US ex-president's quest to advance China-US ties kept alive

Firestein said that while for the most part of the last half century — until the Trump administration, there had been a bipartisan consensus that it was good for America to engage China, there's now "unfortunately" a new consensus in Washington that pictures China as its "enemy".

Both Bush and Firestein proposed the US and China cooperate on climate change, pandemic prevention, the Afghanistan situation and in the energy sector.