Reply #78: Xie xie, Me.

[Octafish]

Prescott Bush has his hand in the China cookie jar for a long time. In fact, he helped start the United States-China Chamber of Commerce. Here's a bit of background on the relationship.

President's uncle shares Bush family ties to China

By Debbie Howlett, USA TODAY, AP

CHICAGO — When President Bush arrives in Beijing on Thursday, he'll embrace a policy that's something of a family tradition.

Bush's approach centers on promoting U.S.-China economic ties. That's a course favored not only by his father, the first President Bush, but also by his uncle, Prescott Bush Jr., a longtime acquaintance of Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

The Bush family's ties to China go back to 1974, when President Nixon named George Bush ambassador to China. The college-age George W. Bush spent two months in China visiting his parents during his father's two-year stint.

Seven years after his brother left the ambassadorial post, Prescott Bush made his first trip to China. He later joined with Japanese partners in 1988 to build a golf course in Shanghai, the first in China. He met Jiang, who was then the mayor of Shanghai.

Prescott Bush, now 79, also developed a close working relationship with Rong Yiren, a former trade minister and vice president, who in 1993 introduced Bush to a group of Chinese business leaders as "an old friend." In 2000, Forbes publications reported that Rong, who has retired from government, was the richest man in China.

The president's uncle concedes that he sometimes relied on his name to open doors, but he says any deals he made were the result of his own hard work.

CONTINUED...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2002/02/19/usat-prescott-bush.htm

I wonder how much Prescott and the BFEE contributed to the rise of the Red Star of Walmart, etc.? These are the guys who've bought the Lion's share of U.S. bonds over the past few decades. Plus, the Bushes let them pick clean the U.S. military technology jazz...