A US politician is putting up trade barriers as a political weapon to bully countries into doing what he is demanding, said Neil Bush, son of former United States president George HW Bush.

Neil Bush (File photo: VCG)

The US and China have much more in common than what divides the two countries, Bush, who is founder and chairman of the George HW Bush Foundation for US-China relations, said in an interview with the People’s Daily.

There are issues that need to be addressed in US-China relations including the problem of intellectual property. Bush said China is becoming more and more mature in all aspects. He said intellectual property protection is a high priority for the Chinese government, which is moving forward very steadily. He said the problem will be solved over time, and will not be solved by imposing tariffs. His advice on these issues is that both sides should deal with them through diplomatic channels, rather than the current way of hitting China over the head with a hammer.

China has risen to become the second largest economy in the world. It’s a weird phenomenon in US politics today that blasting China is a way to win political points, Bush noted.

This shows a flaw in US democracy, where politicians dare not do the right thing, but just say whatever it takes to get people to support them and brainwash people into accepting the underlying thesis that China is a problem for the US, he added.

There is a wave of skepticism that is infiltrating the US population because of misinformation about China. In fact, those people are haunted by a supremacy mentality, blaming China for the domestic problems in the US, Bush pointed out.

There are people in political power who have an America supremacy-type mentality, believing that the US has to be the biggest and the best. They hold the wrong view that China’s rise represents a threat to the US economy and national security, he said.

There is no doubt that forty years of bilateral ties have been hugely beneficial to both sides, said Bush. He further explained that the US GDP has grown dramatically in the past forty years thanks to globalization and the development of the relationship with China. At the same time, China witnessed fast growth in its economy.

“We are facing a very challenging time right now,” said Bush. He said he will work as chairman of this organization to help Americans understand the truth about China and the benefits both sides can gain from the bilateral relationship. “US-China relations are not a zero-sum game. Cooperation between the two countries is the only correct choice.”