The Obama administration has been making great efforts to build a broad partnership with China, but US President Barack Obama or his successor has to face the reality that competition has outweighed cooperation in Sino-US ties.

Therefore, some leading US experts argue that Washington and Beijing should manage competition while expanding cooperation to keep the relationship heading in the right direction.

The past three-and-a-half years have witnessed an unprecedented number of high-level exchanges between Chinese and US officials, including 12 meetings between President Hu Jintao and Obama, the annual Strategic and Economic Dialogues, the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, and many military exchanges.