en English

For decades, the West assumed that economic growth would turn China into a more open, liberal society, much as it did South Korea and Taiwan. Instead, China’s totalitarian institutions proved remarkably resilient, surviving decades of reform and reasserting themselves under President Xi Jinping.

STANFORD—The Thucydides Trap has become a popular lens for understanding US-China relations. Its logic is simple: when a rising power challenges an established one, fear and mistrust grow, making conflict increasingly difficult to avoid. Over the past decade, Chinese President Xi Jinping has repeatedly invoked this distinctly American concept to frame his country’s rivalry with the United States.