This dissertation, "The Sino-American Cold War in the US Senate: a Study of the Role of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in the Making of China Policy, 1953-1972" by Kan, Zhang, 張侃, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: Abstract of thesis entitled The Sino-American Cold War in the US Senate A Study of the Role of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in the Making of China Policy, 1953-1972 Submitted by Zhang Kan for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Hong Kong in December 2004 This is a study designed to survey the influence of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations (SCFR) on the making of America's policy toward China from 1953 to 1972. It employs a narrative approach as its primary method to present its evidence and interpretation. More narrowly, this study focuses on the SCFR vis-a-vis China, including its interactions with the executive branch of the American government and those non- governmental sectors the committee must interact with when making policy toward China. In addition, it pays due attention to key individual senate members, such as Senate leaders and SCFR, in order to determine the influence of these individuals' opinions on the Senate's and SCFR's image of China and decision making on China policy. To identify evidence of the SCFR's legislative influence of the SCFR on China policymaking, this research studies all legislative actions proposed and resolutions on China passed by the SCFR and the Senate, with special regard to key issues in Sino- American relations such as China as an expansionist threat, the Taiwan problem, the trade embargo against China, China's UN membership, China's nuclear weapons, China's role in the Vietnam War, and the Sino-Soviet dispute. This study found that the SCFR was essentially responsible for gradually breaking the frozen relationship between China and the United States not by directly interfering with the executive branch's policymaking on China though legislation, but by re-defining, by means of persuading and educating Congress and the American public, the rationale underlying America's China policy. This study also found that the two issues of the perceived threat of international communism and commitment to the cause of the Nationalist government in Taiwan initially dominated the SCFR's thinking on the question of China, but their significance eventually diminished somewhat. Even so, the SCFR never considered the China problem beyond the boundaries of a two-China approach, a policy whose reversal occurred during the Nixon administration, following the presidential lead. (363 words) DOI: 10.5353/th_b3146338