BEIJING — Walk into the exhibit hall at Beijing's Cultural Palace of Nationalities and there is George W. Bush, larger than life on a 15-foot-high video screen, praising China's growth.
The 43rd American president is shown again, waving an American flag with his wife, at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, and yet again, walking with Chinese President Hu Jintao past an honor guard in the Great Hall of the People.
Bush might be leaving office with record-high disapproval ratings in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world, but he has many fans in China. He is depicted in a dozen flattering photographs on display at an exhibit in Beijing marking the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two nations.
Contemplating his imminent departure, many Chinese are openly expressing affection toward the man they call Xiao Bush, or "Young Bush," to distinguish him from "Old Bush," the 41st U.S. president.
"Bush made some mistakes in foreign policy, especially with Iraq, but for the Chinese, he had been a true friend," said Mao Baoshu, a retired nuclear specialist who was attending the exhibit Tuesday.
Many Chinese credit the Bush administration's free-trade policies with helping the Chinese economy blossom over the last eight years. They appreciate its efforts to rein in the fiery anti-Beijing rhetoric of former Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian. And Bush's attendance of the opening ceremony of last summer's Olympics, at a time when many world leaders were urging a boycott because of China's human rights record, is viewed with deep gratitude.
"We will never forget that the leader of the most developed country in the world stood up to pressure to come to the Olympics," Mao said.
In fact, China's appreciation of Bush is part of an unlikely romance between the Republican Party and the Chinese Communist Party that dates to President Nixon's historic visit in 1972.
Nixon and Henry Kissinger, who as national security advisor set up the China trip the year before, also are lavishly celebrated in the photo exhibit, which opened Monday. Jimmy Carter, who was president when the treaty to normalize ties was signed in 1979, attended an opening ceremony, as did Kissinger.
Though both Carter and Bill Clinton have places of honor on the walls, the GOP reigns in the display of photographs. One particularly popular image, which frequently appears in the Chinese media, shows George H.W. Bush in 1974, when he was the top U.S. envoy to Beijing, posing casually with a bicycle in front of the Forbidden City.
