(MCT) — WASHINGTON — China may be the centerpiece of the Obama administration’s second-term foreign policy agenda, with U.S. strategists trying to avoid entanglement in Syria or Mali in order to stay focused on a vision of reasserting the American presence in Asia.

But getting sucked back into Middle East and North African conflicts isn’t the only risk to the administration’s so-called “Asia pivot”: The United States still hasn’t found the right tone for its dealings with China, say analysts who specialize in Asia-Pacific issues.