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

The US and China have so much in common than what divides the two countries, Bush, who is Founder and Chairman of George H.W. Bush Foundation for US-China relations, said in an interview with People’s Daily.

There are issues that need to be addressed in the US-China relations including the problem of intellectual property. Bush said China is becoming more and more mature in all aspects, intellectual property protection is a high priority for the Chinese government and is moving forward very steadily, the problem will be solved over time, and it will not be solved by imposing tariffs. His advice to 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 jackhammer.

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

It shows a flaw in the US democracy, where politicians dare not to do the right things, 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 being infiltrated to 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 that the US has to be the biggest and the best. They hold the wrong view that China’s rise represented a threat to the US’ economy and national security, he said.

There is no doubt that the 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 the globalization and the development of relationship with China. At the same time, China witnessed a 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 in mutually gain from our bilateral relationship. “The US-China relations is not a zero-sum game. Cooperation between the two countries is the only correct choice.”