EXC: Bush Foundation Leader Caught Outlining Plan To Make Americans ‘Less Fearful’ of China With Communist Influence Group Paying Him Millions

An American delegation tied to some of the country’s most recognizable political families appeared at the Sixth U.S.–China Hong Kong Forum, an event backed by one of Beijing’s most documented influence organizations. Representatives from the Bush China Foundation, the Carter Center, and the Nixon family participated alongside Chinese Communist Party officials and Hong Kong authorities.

Internal event listings, published agendas, and foreign-language press reports show these individuals were not passive observers. They appeared in curated sessions, offered public commentary, and helped deliver exactly the type of legitimacy Beijing seeks from U.S. elites.

This is the first detailed reconstruction of what actually happened inside the Forum — and how China used it to advance its political influence strategy.

How CUSEF Targets U.S. Elites

According to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, the entity behind the Hong Kong Forum is not a neutral convener. It is part of a CCP political warfare system.

The Commission states that China’s United Front Work Department “conducts influence operations by co-opting and neutralizing challenges to the CCP’s political authority. It aims to influence foreign elites, think tanks, academics, and policymakers to promote Beijing’s political agenda.”

The Commission describes the United Front as “a network of organizations and individuals designed to guide, buy, or coerce overseas actors into serving Beijing’s political objectives.”

CUSEF appears directly within this network. The Commission identifies it as “a Beijing-linked influence platform that sponsors trips, dialogues, and outreach programs targeting U.S. policymakers, journalists, and academics.”

The Hong Kong Forum, with its politically connected American guests, no public debate, and tightly engineered messaging, is a textbook execution of this influence model.

Bush China Foundation: A $5 Million Relationship

Internal event documents list Neil Bush as a plenary speaker at the Forum. David Firestein, the President of the George H.W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations, also spoke.

This is not an isolated engagement. Newly reviewed filings show that his organization, the Bush China Foundation, accepted five million dollars from CUSEF, paid in one-million-dollar installments. In several years, the CUSEF money represented more than eighty percent of the Foundation’s annual operating budget.

The Forum’s agenda placed Bush in a flagship session titled “From the Ground Up: Strengthening U.S.–China Ties Through People.”

Bush described how “proud” he was of his collaboration with CUSEF during the panel, also promising to help “normalize our relationship and to help continue on a track where it can be once again okay to be win-win.”

Bush also described wanting to make Americans “less fearful” of China through more political and cultural exchanges, including through students, business and the stock market.

“It’s pretty imperative that we have more interaction between government leaders […] and hopefully the more normalized the relationship will get and the less fearful Americans will be of China. We need more Minister to Minister, we need more student exchanges, we need more exchanges on all fronts,” he explains.

Chinese media outlets covering the conference highlighted his presence, portraying him as a credible American voice calling for cooperation. In an on-site interview with Hong Kong broadcaster TVB, Bush echoed themes aligned with CUSEF’s messaging:

“To weaponise tariffs against China and Canada and Mexico, and friends all over the world, it’s a misinformed policy direction.”

The Forum’s speaker roster places Paige Alexander, CEO of the Carter Center, and Nicole Kruse, the Center’s vice president, inside the same plenary session as Bush, titled “From the Ground Up.”

Firestein moderated a discussion entitled “Outside the Security Lens: Beyond Tariffs, Politics, and Society.”

The Forum’s event website also shows Christopher Nixon Cox featured in a session branded “Nixon Dialogue.” The label alone reveals the strategic intent: to anchor today’s engagement in the historic 1972 opening to China and implicitly suggest that continued cooperation is America’s “original” bipartisan posture.

Chinese media amplified this framing. TVB quoted Cox directly:

“To rebuild that will take work… through dialogues, unearthing areas where we do have common interests… whether that’s in how we design the rules of the road for AI, whether that’s finding a way for our businesses to work together so both countries can profit.”

Academics, Former National Security Officials, and Cultural Figures Also Participated

The Forum website reveals additional U.S. figures appearing in sessions that match CCP influence priorities.

Michelle Williams, a Stanford professor, participated in a high-profile panel on global AI and health.

Ruby Yang, the Oscar-winning filmmaker, moderated a cultural soft-power session. China routinely uses cultural programming to neutralize security-focused narratives and shift attention toward “shared humanity.”

Two former senior U.S. officials also appeared: Dennis Wilder, former CIA and NSC official, and Rick Waters, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for China.

Both were listed as speakers in sessions on geopolitical risk and international cooperation, giving Beijing the ability to claim participation from U.S. national-security professionals.

None of these appearances were covered in U.S. media.

Its clear Beijing used a United Front–linked organization to convene American political heirs, U.S. institutional leaders, academics, cultural figures, and former national-security officials in a controlled environment designed to promote narratives favorable to the CCP.

The participation of the Bush China Foundation - funded by CUSEF itself - the Nixon family, and the Carter Center provided exactly the legitimacy CUSEF is structured to extract from U.S. elites.

This was not an academic gathering, nor a neutral diplomatic dialogue.

It was the execution of a long-standing influence strategy, relying on respected American names to obscure the CCP’s political objectives.