Chinese President Xi Jinping invoked the “Thucydides Trap” in opening remarks at a Beijing summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, asking whether the two countries could avoid conflict and build a new framework for major-power relations.
Chinese President Xi Jinping used a historical analogy to frame U.S.-China relations at the start of a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in Beijing.
In his opening remarks, Xi said the world was at a “new crossroads” and asked whether China and the United States could “transcend the so-called ‘Thucydides Trap’ and forge a new paradigm for major-power relations,” according to an opinion piece published by The Daily Wire that quoted his comments.
The “Thucydides Trap” is a term popularized in recent years to describe the idea that tensions can escalate when a rising power challenges an established one, increasing the risk of conflict. Xi’s use of the phrase has been widely noted in subsequent coverage of the meeting, though the Daily Wire article itself focused on disputing the concept’s usefulness rather than providing a fuller official transcript of the opening remarks.
