Bush's views echoed other speakers, who attributed the formerly healthy Sino-US relationship to the wisdom of previous foreign policy intellectuals in dealing with disagreements between the two countries in the 1970s.

"The normalization was achieved because a balance was struck between American and Chinese imperatives", said Mark Brzezinski, former US ambassador to Sweden and son of former US national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was known as "Jimmy Carter's Kissinger" for playing an instrumental role in the normalization of China-US relations.