Chinese President Xi Jinping declared that the "Thucydides Trap" can be overcome, according to an official readout of his talks with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday. The statement marked a sharpening from the rhetorical question he posed last May, when he asked whether the two countries could avoid the dynamic at all.
The Thucydides Trap, a concept popularized by Harvard professor Graham Allison in the early 2010s, describes how tensions between a rising power and an established one have historically often led to war. The term derives from the ancient Greek historian Thucydides, who attributed the outbreak of the Peloponion War to Athens' rise and the fear it inspired in Sparta.
Allison has met with Xi several times, including at a World Economic Forum event in China in June 2026. He previously served as assistant secretary of defense under President Bill Clinton and special advisor to the secretary of defense under President Ronald Reagan. Allison was also founding dean of Harvard's Kennedy School, which has trained generations of Chinese government officials.
Xi first referenced the trap in a 2014 HuffPost interview, saying, "We all need to work together to avoid the Thucydides Trap — destructive tensions between an emerging power and established powers."
Thursday's visit was Xi's first state visit to the U.S. in 11 years. A state media article following his 2015 trip noted that Xi viewed major-power suspicion, rather than inevitability, as the driver of the conflict the concept predicts.
At the White House, Xi emphasized that the U.S. and China could engage in "healthy" competition without confrontation. "It should be a race of catching up with one another, not a wrestle in which one either wins or loses," he said, calling for improved military crisis communication and prevention between the two nations.
Cui Shoujun, a professor at Renmin University of China's School of International Studies, called the establishment of this competitive bottom line the "most significant political outcome" of the summit, saying it "injected certainty into the volatile bilateral relationship."
Trump's remarks on Xi's arrival stressed general collaboration. The U.S. president has not yet commented on Taiwan during the summit, despite Beijing's readout stating that Xi urged Washington to "oppose 'Taiwan independence.'" —CNBC
