Bush 41 was in an extreme hurry to curry favor with Red China. He didn’t even let the Tiananmen Square Massacre get in the way of that. And after his Presidency he made it clear he lived in a soft ethical vacuum by making a big point of his friendship with Clinton.
My guess is that he thought he was reaching out to China.
China wasn't interested in fair trade so it was a mistake.
They benefited from normalization but what did we get in return?