Political writer Hsia Chen says that when Lien was foreign minister, he laid the foundations of pragmatic diplomacy, and allowed Kuo Wan-jung to attend the Asian Development Bank annual conference in Beijing.
《政海沉沉楚天闊》的作者夏珍說，連戰擔任外交部長時，奠定了務實外交的成果，讓郭婉容可以到北京參加亞銀年會。