Ex-president’s son bemoans current tariff policies, says they are based on false premises

Neil Bush, son of former US President George H.W. Bush, said that bilateral trade has been good for both China and the United States, and that despite the tariff barriers put up by the current administration, US companies are not leaving China. In fact, many of them are planning to invest more in the country, he said.

“The reality is that the US-China relationship has led to the greatest economic development that could ever have been imagined,” said Bush, founder and chairman of the George H.W. Bush Foundation for US-China Relations.

“Our bilateral trade relationship, which is part of the whole process of globalization, has led America to become the greatest, strongest nation on the face of the planet. We have been at full employment for many years,” he said in a recent interview with China Daily.

Meanwhile, China has grown to be the second-largest economy after the US, and Bush calls that a win-win for both.

The anti-globalization movement is negatively impacting the US-China relationship, said Bush. “There is an even more fundamental concern that China’s rise represents a threat to America, to our standing in the world, to our way of life, to our economy. And I do not buy it.”

Bush, a Houston, Texas-based businessman, visited China for the first time in 1975 and has made frequent trips over the years.

The narrative of “Making America Great Again” is wrong, he said. “We have been great. We are great. We will be a great nation going forward.”

But US greatness is deteriorating, said Bush, and not because of China.

Bush said the impact of tariffs is yet to be felt. “The impact of tariffs will be to raise prices for American consumers, and will be to slow economic development globally. It will slow the economy of China, and it will hurt our economy,” said Bush, adding that US citizens will be threatened with job losses.

Bush said the justification for tariffs from the administration’s perspective is that the US has been ripped off and jobs have been taken away. However, tariffs will not bring manufacturing jobs back to the US.

He said it is a false premise to see trade deficits as a bad thing, to view it as winning by China and losing by the US. “Trade deficit does not show anything except for the fact that we are buying more stuff from China than China is buying from us, which to me shows we are the stronger of the two nations,” said Bush.

He noted that China continues to be more efficient in manufacturing. “It is not cheap labor, by the way. It is automation. It is robotics. It is AI (artificial intelligence).”

China remains attractive to US companies, Bush said. His friend Harley Seyedin runs the American Chamber of Commerce in South China. They recently issued a “Special Report on the State of Business in South China”.

According to the report, 62 percent of surveyed companies listed China as their No 1 priority for global investment.

Having just returned from a China trip, Bush said his observation was that Chinese businesspeople and individuals he talked to showed a more positive attitude toward the Chinese economy and their position and role in the world.

Although there are anti-China sentiments in the US, Bush said he is optimistic the US and China will be able to reach some deal to continue this relationship.

Bush said there is a misunderstanding in the US based on false narratives that have been promoted by politicians.

“Every time I have been to China over the past 50 years — my first trip there was in 1975 — I have had nothing but good experiences.”

He wishes for more exchanges at every level between the two countries. “I really believe, as my father believed, that by being present with others, by putting yourself in the other guy’s shoes, you know, by establishing a deeper understanding through respectful dialogue, that you could accomplish so much together. And this world needs collaboration these days on issues that are prominent as it relates to sustaining life on Earth for humans,” Bush said.

For that, US-China bilateral collaboration is critical, he said.

mayzhou@chinadailyusa.com