Former State councilor Dai Bingguo's proposal in a speech on Tuesday that China and the US should turn down the heat on the South China Sea issue has struck a chord with some US observers.

"I think State councilor Dai made very good points ... especially that we need to lower the temperature, cut back on the rhetoric, to continue to talk friendly," said Brendan S. Mulvaney, associate chair of the US Naval Academy's Languages and Cultures Department.

He made the comment at a news conference on Wednesday in which Chinese and US experts shared the results of the dialogue in Washington between Chinese and US think tanks on the South China Sea.

Dai said in his speech he would explore ways to genuinely "cool down" the South China Sea issue and "restore calm to this part of the world".

"We just need to be able to discuss issues when we have different opinions to solve these problems," Mulvaney said.

Chinese scholars, including Wu Shicun, president of the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, and Zhu Feng, director of the Collaborative Innovation Center of South China Sea Studies at Nanjing University, talked about the history of South China Sea, about the arbitration case initiated unilaterally by the Philippines, and how the US and China should work together on the issue.

US experts, including J. Stapleton Roy, former US ambassador to China, shared views from the US side.

Both sides agreed that the two countries should have more direct exchanges and communication.

"We don't need to accept China's position, and China doesn't need to accept the US position, but we do need to understand each other's positions, and (when there are) doubts and concerns on things ... then we can work to understand, to find ways to solve these issues and to manage them, most importantly, to prevent a crisis or a conflict from exploding," Mulvaney said.

Contact the writer at leshuodong@chinadailyusa.com