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.