China and the US must lead by example for peace in Asia-Pacific

US National Security Adviser Susan Rice's recent trip to China has raised expectations that when President Barack Obama visits Beijing in November, the current testy relations between the two countries can be improved.

Obama will attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders' summit and confer with President Xi Jinping in a follow-up to their meeting at Sunnylands in California last June. Last week, Rice worked with the Chinese on details of the presidential visit, which she expects to be an "important milestone".

Sino-US ties have suffered severe setbacks of late, highlighted by the recent tension over a Chinese fighter jet's interception of a US surveillance plane over the South China Sea. The US insists the area near Hainan Island is in international waters, but Beijing claims US patrols harm its security interests.

In Beijing, when Rice demanded that China halt the "dangerous intercepts", General Fan Changlong requested that the US "reduce or stop reconnaissance activities" near China. Pentagon and State Department officials later expressed no intention to cease US surveillance flights targeting China.

There seems to be little room to manoeuvre on security issues. China will not make concessions on its territorial claims in the East and South China seas, which it sees as "core interests". Nevertheless, the US will not give up its long-established interests in the area, either.

Consequently, to counterbalance the US pivot to Asia, China is getting closer to Russia while Moscow's relationship with Washington is at its nadir since the cold war because of the Ukraine crisis.

Xi met his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, last week while attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tajikistan, and called for Beijing and Moscow to offer each other a "helping hand" in dealing with external challenges.