China is also the largest foreign creditor for the United States. China's challenges and difficulties are mainly internal, and there is a desire to maintain stable relations with the United States. The American-Chinese relationship has been described by top leaders and academics as the world's most important bilateral relationship of the 21st century.[5][6] As the countries become more and more intertwined, greater numbers of Chinese and Americans have experience visiting, studying, working, and living in the others' country. Still, the role played by the media in shaping views remains large.[7] In recent years, public opinion polling and other scholarship has sharpened our understanding of how images and attitudes in the two countries are formed and how those influence policies.[8]