Foreign policy - family style!

Dec 1, 2003

The divorce proceedings of Neil Bush, a younger brother of President George W. Bush, brought to light his business dealings with Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (GSMC), a Chinese computer chip manufacturer. According to a contract signed between them, Neil Bush receives two million dollars over five years, to "provide GSMC from time to time with business strategies and policies; latest information and trends of the related industry, and other expertized advices."

It turns out that, in signing this contract, Neil Bush was only following a long-standing family tradition. One of the founders of GSMC is the son of former Chinese president Jiang Zemin. The friendship between the Jiang and Bush families goes back to the mid-1970s, when Neil's father, George Bush, was ambassador to China. Later, during the presidency of the first George Bush, Asset Management, a company with ties to his brother Prescott Bush Jr., was the only American firm that was able to beat U.S. sanctions and sell communications satellites to China.

The political relationship between the U.S. and Chinese governments may have its ups and downs. But when it comes to doing business, the Bush family and their Chinese partners have had only a steady, profitable relationship.

There's no reason to think that the Bushs are the only members of the U.S. ruling class who use politics to fill their pockets. In fact, they are not even one of the major beneficiaries of the deals made between U.S. capitalists and their business partners in China. Just recently, for example, Boeing and General Electric signed a 2.4-billion-dollar contract with Chinese officials for airplanes and airplane engines, while the Big 3 car manufacturers completed a 1.7-billion-dollar deal to sell cars in China. But the fact that Neil Bush and his family can get away with such "consulting" contracts shows how much business U.S. bosses are doing in China.

While the bosses tell U.S. workers that the Chinese are "stealing our jobs," they obviously have no problems running away with the billions of dollars they make off of China.