"To prevent China from challenging its dominance, the US will increase its strategic suppression of Beijing's role on the global stage in the coming years. Its recent naval drills with South Korea and its moves to improve ties with certain South Asian countries are perfect examples of this," he added.

Citing an unnamed Indian scholar, Zhong Feiteng, another researcher at the institute, said China favors a multi-polar world and a uni-polar Asia, but the US is seeking the opposite.

"Washington's ambitions in Asia will inevitably clash with China's interests, a factor enlarged by regional incidents this year," he said. "On the other hand, China's fast development has caused a growing sense of unease in neighboring countries, and this has created new opportunities for the US. In the future, the Chinese government must learn to modulate its approach to sooth other countries' concerns."

Despite these difficulties, some concrete progress was apparent in 2010, such as the positive example set seen during the second round of the bilateral Strategic and Economic Dialogue and the resumption of human rights talks.

In trade talks last week, the US and China pledged to work on improved protection of patents and other intellectual property, reforms of technology innovation policies and increased access for US beef and poultry exports to China, according to the AP.

"In economic terms, the two sides are getting more and more interdependent. Cooperation and competition will intertwine to form the long-term narrative of their relationship," Cao added.

Jin Canrong, deputy dean of the School of International Studies at Renmin University of China, said that Sino-US relations have developed a new sense of maturity.

"Sometimes, there are more competition than cooperation, and vice-versa. For example, 2009 was hailed as a good year. There will be no elections in the US in 2011, so we can expect fewer problems," he said.