Roy said the Taiwan issue was a "potential instability factor," but in reality would not likely cause a rift in relations under the Obama administration, because the United States adheres to the one-China policy and does not support "independence" for Taiwan.

Zhou said it would help if the United States agreed not to sell Taiwan any more arms. The Bush administration sold $6.5 billion worth of weapons, including attack helicopters and missiles, to Taiwan last October.

The day after Obama was sworn in, Yuan Peng, Director of the Institute of American Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, wrote in a commentary in China Daily that other potential sticking points could jolt the bilateral relationship under Obama. Among these he cited the high expectations that the Obama administration has for China to continue buying U.S. treasuries, its push for China to increase its investment in the International Monetary Fund, and its call for China to step up its coordination with the United States on financial system reform. He went on to say that Obama's top issues would be China's currency exchange rate, product quality, intellectual property rights and the opening of financial markets, and he forecast that the new administration would not soften its position on human rights and ideological values.

"China and the United States should make joint efforts to prevent potential problems from hijacking bilateral ties," Yuan wrote in China Daily.

Hard act to follow?

China's concerns about Obama grew early on last year when the then presidential hopeful criticized Chinese-made toys that contained lead, issued a call to let the yuan appreciate freely, and suggested that Bush not attend the Beijing Olympics in August.

Last September, Obama outlined his views on Sino-American ties in a letter to the American Chamber of Commerce in China. In it, he highlighted key issues, including trade and investment, and called on Beijing to balance the country's growth by improving the country's social safety net and upgrading its financial service sector to be in line with international norms. He also called on Chinese leaders to let the yuan further appreciate and said he would make more effort to deal with intellectual property rights protection in China, unfair trade practices and policies that discriminate against foreign investors. He also vowed to work with China on climate change issues and national security threats, among others.

"Cooperation on the key, enduring global challenges, such as climate change, can deepen understanding and enhance confidence," Obama wrote. "We also need to deepen high-level dialogues on a sustained basis on economic, security and global political issues. Our militaries should increase not only the quantity of their contacts but the quality of their engagement."

As soon as Obama took office, Chinese defense officials called on his administration to improve military ties with them.

"Only when both countries respect each other's core interests can we consolidate the political base of our military relations," said a spokesman at China's Ministry of National Defense in an article in China Daily on January 20.