Gerald R. Ford, who picked up the pieces of Richard Nixon's scandal-shattered White House as the 38th and only unelected president in America's history, has died, his wife, Betty, said on Tuesday. He was 93.

Ford had been living at his desert home in Rancho Mirage, California, about 200 kilometres east of Los Angeles.

US President George W. Bush described Ford as "a great American" who "helped heal our land and restore public confidence in the presidency."

President Hu Jintao and Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing yesterday sent messages to Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, offering condolences over Ford's death.

Chinese analysts yesterday praised Ford for his contribution to Sino-US relations.

"He made efforts to maintain the momentum of Sino-US ties after Nixon's pathbreaking visit to China, despite the fallout of the Watergate scandal which led to Nixon's downfall and the ensuing political crisis," Tao Wenzhao, a senior researcher at the Institute of American Studies affiliated to the Chinese

Academy of Social Sciences, told China Daily.

In a US foreign policy address on April 10, 1975, Ford said: "With the People's Republic of China, we are firmly fixed on the course set forth in the Shanghai Communiqu."

The communiqu, signed on February 28, 1972 during Nixon's visit to China, acknowledges that "all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Straits maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China." The US also affirms the ultimate objective of the withdrawal of all US forces and military

installations from Taiwan.

"After two decades of mutual isolation and hostility, we have, in recent years, built a promising foundation," Ford said.

"Deep differences in our philosophy and social systems will endure, but so should our mutual long-term interests and the goals to which our countries have jointly subscribed in Shanghai.

"Stability in Asia and the world require our constructive relations with one-fourth of the human race."

Ford's December 1975 visit to China reinforced the relationship which was initiated during Nixon's visit.

During the five-day visit, Ford met Chairman Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, then vice-premier, in Beijing; and promised to normalize China-US relations if he won the 1976 presidential election.

However, he was defeated by Jimmy Carter, who in 1978 established formal diplomatic ties.

Mei Renyi, director of the American Studies Centre at Beijing Foreign Studies University, told China Daily: "We could not expect remarkable progress in China-US ties because Ford took office at a time when Republicans were facing a political crisis following the Watergate scandal and seen as a lame-duck party."

Mei said that two sides didn't make breakthroughs in relations because China didn't accept Ford's proposal for an embassy in Beijing because he also insisted keeping the liaison office in Taiwan.

Mei cited political turmoil in China then as another reason for stagnation in the development of bilateral ties. "The two sides were too preoccupied with domestic affairs," said Mei.

Source: China Daily/agencies