While the Xi-Obama Summit was meant to mend US-China relations, Donald Kirk explains the lack of discourse on Asia-Pacific regional issues has only heightened tensions between North and South Korea.

American and Chinese audiences have received the Sunnylands summit between Presidents Xi and Obama very differently. According to Tao Wenzhao, the meeting was of great historical significance to China-US relations, marking a new path for major power relations.

One of the main breakthroughs from the informal summit between the leaders of China and the US was that Presidents Barack Obama and Xi Jinping did agree to work together on keeping North Korea in check and the Korean peninsula nuclear free, writes George Koo.

Latin America is quickly emerging as an area of interest to China. Long believed to be the “backyard” of the United States, this paradigm may be changing as China’s influence and involvement with several Latin American countries grows at astonishing rates and the United States attempts to hold on to its waning influence in the region.

In the struggle for global hegemony, Asia will be a key region. The United States’ influence in the region is at a key point as China continues to rise. With the Xi-Obama summit arriving, the definition of each states’ interests by its leader will be critical in the creation of a potential new relationship between the world’s two largest powers.

Despite a strenuous past between the U.S. and China regarding North Korea, recent months have shown a change from the Chinese government. As Chinese criticism of Pyongyang has come with other pressures from China, there may be reason for U.S. leaders to be optimistic about a partnership in the issue.

The competition between the US and China for energy resources is growing. China, the world’s largest energy user, is trying to play catch up on decades of research and development, stronger infrastructural development and the advanced data of the US to ensure it has the energy resources necessary to fuel a growing economy.

As Presidents Obama and Xi prepare for their upcoming meeting in California, Ren Xiao asks whether North Korea is an asset for China or a liability and claims that this continues to pose a fundamental question for Beijing.

One of the crucial factors in defining the success of Sunnylands will be the discussion of the US pivot to Asia. The current situation and future plans of the US shift are cause for instability in the region. Positive change can only come if the US relinquishes some responsibility to China and other regional powers.

When Barack Obama and Xi Jinping meet this week for an unusual two-day summit in Rancho Mirage, California, the two presidents will lay the ground for their joint stewardship of a bilateral relationship often described as the world’s most important.