Breaking News, World News and Taiwan News.

Updated Wednesday, September 24, 2008 11:21 am TWN, By Frank Ching, Special to The China Post

Sponsors
▪	Find great real time deals on China Flights. Book flights to China or China domestic flights 24/7.
▪	Buy china wholesale products from reliable chinese wholesalers on DHgate.com!
▪	Save 75% for all hotels in Shanghai, Beijing and whole China. Lowest rates for Flights in China.
▪	Get the best deals for Guangzhou Hotels or choose from more than 10,000 hotels in 499 Chinese cities.

To China, Bush has been a friend

As the world prepares to bid farewell to U.S. President George W. Bush in a few months, his foreign policy lies in tatters. Wars continue in Iraq and Afghanistan, a crisis looms in Iran, relations with Russia are badly strained, and now North Korea is threatening to restart its nuclear weapons program.

But there is one bright spot: China. Despite a rough start at the beginning of his presidency when there was a crisis triggered by a mid-air collision between a Chinese fighter jet and an American reconnaissance plane, Bush has by and large enjoyed a good relationship with the Chinese leadership.

This was reflected in the telephone conversation Monday (Sept. 22) between the two leaders, when Bush briefed his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao on financial upheavals in the United States, and Hu praised the “good momentum of the development of Sino-U.S. ties.”

To be sure, there have been repeated differences over political freedom, religious rights, Tibet and other issues but Beijing continues to view Bush favorably. Beijing also has a soft spot in its heart for his father, George Herbert Walker Bush, who was president 1989-1993.

The junior Bush campaigned in 2000 on the premise that the Clinton administration was wrong to designate China as a strategic partner. He said China was a strategic competitor, not a partner. And he began office with the idea that China would replace the Soviet Union as America’s main antagonist.

But his stance changed dramatically after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States when he realized that America already had enemies at its gates and that China could be a partner in the campaign against terrorists.

And while he declared at the end of his first 100 days in office that he would do “whatever it took” to help Taiwan defend itself, he soon made clear his distaste for the Taiwanese leader, Chen Shui-bian, by reprimanding him in public while the Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, stood next to him.

To Beijing, Bush has been a true friend, and, more than that, a known quantity. True, Bush frequently did things that Beijing did not like, including receiving the Dalai Lama three times, and frequently lecturing the Chinese government on freedom and democracy.

But he was also someone Beijing could count on. Earlier this year, when much of the world was calling for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics in the wake of a crackdown after a violent protests in Tibet, the U.S. leader never wavered in his commitment to attend the Games, an attitude much appreciated by Chinese leaders.

1|2|Next Page>>