Sino-US ties in focus as Obama wins 2nd term

A president at the beginning of a second term in the White House is in need of a legacy and expectations are running high for improved relations after US President Barack Obama was sworn in for another four years.

Obama was officially inaugurated at a White House ceremony on Sunday as the US Constitution requires that the president be sworn in by Jan 20. A public ceremony will be held on Monday.

Leaders of both China and the US have already defined their ties as the most important relationship of the century. After a bruising presidential campaign, characterized by China bashing by both political parties, recent months have seen a cooling of rhetoric.

When Obama met with Premier Wen Jiabao in November, the US president described the relationship as "cooperative and constructive''.

Party chief Xi Jinping told former US president Jimmy Carter last month that both countries should build a partnership based on respect.

Despite media attempts to hype intense rivalry between the two countries, Jeffrey Bader, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former senior director for East Asia affairs in Obama's National Security Council, said ties have been quite good.

The two leading economies in the world have become each other's second-largest trade partners, with bilateral trade approaching $500 billion.

China is one of the fastest-growing markets for US exports and the biggest market for US farm products. Even Apple CEO Tim Cook predicted a week ago that China will replace the US as the company's largest market.

Meanwhile, the number of Chinese students at US colleges and universities has reached a record high of 194,000, a 23 percent increase from a year ago, while the US has embarked on a 100,000-strong initiative to send US students to study in China.

The countries have become so interdependent that Larry Summers, the former treasury secretary and economic adviser to Obama, said he could picture a 21st century in which the US and China prosper and he could picture a 21st century in which the US and China do not prosper, but he could not picture a 21st century in which one of the two prospered and the other did not.

Obama was the first US president to visit China during his first year in office, in 2009, and President Hu Jintao and Vice-President Xi Jinping both visited the US in the last two years.

China and the US have also worked together over the last year on a host of global issues.

"I see the relationship as in pretty good shape. I don't see a downward spiral or the rising confrontation that I read about frequently in the media and in commentaries, both in the United States and in China," Bader told a conference in Beijing two months ago.

Bader said that while he may be a person who sees the glass as half full, he is not unaware of public concerns, including tension arising from maritime disputes.

While Washington denies that the US pivot, or rebalancing, to Asia is aimed at containing China, many Chinese people remain deeply skeptical.

Zha Daojiong, a professor of international relations at Peking University, believes the US is biased in favor of Japan concerning the Diaoyu Islands.

That sentiment is also strong among many Chinese citizens especially after US leaders stressed that the islands in the East China Sea were covered by the US-Japan security and defense treaty.

The rapid growth of US arms sales in Asia and its aggressive push for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade bloc that excludes China, fuels concerns over the US regional role.

The pivot to Asia has also sparked heated debate within the US.