A scion of the Bush family is lending his influence and family name to boost a Chinese government contractor blacklisted by the U.S. government for its links to the Chinese military.

Neil Bush, the son of President George H.W. Bush, is a cosponsor of the International Symposium on the Peaceful Use of Space Technology that begins Nov. 18 in Beijing. Three co-chairmen of the forum are executives with the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), a state-controlled contractor that builds China's military and space equipment. A subsidiary of CASC reportedly developed a hypersonic missile that the Chinese military tested in August. American officials called the nuclear-capable missile a "national security crisis" because of its ability to evade detection.

Bush's sponsorship of the space symposium adds a veneer of respectability to the event amid growing concerns about China's increasingly aggressive military and space activities. The Trump and Biden administrations have prohibited American companies from doing business with CASC because of its position in the Chinese military-industrial apparatus. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute, which tracks China's military activities, rates CASC a "very high risk" to foreign nations' security because of its links to China's military and intelligence services.

Bush has extensive business ties in China and has worked closely with some of the country's propaganda organizations. He chairs the George H.W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations, which is cosponsoring the space symposium. The Bush Foundation received $5 million in funding in 2019 from the China-United States Exchange Foundation, a leading think tank in the Communist Party's propaganda network. Bush's business partner, the Chinese real estate investor Wang Tianyi, is executive chairman of the space symposium.

"Bush is basically a power broker. He's an access point for the Chinese to leverage," said Brandon Weichert, a space security analyst and author of the book Winning Space.

Weichert said the space symposium follows "the classic Chinese model" of using academic and business forums to recruit experts and investors in the West.

"One of their big missions is to get Western talent and investment to come to China to do cutting-edge research and development," Weichert told the Washington Free Beacon.