Professor Jin Canrong, a government foreign affairs adviser from Renmin University, said Xi's tight itinerary indicated that he faced tougher challenges abroad than at home.

"Xi set the tone for most domestic issues after the party's fifth plenary session … For [domestic] problems like the economy, he cannot reach a major breakthrough any time soon," Jin said. "There are more foreign affairs challenges facing him, such as the South China Sea issues."

Despite Xi's state visit to the US, bilateral ties between the two major powers soured after the Pentagon ordered a warship to sail through Chinese-claimed territorial waters in the South China Sea last month.

In a legal setback for Beijing, an international arbitration court in the Netherlands also ruled in late October that it had jurisdiction to hear the Philippines' territorial claims to the waters.

Jin said Beijing needed to elaborate its stance on the disputes to neighbouring countries, to win itself more leverage in the potential negotiations.

READ MORE: Floodgates opening: China dealt fresh blow in South China Sea disputes as Hague court to look into half of Philippines' claims against country

To help thaw Beijing's relationship with Manila, Xi was likely to meet President Benigno Aquino in Manila next week, said researcher Xu Liping from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"But given the tight agenda of both presidents, it is hard to tell if it will be an official bilateral meeting or an occasion of corridor diplomacy," Xu said.

Though Manila is unlikely to withdraw its case from The Hague, Xi would probably take the opportunity to explain to Aquino that Beijing wanted the territorial disputes to remain bilateral issues and that intervention by third parties, including the international court, would not be acceptable, Xu said.