Sino-US relations are expected to continue improving with increased exchanges as the US government invited Chinese President Xi Jinping for a state visit this year, with analysts believing that healthy relations between the two world powers are key to ensuring a stable world order.

US National Security Adviser Susan Rice said on Friday that Washington has invited Xi to pay a state visit this year "in furtherance of relationships throughout [the] vital region."

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Indonesian President Joko Widodo were also invited for a state visit to the US, Rice said.

Xi's expected visit would be his first to the White House since taking office. It would also be the latest summit between him and Obama, following the informal summit in California in June 2013, and their meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings in Beijing last November.

Analysts said China will continue to push for a "new model of major-country relations," despite the US intention to further promote its "rebalancing" Asian strategy.

Zhou Wenzhong, former ambassador of China to the US, said that as international society is faced with an increasingly complicated situation, a healthy Sino-US relationship is key to ensuring the stability of the world order.

Shi Yinhong, director of the Center for American Studies at the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times that Sino-US relations will continue to improve with increased exchanges, ensuring the stability of the Asia-Pacific region.

Presenting Obama's updated national security strategy, Rice said it aims to "enhance our focus on regions that will shape the century ahead, starting with the Asia-Pacific."

However, Shi believes differences between the two countries, including maritime disputes in the South China Sea, the cyber security row between the US and China, and North Korea's nuclear development, will continue to dominate the agenda between the two leaders.

"China has replaced the US as the leading economic influence over the Asia-Pacific region. [To counter that influence], the US is eager to reassert its influence in the security domain, insisting that it is still the key player in the region," Liu Weidong, a US studies expert with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.

Xi and Obama had started to establish a stronger rapport since their private meeting in California in 2013. The two also shared a long and private talk in Beijing after the APEC meetings, when Xi described Obama's visit as a key step in pushing forward with the building of a "new model of major-country relations."

However, during the annual State of the Union address in January, Obama said the US, instead of China, must write trade rules for Asia. 

Liu said the nature of Sino-US relations has so far not been clearly defined, and China is likely to seek to consolidate the notion during the summit between Xi and Obama.

"China and the US are neither allies nor enemies, and there has been conflicting information about the two countries' relations. Compared with China, the US has been less clear in its attitude toward Sino-US relations," said Liu.

The "new model of major-country relations" was a concept proposed by Xi during his visit to Washington in 2012, who said such a relationship would be characterized by mutual understanding and strategic trust, respecting each other's core interests, mutually beneficial cooperation, and enhancing cooperation and coordination in international affairs and on global issues.

Liu Jiangyong, a vice dean of the Institute of Modern International Relations at Tsinghua University, said that while Obama has shown commitment to stable Sino-US relations and a willingness to accept China's concept of a "new model of major-country relations," some countries like Japan have been active in breaking such relations by using the differences between China and the US for its own interest.

Also on Friday, the US government unveiled its National Security Strategy, which set out measures to "advance our rebalance to Asia and the Pacific."

The document makes repeated mention of China, saying that it welcomes the rise of a "stable, peaceful and prosperous China," and rejects the inevitability of confrontation.

At the same time, the document said that the US would insist that China upholds international rules and norms, in possible reference to China's territorial disputes with neighboring countries.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said Friday that major countries should perceive each other's strategic intentions in a rational way.

China has been working with the US to build a new model of major-country relations based on no-conflict, no-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation, Liu said.