IS the state of US-China relation really as bad as the headline of our story on Saturday said it was?“China-US power struggle seen to worsen,” the headline said.

Chito Sta. Romana, an Emmy award-winning journalist and former ABC News China bureau chief, said that “the relations between the United States and China at present have elements of both cooperation and competition.”

He said that the two countries are “economically interdependent and intertwined,” but there are economic reasons that will challenge both nations “in the near and medium term.”

Some of the issues hounding the relations of both countries include the Chinese currency the Yuan, the huge trade surplus in favor of China, limited access to US goods in the Chinese market, and the protection of intellectual property.

“Moreover, the element of competition in the strategic, military and political spheres is growing, particularly with the US pivot to Asia,” added Sta. Romana, who spent nearly 30 years in China before returning to the Philippines.

Amid the turmoil in the territorial disputes between China and its neighboring countries, US President Barack Obama launched his Pacific Rim policy, which indicated that the world superpower, that had been preoccupied with its “War Against Terror” campaign in the Middle East for a decade, is finally back in the Asia-Pacific region.

Obama and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton both maintained Washington’s “strategic interests” to ensure peace, stability and freedom of navigation in the region.

The West Philippine Sea—which has the highly disputed Kalayaan (Spratly) Islands, Paracel Islands, Pratas Islands and Macclesfield Bank—connects the Indian and the Pacific Oceans. More than $5 trillion worth of global trade passes by the link annually. It is the major sea route for trade between the United States, Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

Sta. Romana believes that the decision of the US to refocus on the Asia-Pacific region is a major consideration for China’s new leadership, which will soon be known in a few weeks after the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

Xi Jinping, believed to be a reformist that would take the route towards China’s “peaceful development” rather than focus on the internal clamor for aggressive actions against the Philippines, Japan and Vietnam, is widely speculated as the successor to the post that will be vacated by Chinese President Hu Jintao.

In his speech during the opening of the Party Congress, Hu said that China would follow the late Deng Xiaoping’s policies: push for an open market, a more liberal economy and maintaining good relations with its neighbors.

Jennifer Richmond, China director for US-based security think-tank Stratfor, told The Times through an email that unless there is a dramatic collapse in the Asian economic powerhouse’s economy, its naval and space capabilities will continue to improve to protect territorial claims.

“China’s claims on the West and East China Seas will not abate with the new leadership. One of the problems that the government is facing is the internal nationalist pressure to maintain these claims. If they were to change their stance now, domestically they may appear weak, and as public unrest rises within China due to economic and other factors, weakness is not an image they want to portray,” she said.