Xi Jinping, China's vice-president who is set to be the country's next top leader, is set to meet Barack Obama, the US president, for "get to know" talks on Tuesday after arriving in Washington DC.

Xi will replace Hu Jintao as the leader of China's ruling Communist Party late this year, and then succeed Hu as president in 2013.

Al Jazeera's Melissa Chang reports from Beijing on the significance of Xi's meeting with US officials.