RED CHINESE GREENBACKS FOR BUSH BROTHERS

[The Sushi Bandit]

President Bush came down in favor of the People'sRepublic of China, against a democratic referendum in the island ofTaiwan, soon after well-connected Chinese companies made dealsfinancially benefiting two of Bush's brothers.

As reported in the Houston Chronicle, Shanghai-based Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing, a large company co-founded by a son of China's former president, has presidential brother Neil Bush under a $2M contract.

With no background in semiconductors, Neil Mallon Bush, third brother in the family, got a five-year contract from Grace,involving an annual retainer of $400,000 in stock.

(http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_50/b3862062.htm)

The arrangement is disclosed in court papers in Mr.Bush's scandal-ridden divorce. The deal comes at a time when the Bush administration is theoretically negotiating sensitive trade, human rights, and anti-proliferation policy with China.

On top of the Neil Bush deal, an even bigger Chinese company also came through for youngest Bush brother Marvin P. Bush. The company is Hong Kong-based Cheung Kong Holdings, a gargantuan real estate and investment conglomerate now branching into biotechs. According to the company, "combined market capitalization of the Cheung Kong Group amounts to HK$515 billion," or "approximately 11.5% of the total market capitalization of the Hong Kong stock market."
(http://www.ckh.com.hk/eng/index.htm)

Cheung Kong's portfolio now includes Critical Path,Inc., a California-based software and internet-messaging services company that lost money for the first nine months of this year. The company's SEC filings list as shareholder Mr. Purnendu Chatterjee, acting for Winston Partners LP, a company co-foundedby Marvin Bush.

Recent filings show that Chatterjee's group, including Winston Partners, owns about 5.5 million shares in Critical Path (6.82%).
Cheung Kong owned substantial shares in little-known Critical Path in
2001. Critical Path did not receive cash but is solidified by the Cheung Kong stake. Critical Path has faced classaction litigation and has changed top managers twice in three years. The deal thus helps Winston Partners, a private investment firm in northern Virginia formed by Bush with long time business associate, A. Scott Andrews.

There is no law forbidding a foreign corporation to invest in an American company just because a president's relatives hold financial interest in the same company. But there are some instances where taste and judgment, as well as explicit law, should come into play.

It is not appropriate for a brother of a sitting president to take money from foreign companies, when we have such strict laws about disclosure that a president or First Family member who receives foreign gifts has to disclose every pair of earrings or belt buckle.
Such gifts usually go to the American people after a president leaves office, and the Smithsonian Museum of American History has a charming exhibition of gifts to previous presidents and First Ladies.

These deals, au contraire, are not being exhibited. The White House and the Bush brothers have not responded to questions and requests for information. A spokesman for Critical Path points out that Cheung Kong has invested in the company since November 2001 and that the deal was not a cash deal, and refers further questions to the public record.

The deals are known in the international business community, where they must make a regrettable impression. Marvin Bush is the former head of the Republican Party in Virginia, worked with the late GOP operative Lee Atwater, and has campaigned and networked extensively for his father and brother, as well as for other GOP candidates.
He was also a Bush "Ranger," one of a group that raisedat least $100K in political contributions to Bush's campaign in 2000. Neil Bush has campaigned for Republican candidates, has traveled the globe on behalf of the White House and has also stumped foreign nations for business deals for his educational software company,in which one of Grace Semiconductor's co-founders was a primaryinvestor. This is "restoring honor and dignity to the White House?"

Cheung Kong Holdings and Grace Semiconductor are part of the intensely networked Chinese economy, with a high degree of public-private partnership. For Bush to allow his relatives, especially close relatives, to benefit financially from deals with well-connected firms in what we used to call "RedChina" is, at best, a sorry reflection on his taste. For him to follow these deals with a massive shift of support to China, especially one that discourages a democratic referendum in Taiwan, is a worse reflection.

The author writes freelance in DC and can be reachedat [email protected].

[pansypoo53219]

1. but but but

you forgot to mention neil's herpes.

[meow2u3]

2. Who's calling whom a pinko?

President Bush came down in favor of the People'sRepublic of China, against a democratic referendum in the island ofTaiwan, soon after well-connected Chinese companies made dealsfinancially benefiting two of Bush's brothers.


New we know who the real pinko is! :shrug:

[Fovea]

3. Bush hates Taiwan

for its freedoms.