting about China, we use a structured topic model. Our model was trained on all Congressional tweets about China from 05/08/2009 - 02/08/2023. This included a total of 27,158 tweets. Our model yields 71 unique subtopics which are hand-labeled based on the words and tweets most strongly associated with the subtopic. Each subtopic is also hand coded into one of 9 broader topics.
Topics:
ECONOMICS: Percentage of China tweets pertaining to the economy, trade, tariffs, and supply chains.
GEOPOLITICS: Percentage of China tweets pertaining to geopolitical tensions, relations with China vis-a-vis other nations, and perceptions of Chinese international influence. Note that these tweets refer to Chinese activities, influence, or statements abroad or in relation to the international community.
HUMAN RIGHTS: Percentage of China tweets pertaining to human rights in China, China’s position on human rights, detainments, and democracy.
INFLUENCE: Percentage of tweets pertaining to Chinese influence in the U.S. governance, business, security, education, research, entertainment, and U.S. society broadly.
INSTRUMENTAL: Percentage of China tweets that use China as a way to counter or criticize other legislators, signal legislative competence, or explain domestic crises. Note that these tweets are not necessarily about China, per se; rather, they use China as a topic to position the legislators relative to other legislators or topics.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Percentage of China tweets pertaining to U.S. national security interests and the state of national security in relation to China.
ASIAN AMERICANS: Percentage of tweets pertaining to Asian Americans in the U.S.
PUBLIC HEALTH: Percentage of China tweets pertaining to public health issues in relation to China, including the COVID-19 pandemic and fentanyl in the U.S.
OTHER: Percentage of tweets not directly pertaining to China, informational in nature, or unable to be classified