Xi Says Thucydides Trap Can Be Overcome as He Meets Trump at White House
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Chinese President Xi Jinping said the Thucydides Trap can be overcome as he arrived at the White House on Thursday to meet U.S. President Donald Trump, according to the Chinese side's official readout. The framing contrasts with the rhetorical question Xi posed at the May summit of whether the two countries could avoid the Thucydides Trap, a concept popularized by Harvard professor Graham Allison in the early 2010s that refers to how tensions between a rising and ruling power have historically often resulted in war. Xi's comment followed remarks on peaceful coexistence, saying the U.S. and China can have healthy competition without confrontation and that it should be a race of catching up with one another, not a wrestle in which one either wins or loses, while adding the two countries' militaries should improve crisis communication and prevention. Cui Shoujun, a professor at Renmin University of China's School of International Studies, called the establishment of a bottom line of competing intensely without military conflict the most significant political outcome of the summit, saying it injected certainty into the volatile bilateral relationship. Trump's comments on Xi's arrival at the White House only emphasized general collaboration, and the U.S. president has yet to comment on Taiwan around this summit, despite Xi calling on the U.S. to oppose Taiwan independence, according to Beijing's readout of the two presidents' talks on Thursday.