Cheng Li, director of the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings, believes the two countries are making efforts, through official and semi-official preparations, to ensure that Xi's visit is a success.

"This is not only the hope of the leaders of the nations, but their people as well," he said.

Li said that the enormous common interests and complementary nature of the two economies have created a good environment for mutual cooperation.

He is more worried about misunderstandings, whether it's the Chinese who believe the US has changed its China policy, or Westerners who either think China is too powerful or too weak.

"These are all incorrect views," he said.

Jonathan Pollack, a senior fellow at the Thornton center, estimated that

Xi's trip to Washington is going to be brief, at most 24 hours.

He hopes China could show some flexibility with respect to the discussions with its neighbors in ASEAN, clearly referring to the maritime territorial disputes in the South China Sea. He said that if there is an announcement by all parties to freeze their activities in the South China Sea, it would help reduce negative press coverage in the US.

Teng Jianqun, an expert on US studies at the CIIS, disagreed. He said the South China Sea situation became complicated in 2009, after the US launched its rebalance-to-Asia strategy.

Many Chinese hold the view that the US is biased in the South and East China seas disputes and has emboldened countries that have maritime territorial disputes with China to take a more confrontational attitude.

Scott Kennedy, director of the Project on Chinese Business and Political Economy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said people will need to see some compromise on some of the difficult issues.

"And that will provide a foundation for emphasizing all of the things we can cooperate on as well," he said. "But if they don't address this growing list of challenges, the emphasis on cooperation will seem hollow."

chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com