Barack Obama will be sworn in as US president for a second term on Jan 21. Obama's re-election as US president and Xi Jinping's election as China's top leader have intensified global discussions on whether the two countries' ties will improve or deteriorate and whether a new power-to-power relationship will develop between them.

Some media in the United States and Japan have been promoting the view that there is an increasingly heavy smell of gunpowder emanating from China’s “rhetoric” in its recent disputes with other regional countries.

It is a matter of routine for the media in the United States to carry articles written by top US scholars at the end of a year and the beginning of the next, expressing concern over the country's prospects.

Hawaii will host the 2011 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum from Thursday to Saturday, the second time the United States will be holding the event in 18 years.