US President Barack Obama is expected to challenge China this week when Asia-Pacific leaders gather in the Philippines to speak out the lobbying and a territorial row to set pro-American trade rules.

China's President Xi Jinping will also be in Manila for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference, which is an annual event meant to promote unity on free trade within the region.

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According to Today Online, this year's meeting risks becoming entangled in various US-China power struggles.

Following the Paris attacks, the global menace of terrorism is expected to be a talking point at the meeting.

Security precautions for the summit, which will bring together leaders from 21 Pacific Rim economies, has already been undertaken by Philippine authorities

According to former US ambassador Curtis S. Chin, China said it wanted the summit to focus only on trade but the French attacks and US attention on the South China Sea showed this is unrealistic.

Chin, who works with a non-partisan think-tank, said one cannot separate the non-economic and the economic in today's interconnected world.

China insists it has rights to almost all of the South China Sea, even waters approaching the coasts of its Asian neighbors.

The Vietnam, Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan have overlapping claims to some of the waters, which is an important shipping trade route.

China's island building in the Spratlys archipelago prompted the US military to recently send a missile destroyer warship and B-52 bomber planes to the area, Business Insider reported.

The South China Sea dispute, according to China, is not a relevant topic for the regional trade and economic meeting. But Susan Rice, the US National Security Advisor, said the dispute would be a central issue during the Obama's 3-day trip to the Philippines which will start on Tuesday. The issue is expected to also be a key topic during the US president's subsequent visit to Malaysia for another regional summit.

Susan emphasized that Obama would raise the issue of maritime security and freedom of movement -- terms commonly used when referring to the dispute. 

The U.S President will also use the Asian trip to promote the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) mega-trade deal, which was agreed upon last month by 12 APEC nations, excluding China. 

On the sidelines of APEC, the leaders of the TPP nations, since signing the agreement for the organization, will meet for the first time. Rice said that the TPP is central to the vision of the region's future.

Rice also retaliated that it is a crucial step to a high-standard free trade area in Asia and the Pacific, and the goal of boosting the open rules-based economic system led by the US since World War II.

China has noted it will go ahead on with its own effort to promote regional economic rules with a planned Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP).

Wang Shouwen, the Chinese vice commerce minister told a briefing in Beijing that they need to actively work for the establishment of FTAAP, Yahoo News reported.

China sought to champion the FTAAP at last year's APEC summit, which it hosted, and a report would be released in Manila on its progress as promised by Wang.

APEC members account for 40% of the world's population and 57% of the global economy.

Indonesia's Joko Widodo and his counterpart Russian President Vladimir Putinare have said that they will not attend the upcoming summit.

TagsBarack Obama, Asia Pacific, Barack Obama Visit Philippines, Pacific Rim economies, brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, Trans-Pacific Partnership, APEC summit