Neil Bush – Chairman of the George H. W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations – joined Chinese state-run media to call for closer ties between the U.S. and the Chinese Communist Party, revealing that one of the regime’s top financiers of foreign influence operations is an “old family friend.”
The son of former President George H. W. Bush, Neil Bush’s participation in a 20-minute exclusive interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN) follows an Axios report revealing his foundation agreed to accept $1 million per year from 2019 to 2023 from the China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF).
CUSEF functions as part of the Chinese Communist Party’s “United Front” – a billion-dollar, military-linked effort that seeks to “co-opt and neutralize sources of potential opposition to the policies and authority” of the Chinese government.
“The United Front strategy uses a range of methods to influence overseas Chinese communities, foreign governments, and other actors to take actions or adopt positions supportive of Beijing’s preferred policies,” the U.S. government also cautions.
The National Pulse has exposed the organization for taking journalists and former officials on trips to China in exchange for “favorable coverage.” CUSEF also seeks to “effectively disseminate positive messages to the media, key influencers and opinion leaders, and the general public” regarding China, according to Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) filings.
Beijing Bush.
Neil Bush describes Tung Chee-Hwa, the founder of CUSEF and Vice-Chairman of the “highest-ranking entity overseeing” China’s United Front, as an “old family friend” and a “great guy.” “We’re not apologetic at all about receiving funding from C.H. Tung,” he adds before asserting the Chinese Communist Party is “not a threat.”
The following document reveals how the Bush Foundation accepted $5 million from CUSEF in order to promote “a bilateral relationship that is functional, constructive, commercially robust, mutually beneficial and politically sustainable.”
The Foundation has not registered as a “foreign agent” despite clearly promoting Chinese government and Communist Party propaganda.
“We’re not explicitly being threatened by China in any way,” Neil Bush reiterates in the interview while arguing “we’re better off national security-wise and economically by having ties.”
Borrowing CUSEF talking points, he also posits it would be a “travesty to decouple” from the Chinese Communist Party before praising China as a “partner” amidst globalization:
I am an unabashed believer that globalization has helped America tremendously over the past 40 years, especially the last 20 or 30 years, and our biggest partner in the world of globalization has been China. And to destroy that or to build a wall between us to establish a Cold War-type environment between us doesn’t make any sense to me. It’s so illogical to me, personally.
“I’ve seen China’s rise from a front-row seat. I think I have a different perspective than most Americans because of my closeness to China and my being a witness to this incredible transformation,” he adds before lamenting “it’s very sad to me to see that China is like a Mexican piñata – it’s the easiest thing to bash on.”
The Right (CC)Path.
Neil Bush also insists that the Biden White House is successfully reversing the Trump administration’s efforts to confront the Chinese Communist Party.
“So far they’re off to a much better start than the last administration,” he asserted while criticizing Trump’s tariffs.
“There have been a lot of good signs coming out of the very first few months of this administration,” he echoes before insisting that his father was elated by the rise of China.
“To see China rise was something that brought him great joy. My dad was never afraid of China’s rise,” Neil Bush concludes.
