Donald Trump and Xi Jinping wrapped up their meeting after roughly two hours of talks. The discussions centered on developments in the Middle East, Taiwan, trade, and other points of friction in the U.S.-China relationship.
The meeting was held behind closed doors, and the White House did not issue an official statement afterward. Instead, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency provided details about what was said during the private session.
According to Xinhua, Xi told Trump that if the Taiwan issue is not handled properly, the United States and China risk “conflicts and even armed confrontations, placing the entire relationship in serious jeopardy.”
This stood in stark contrast to the public opening remarks delivered at the Great Hall of the People. There, Trump was lavish in his praise of Xi, saying “you are a great leader” and that “it is an honor to be your friend.”
Xi, for his part, was more measured, expressing hope that the two countries could avoid conflict. He noted that history and the world are asking “whether the two countries can transcend the Thucydides Trap and forge a new model of relations between major powers.”
What Is the “Thucydides Trap”?
The Chinese leader invoked a phrase closely associated with an American political scientist. In his 2017 book “Destined for War,” Graham T. Allison argued that a Sino-American conflict was virtually inevitable, drawing on his reading of the causes of the Peloponnesian War.
Since then, his well-known concept of the “Thucydides Trap”, the supposedly inescapable cycle of suspicion and escalating tensions that drives a rising power and an established one toward war, has become the subject of endless debate among international relations scholars and defense analysts.
Xi’s Message on China’s Openness
According to Xinhua, American business executives present said they place great importance on the Chinese market and hope to expand their operations in the country and deepen cooperation.
Xi noted that U.S. companies actively participate in China’s reform and opening-up process and that both sides have benefited from it.
“China welcomes deeper mutually beneficial cooperation with the United States and believes American companies will have broader prospects in China,” he said.
“China’s doors to the outside world will open wider and wider… American companies will have even brighter prospects in China,” Xi stated, according to Chinese state media, during the U.S.-China summit held Thursday in Beijing.
