Chinese leader Xi Jinping opened Wednesday’s high-stakes meeting with President Trump by ominously raising the prospect of a future war between the US and China. Xi referenced a geopolitical concept known as the Thucydides trap, or the risks that arise when an emerging power challenges a stronger, more established power. “The whole world is watching our meeting,” Xi began inside Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, with Trump seated across the table.
“Currently, transformation not seen in a century is accelerating across the globe, and the international situation is fluid and turbulent,” he continued, according to one translation of his remarks. “The world has come to a new crossroads. “Can China and the United States overcome the Thucydides trap and create a new paradigm of major country relations? Can we meet global challenges together and provide more stability for the world? Can we, in the interest of the well-being of our two peoples and the future of humanity, build a brighter future together for our bilateral relations?” Xi has referred to the Thucydides trap, a term coined by Harvard professor Graham Allison, since at least 2014 regarding the US. The concept was named after ancient Greek historian Thucydides, who wrote that the rise of Athens put Sparta in such a defensive posture that war was inevitable. Xi described the issues facing the US and China as “questions vital to history” and to “the world and to the people.”
