George H. W. Bush – the foreign policy realist and ‘old friend’ of China
- Former US president remembered in Beijing for helping stop ties with Washington from going off the rails, observers say
- The trust and personal ties he spent years building often proved invaluable in bilateral relations
George H. W. Bush was a one-term president but he played a pivotal role in Washington’s foreign policy towards Beijing for decades and remains one of the best-known American names in China.
A second world war veteran and a foreign policy realist, the 41st American president – like other towering figures such as Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan – recognised the geopolitical importance of communist China.
Bush, who died on Saturday, is best remembered in China for his 14-month stint as America’s de facto ambassador to Beijing in the 1970s and his efforts to steer the relations through the aftermath of the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown in June 1989.
Despite his mixed reputation in the United States, he is deeply respected in China as “an old friend”.
The title, according to diplomatic analysts, is usually reserved for other communist leaders or sympathisers, or a select number of world dignitaries – such as former diplomat Henry Kissinger and International Olympic Committee chief Juan Antonio Samaranch – for outstanding contributions to Beijing’s often tumultuous relations with the outside world.
Bush’s legacy in China, they said, stood in sharp contrast to that of the incumbent, US President Donald Trump, whose disdain for consensus-based multilateral cooperation and hardline stand on Beijing over trade and a slew of geopolitical differences had plunged the bilateral ties to the lowest point in 40 years.