Review: The China Diary of George H.W. Bush
| Author | Warren I. Cohen |
| Published date | 01 March 2009 |
| Date | 01 March 2009 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002070200906400127 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
| Reviews |
| 294 | Winter 2008-09 | International Journal |
THE CHINA DIARY OF GEORGE H.W. BUSH
The Making of a Global President
Jeffrey A. Engel, editor
Princeton, NJ: Princeton Uni versity Press, 200 8. 544pp, US$29.95 cloth
(ISBN 978-0-691-13006-4)
George H.W. Bush headed the United States liaison office in China for about
14 months, beginning late October 1974 and ending in December 1975. This
was an extraordinarily critical peri od for China’s domestic political future
and a difficult time in American politics. In Beijing, Deng Xiaoping fought
for power—and his life—against the gang of four, as Zhou Enlai lay dying
and Mao Zedong faded in and out of senility. In Washington, President Jerry
Ford strugg led for legiti macy following Richard Nixon’s Watergate-ba sed
resignation and Ford’s troubling pardon of the disgraced ex-president. Even
from abroad, Bush was a superb observer of American politics. If his diary
is any indication, he hadn’t a clue as to what was going on around him in
China.
In 1974, Bush was perceiv ed by Nixon an d the chattering class as an
attractive Republican party loyalist without much political or intellectual
substance. He had been appointed ambassador to the UN at a time when
preserving a seat there for the Republic of China (Taiwan) was seen to be a
high priority for the Nixon administration and he fought valiantly for that
cause. He was unaware that Nixon and his national security adviser, Henry
Kissinger, had already betrayed Taiwan in their negotiations with Zhou in
1971 and 19 72. At the criti cal point in the stru ggle to prevent Taiwan’s
expulsion from the UN, in October 1972, Kissinger flew to Beijing to stroke
America’s newfound friends, undermining Bush’s claim of Taiwan’s
importance to the United States. Taiwan was expelled and Bush was left
looking foolish.
As a Republican politician from Texas with family ties to the party’s
eastern establishment, Bush was appointed chairman of the Republican
national committee in 1973, after Nixon’s reelection, an awkward place to be
sitting whe n the Watergate scanda l broke. As a reward for his unstinting
loyalty, he was offered a choice of the most sought-after ambassadorial posts,
London and Paris. He surprised Ford by asking instead to head the liaison
office in Beijing. He later claimed to believe China’s rebirth as a world power
was inevitable and he wanted to be present at the creation. Maybe so, but
more likely he was unwilling to exhaust his fortune with the social expenses
an ambassador to France or Great Britain had to pay out of his or her own
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