China's Xi Jinping Would Be Force for U.S. to Contend With President Obama in February with Xi Jinping, who is to take power in China at a time when their nations" ties are adrift. BEIJING - On one of his many visits abroad in recent years, Xi Jinping, the presumptive new leader of China, met in 2009 with local Chinese residents in Mexico City, where in a relaxed atmosphere he indirectly criticized the United States. "There are a few foreigners, with full bellies, who have nothing better to do than try to point fingers at our country," Mr. Xi said, according to a tape broadcast on Hong Kong television. China does not export revolution, hunger, poverty nor does China cause you any headaches. Just what else do you want? Mr. Xi is set to be elevated to the top post of the Chinese Communist Party at the 18th Party Congress scheduled to begin here on Nov. 8 - only two days after the American election. He will take the helm of a more confident China than the United States has ever known. He will be assuming supreme power in China at a time when relations between the two countries are adrift, sullied by suspicions over a clash of interests in Asia and by frequent attacks on China in the American presidential campaign. In the last four months, China has forged an aggressive, more nationalistic posture in Asia that may set the tone for Mr. Xi's expected decade-long tenure, analysts and diplomats say, pushing against American allies, particularly Japan, for what China considers its territorial imperatives. The son of a revolutionary general, Mr. Xi, 59, boasts far closer ties to China's fast-growing military than the departing leader, Hu Jintao, had when he took office. As Mr. Xi rose through the ranks of the Communist Party, he made the most of parallel posts in the People's Liberation Army, deeply familiarizing himself with the inner workings of the armed forces. Even if Mr. Xi does not immediately become head of the crucial Central Military Commission as well as party leader, he will almost certainly do so within two years, giving him at least eight years as the direct overseer of the military. This combination of political power as head of the Communist Party and good relations with a more robust military could make Mr. Xi a formidable leader for Washington to contend with, analysts and diplomats in China and the United States say. "The basic question is whether Xi will suspend the drift in the U.S.-China relationship and take concrete steps to put it on a more positive footing - or will he put it on a different, more confrontational track?" said Christopher K. Johnson, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, and until recently a China analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency. The answer appears to lie somewhere in between. In a speech in Washington in February, Mr. Xi said that China and the United States should forge a "new type of relationship between major countries in the 21st century." Mr. Xi offered little specificity beyond respect for each side's "core interests and major concerns," "increasing mutual understanding and strategic trust" and "enhancing cooperation and coordination in international affairs." But essentially, said Jin Canrong, a professor at the School of International Studies at Renmin University in Beijing, Mr. Xi was challenging the global leadership of the United States by suggesting that Washington needs to make room for China's rising power. "China should shoulder some responsibility for the United States and the United States should share power with China," Dr. Jin said. "The United States elites won't like it," he added, "but they will have to" accept it. Dr. Jin predicted that the Chinese economy would continue to grow at a much faster pace than America's. "That fact will change their minds," Dr. Jin said of American attitudes toward sharing power with China. Before becoming heir apparent - ascending at the last party congress in 2007 to the position of first secretary of the Communist Party and then a few months later to the vice presidency of the Chinese government - Mr. Xi had little exposure to the world beyond China. Bree Feng contributed reporting.