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The phrase Xi invoked in his meeting with Trump has its roots in ancient Greece but entered the modern geopolitical lexicon only in the 2010s.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump speak during a state dinner at the White House in Washington, DC. (Source: Reuters)
Chinese President Xi Jinping reached back more than 2,400 years to ancient Greece during his meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday to make a point about one of the biggest questions hanging over relations between the world’s two largest economies: can their intensifying rivalry be prevented from ending in conflict?
Calling for greater cooperation between Washington and BeijingXi said “the Thucydides trap can be overcome”.
It was not the first time Xi had brought the ancient concept into his conversations with Trump. When the US president visited Beijing in May, Xi had posed the question more directly: “Can China and the United States transcend the so-called ‘Thucydides Trap’ and forge a new paradigm for major-power relations?”
But what exactly is the Thucydides Trap, and why has Xi repeatedly raised it with Trump?
What Is The Thucydides Trap?
The Thucydides Trap refers to the idea that when a rising power threatens to displace an established one, the rivalry can lead to war.
Its name comes from Thucydides, the ancient Greek historian who chronicled the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta, which began in 431 BC and lasted for nearly three decades.
Athens was the rising power, while Sparta was the established one. “It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable,” Thucydides wrote in The History of the Peloponnesian War.
The modern term was popularised by Harvard political scientist Graham Allison in the early 2010s, according to Bloomberg. Allison used the historical rivalry as a lens to examine the relationship between the US and China.
In today’s context, the parallel is clear: China is the rising power challenging a global order long dominated by the United States. The concern behind the concept is that growing competition between the two could eventually spill into conflict.
Why Did Xi Bring It Up With Trump?
Xi’s reference came as the US and China remain locked in intense competition over trade and artificial intelligence, while Taiwan remains a major source of tension between them.
His message in Washington was that such competition need not end in confrontation.
“We should coexist in peace. China and the United States, as two major countries, stand to gain from cooperation and will both lose in confrontation. Our two militaries should maintain regular dialog and improve mechanisms for crisis communication and prevention,” Xi said.
He also sought to argue that the ambitions of the two countries do not necessarily have to come at each other’s expense, saying “achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and making America great again go hand in hand”.
“We should strengthen communication. China and the United States are different in national conditions, but through candid, in-depth and continued dialogue, our two countries can understand each other better, seek common ground while shelving differences, and build up mutual trust,” Xi said.
The Taiwan Warning
Xi’s invocation of the Thucydides Trap in Beijing in May may also have foreshadowed the position he was about to take on Taiwan. Having opened the meeting by asking whether the US and China could avoid the kind of rivalry that ends in war, Xi later warned Trump that Taiwan itself could push the two countries towards such a confrontation.
“The Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-US relations,” Xi said.
“If mishandled, the two nations could collide or even come into conflict, pushing the entire China-US relationship into a highly perilous situation,” he added.
Quick Answers
Ask News18The Thucydides Trap is a political theory stating that when a rising power threatens to displace an established one, the rivalry can lead to war, a concept applied by Harvard political scientist Graham Allison to examine tensions between the US and China. Chinese President Xi Jinping has referenced it to stress that Washington and Beijing can overcome this rivalry through cooperation and regular military dialogue.
Ask News18About the Author
Karishma Jain, Chief Sub Editor at News18.com, writes and edits opinion pieces on a variety of subjects, including Indian politics and policy, culture and the arts, technology and social change. Follo…Read More
September 25, 2026, 09:25 IST
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