BEIJING, Nov. 14  -- Claiming to bring the "change" the United States needs, US President Barack Obama has been striving to be different since he took office in January.

    He has accomplished a plethora of firsts and will get one more: Obama will be the first US president to visit China within his first year in the Oval Office.

    Different from his predecessors, several of whom chose to speak at Chinese universities during their visits, Obama is scheduled to have a dialogue with young Chinese in Shanghai - speaking to them, taking questions and hearing directly from them.

    On top of formal talks with President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao in Beijing, he will do some sightseeing at the Great Wall and the Forbidden City.

    The trip will offer Obama firsthand insight into China.

    When Hu and his US counterpart met on the margins of the London G20 meeting in April, they pledged to work together to build a positive, cooperative and comprehensive relationship for the 21st century.

    During a short talk with Chinese and American college students recently, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said the Sino-US relationship of the 21st century should be anchored on the "common interest of mankind and common interest of China and the US".

    Without cooperation between China and the United States in conjunction with other countries, it will be difficult for the world to deal with such enormous issues as energy, food security, climate change and the international financial crisis, Yang said.

    Subsequent meetings, including the ones in New York and during Obama's visit to China, underscore the two countries' determination to sustain momentum.

    By sending high-ranking officials to each other's countries the two nations have taken specific steps to address and allay each other's concerns.

    At the first round of the China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Washington in July, the two countries pledged to intensify bilateral ties and expand cooperation on major international issues and shared global challenges.

    Chinese and American commerce officials signed important agreements on business and trade when meeting in Hangzhou for the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade in October.

    And the two countries have restarted high-level military-to-military dialogue, a barometer of the China-US relations. Xu Caihou, vice-chairman of China's Central Military Commission, and US Defense Secretary Robert Gates agreed to "seven points of consensus" on Sino-US military cooperation and exchanges, which deal with both practical and strategic concerns.

    Those concerns include high-level mutual visits and exchanges of military officials, more cooperation on humanitarian aid, broader communication on land forces and maritime security, and junior officer exchanges. Another agreement calls for joint air-sea search and rescue exercises.

    Ding Xinghao, president of Shanghai Association of American Studies, maintained that a crisis management mechanism is taking shape.

    The exchange of visits between the Chinese and American commercial and military officials helped lay the foundation for Obama's China trip.

    In its first eight months, the Obama administration has built on the efforts of its predecessors and kept bilateral relations on track.

    "I want to stress the importance of continuity in the US-China relationship, which has brought us to this very important stage today," US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg said in Washington in September when briefing the Obama administration's vision for bilateral relations.

    "We are ready to accept a growing role for China on the international stage, and in many areas, we have already embraced it," the US official said.

    Acceptance of the critical importance of bilateral ties, however, does not necessarily mean that distrust and disagreement have disappeared.

    "Adapting to the rise of China, as well as other emerging powers like India and Brazil, while protecting our own national interests. This, I believe, is one of the key strategic challenges of our time. And the key to solving it is what I would call strategic reassurance," Steinberg said.

    Niu Xinchun, research fellow of American Studies with the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said that Steinberg's words indicate a level of distrust which permeates current China-US relations.

    Mutual trust is the key to keeping bilateral relations growing steadily. Trade friction between China and the US in recent months is among the evidence that the two countries need to improve trust in each other.

    In September Obama decided to impose punitive duties of 35 percent on Chinese-made tires. The US Commerce Department announced a preliminary assessment on Chinese-imported steel wire decking. The US International Trade Commission approved probes into imports of high-quality paper from both China and Indonesia totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, as well as certain salts from China that are used in cleaning products, food additives and fertilizer.

    Still, the two countries are widely divided on the issues of Tibet and US arms sales to Taiwan, which are core interests of China.

    "Though China and the US pledge to strengthen strategic trust, it is difficult to get to it," said Fu Mengzi, an expert on American studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Studies. "Both sides need to take specific actions, especially the US."

    The two countries have reached consensus on this point.

    "Strategic assurance must find ways to highlight and reinforce the areas of common interest, while addressing the sources of mistrust directly, whether they be political, military or economic," Steinberg said.

    In spite of their differences, China and the US are making inroads to tally an impressively growing list of areas in which cooperation has been enhanced. But the two nations are far from intimate. This is the nature of China-US relations.

    "Given China's growing capabilities and influence, we have an especially compelling need to work with China to meet global challenges," Steinberg said. "Yet China's very size and importance also raises the risk of competition and rivalry that can thwart that cooperation."

    When Obama was elected president in November 2008, the celebrity-styled US president won many Chinese hearts. The Chinese people's passion for him has waned as time passes, though.

    A survey by Global Times online last week showed that Obama's China trip will not raise the Chinese people's expectations. Nearly 55 percent of the interviewees said they were not interested in his visit.

    The change from the blind optimism to coolheaded skepticism shows maturity, which is good for a normal, stable China-US relationship, experts said.

    (Source: China Daily)