Xi Jinping tests Donald Trump with 'Thucydides Trap'

TOI correspondent from Washington: Implicitly suggesting that China is catching up with the United States if it hasn't already, Chinese President Xi Jinping told Americans on Thursday that the two countries can avoid the historic conflict that often accompanies the rise of a new power, declaring that “the Thucydides Trap CAN be overcome.”The phrase “Thucydides Trap” was coined by Harvard political scientist Graham Allison, drawing on the Athenian historian Thucydides' account of the Peloponnesian War.Thucydides identified the rise of Athens and the fear it generated in Sparta as the underlying force that made war increasingly difficult to avoid.Allison subsequently applied the historical pattern to modern great-power rivalry, examining 16 cases in which a rising power challenged an established one; in his analysis, 12 ended in war.Speaking at the White House welcome ceremony with President Trump sitting beside him, Xi said the US and China should pursue cooperation rather than confrontation…