The eagerly awaited visit of Vice-President Xi Jinping to the United States this week could help him boost his stature at home while offering US officials a chance to learn more about him before he takes over as Communist Party chief this autumn.
After a once-in-a-decade leadership change, Xi will succeed Hu Jintao as president in March next year.
'That will largely be a get-to-know-you trip - one that President Hu did a decade ago - aimed at building person-to-person relations in preparation for the leadership change,' Professor Jin Canrong, a Sino-US affairs expert at Renmin University, said.
Lu Ting, chief China economist for Bank of America's Merrill Lynch unit, agreed the main purpose of the visit, which begins on Tuesday, is to help Xi and US leaders get more familiar with one another. 'The visit should be more about exchanging views than negotiating real deals, as Xi is not the president yet,' Lu said.
In an interview last week, US ambassador to China Gary Locke called Xi 'a very personable individual'.
'We don't know how he would respond to some of these economic issues, which is why it's so important that we establish that relationship as quickly as possible,' Locke told PBS television.