The report also revealed that Obama faces a far more skeptical and frustrated public today than he did four years ago.

Only 33 percent expect economic conditions to improve over the coming year, compared with 43 percent in December 2008. And the public is pessimistic about the prospects for bipartisan cooperation in Washington. Just 23 percent expect Republicans and Democrats will work together more in the coming year. It was 50 percent in January 2009.

As Obama began his second term, many also expected him to do a better job in handling the relationship with China, which leaders in both countries have described as the most important bilateral relationship in the 21st century.

While the world's two largest economies have become more interdependent economically, there has also been an increase in tension in trade and economic dealings, as well as risk of growing strategic distrust and military miscalculation in the past few years.

Kenneth Lieberthal, a senior fellow and a leading China scholar at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank, offered his advice to Obama on his China policy during the second term in an open letter released last Thursday. "Your rebalancing strategy toward Asia has produced desirable results, including convincing China that the United States is serious, capable and determined to be a leader in the region for the long term. But this strategy is also generating dynamics that increasingly threaten to undermine its primary goals," Lieberthal said.

"It is therefore time to rebalance judiciously the rebalancing strategy, and China's leadership change provides you with an opportunity to do so."

Liberthal believes that taking a wide range of initiatives toward China during the second term could create very large payoffs.

Ni Feng, a researcher of American studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that Beijing would hope Washington focuses more on cooperation than on competition during Obama's second term.

"China would like to see Obama remove barriers that impede Chinese enterprises' investment in the US and further develop a trade partnership with China," he said.

Ni believes that on the security front, China would expect the US to give better consideration to its own strategic goals and the fundamental interest of China.

Pu Zhendong and Cheng Guangjin in Beijing contributed to this story.

chenweihua@chinadaily.com.cn