In his opening remarks on Thursday, Chinese leader Xi Jinping brought up an ancient Greek war, a conflict that erupted between Athens and Sparta in 431BC:
“Can China and the United States transcend the so-called ‘Thucydides Trap’ and forge a new paradigm for major-power relations?”
Xi warned Trump that missteps on the issue of Taiwan could lead the two nations to conflict.
Thucydides (thoo·si·duh·deez):
The Thucydides Trap refers to the idea that when a rising power threatens to displace an established one, the result is often war.
While Trump was welcomed with pageantry and flattery, the undertone from Xi was one of warning to the U.S., which he slyly described as a “declining nation,” as he alluded to the challenge of avoiding confrontation between nations.
Xi has previously stated that “the East is rising and the West is declining.”
But Trump blamed Biden for the decline of the United States.
Listen to audio transcript
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