Trump Keeps Remarks Measured as Xi Says Both Sides Would Be Hurt by Conflict

“Partners, not rivals” defines the tense summit atmosphere

Trump repeatedly calls Xi a “great leader” and emphasizes their personal rapport

Xi says the two powers must find the right path to coexist

Chinese President Xi Jinping invoked the “Thucydides Trap” during summit talks with U.S. President Donald Trump in Beijing on May 14, signaling a call for coexistence rather than confrontation between the two powers.

In opening remarks at the U.S.-China summit at the Great Hall of the People, Xi said stable ties between China and the U.S. would be good news for the world and that major powers must pursue the right path to coexistence.

Whether China and the U.S. can move beyond the “Thucydides Trap” and open a new paradigm for relations between major powers is a historic question, Xi said. It is also an answer that he and Trump, as leaders of major powers, must write together.

The theory, advanced by Harvard Kennedy School professor Graham Allison, recasts the ancient historian Thucydides’ argument that fear of a rising power can lead to war.

Xi also referenced the concept at his 2015 summit with then-President Barack Obama in Washington and at a 2024 meeting with President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Lima, Peru, underscoring China’s stated willingness to coexist with the U.S.

Xi said he has long believed the shared interests of China and the U.S. outweigh their differences and that each side’s success creates opportunities for the other. If the two countries work together, both benefit. If they fight, both will be hurt.

He added that repeated experience has shown there are no winners in a trade war and that the essence of U.S.-China economic and trade ties is mutual benefit and win-win cooperation. When differences and frictions emerge, consultations on an equal footing are the only correct choice.

Xi said the broadly balanced and positive outcome reached the previous day by the two sides’ economic and trade negotiators was good news for both countries and the world. He urged both sides to work together to maintain that hard-won momentum.

He also called on the two countries to become partners rather than rivals, help each other succeed, achieve shared prosperity and pursue the proper path of coexistence between major powers in a new era. He said they should respond jointly to global challenges, bring more stability to the world and advance the well-being of their peoples and the future of humanity.

Addressing Trump, who was visiting China for the first time in nine years since November 2017, Xi said he was very pleased to meet him in Beijing and noted that their meeting was drawing global attention.

He said he hoped the two leaders would exchange views on major issues affecting both countries and the world, steer the huge ship of U.S.-China relations in the right direction and make this year a historic and symbolic one that carries forward the past and opens the future of bilateral ties.

Xi also congratulated the U.S. on the 250th anniversary of its founding.

Trump, for his part, emphasized his personal relationship with Xi and repeatedly praised him as a “great leader.”

He said the two sides would build a great future on the basis of what he described as a fantastic relationship and that U.S.-China ties would become better than ever. Trump also thanked China for the welcoming ceremony.

He added that U.S. business leaders were looking forward to trade and business opportunities and that the relationship would be fully reciprocal.

Diplomatic observers said Trump appeared more restrained than Xi in pressing his own positions. The interpretation was that he chose his public remarks carefully because the meeting could shape the direction of U.S.-China ties.

Kim Eun-jung, Beijing correspondent, Korea Economic Daily, kej@hankyung.com