Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) accepted an award last week from a group tied to both the Bush family and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the Washington Free Beacon reports.
With little fanfare, the award was given out by the George H.W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations, declaring that Feinstein represented their shared goals of “a robust and mutually beneficial U.S.-China relationship.” One of the major donors to the Bush Foundation is the China-U.S. Exchange Foundation (CUSEF), a think tank based in Hong Kong that works closely with the CCP to produce propaganda. In 2019, the CUSEF gave a $5 million grant to the Bush Foundation.
Even members of the Biden Administration have been critical of the CUSEF, with CIA Director William Burns admitting in his confirmation hearing that he, as president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, had severed all ties between the Carnegie Endowment and CUSEF due to the latter’s CCP ties. One of the senators present at that confirmation hearing was Feinstein.
Feinstein had previously faced scrutiny for the fact that her Senate office employed a suspected Chinese spy, who worked as her driver and served other various roles for over 20 years before his recent retirement. Despite this and other controversies related to China, Feinstein remains a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
The Bush Foundation was founded by Neil Bush, one of the sons of the late former President George H.W. Bush. Bush has also come under fire for his Chinese sympathies, at one point voicing his opposition to the pro-democracy Hong Kong protests in 2019.
Bush released a statement responding to criticism of the award being given to Feinstein, pointing out that the same award had also been given to former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the man who brokered the historic deal to first open relations between the U.S. and China under the Nixon Administration. “Like my father was,” Bush said, “they [Kissinger and Feinstein] have long been powerful and effective advocates for the idea that America’s vital interests are best served by a U.S.-China relationship that is functional, constructive, results-oriented, mutually beneficial, and politically sustainable.”