This news is especially timely on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
George H.W. Bush could have responded by dumping China’s Most Favored Nation trade status and cut off the monster’s head before it had devoured us whole.
Instead, he kept things going.
Communist China gutted our economy and society. Without those trade deals, we would likely not be in the mess that we are in.
So the news is timely, but not especially surprising because what other possible function could the George H.W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations really have? Organizations for relations between the US and Country X largely exist to lobby for ties with that country. A lot of the time this is perfectly inoffensive, but it’s rather different when the ties are with our worst enemies.
Axios obtained a written agreement that spells out the details of a $5 million grant from the China-United States Exchange Foundation to the Bush China Foundation, established in 2017 with the former president’s blessing.
CUSEF leadership has close ties to Chinese government officials, and the group has a reputation as an arm of Bejing’s political influence operation. It provided a significant share of the funds for the Bush group’s efforts to improve Sino-American relations.
Details: The grant agreement, dated September 19, 2019, and signed by both parties, calls for CUSEF to donate $1 million per year to the Bush China Foundation from 2019 through 2023.
Tax filings covering May through December of 2019 show the Bush China Foundation brought in a total of under $1.2 million in contributions, meaning CUSEF’s donations would likely comprise a substantial portion of its revenue.
Background: The Hong Kong-based CUSEF is run by the city’s former chief executive, Tung Chee-Hwa. It calls itself “an independent, non-profit and non-governmental foundation.”
Tung is also the vice-chair of a Beijing-based advisory body that promotes the Chinese Communist Party’s political aims, which is chaired by a Politburo official who plays a leading role in Beijing’s “united front” global influence campaign.
CUSEF has disclosed in U.S. filings that it paid for lobbying campaigns to “influence key constituencies” in the U.S. regarding “China’s true intentions and efforts in Tibet,” including an analysis of how U.S. high school textbooks portray Tibet.
Founder and chairman Neil Bush, George H.W. Bush’s third son, blamed pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong on “outside influence” in 2019 remarks at a conference organized by a division of the Chinese foreign ministry. The remarks were widely circulated by state-run media.
This isn’t really news. Just one of those items no one really pays that much attention to.
One Bush Foundation board member, Florence Fang, founded the Northern California Peaceful Reunification Society, a branch of a Beijing-based organization that is directly overseen by the United Front Work Department.
The only reason for something like the Bush China Foundation to exist is to promote China and to employ less successful family members of political families. It’s not just Hunter Biden. And it’s not just Democrats or Republicans. This is what politicians do. Don’t kid yourself about that. China was able to build this level of influence in America because our politics is for sale.
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