Xi Raises Prospect of a Future US-China War in Meeting with Trump: ‘Thucydides Trap’
By New York Post. Chinese leader Xi Jinping opened Wednesday’s high-stakes meeting with President Trump by ominously raising the prospect of a future war between the US and China.
Xi made reference to a geopolitical concept known as the Thucydides trap, which posits that there is a high probability of a violent clash when a rising power challenges the ruling hegemon.
“The whole world is watching our meeting,” Xi said inside Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, with Trump seated across the table.
“Currently, transformation not seen in a century is accelerating across the globe, and the international situation is fluid and turbulent,” he continued, according to one translation of his remarks. “The world has come to a new crossroads.
“Can China and the United States overcome the Thucydides trap and create a new paradigm of major country relations? Can we meet global challenges together and provide more stability for the world? Can we, in the interest of the well-being of our two peoples and the future of humanity, build a brighter future together for our bilateral relations?” (Read more from “Xi Raises Prospect of a Future US-China War in Meeting with Trump: ‘Thucydides Trap’” HERE)
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Melania Mysteriously Snubs Trump’s Big Trip
By Daily Beast. Donald Trump left Washington for a three-day state visit to China flanked by cabinet secretaries, sixteen corporate CEOs, his son Eric and daughter-in-law Lara—but not his wife.
Melania Trump’s office confirmed her absence in an email to the South China Morning Post hours before takeoff, without even attempting to offer an explanation: “First Lady Melania Trump is not travelling this time,” her spokesperson said.
Her office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on why she was sitting out the trip.
The move comes amid speculation about the first lady increasingly breaking with her husband as she seems to be trying to charter her own course. Trump and his White House aides were reportedly blindsided last month when she called a surprise press conference to read a statement declaring she had no ties to the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. The move appeared only to revive the scandal that Trump himself had been eager to put to rest.
Melania’s absence, bizarrely, does not appear to have kept the man who produced her critically panned Melania documentary last year from tagging along. (Read more from “Melania Mysteriously Snubs Trump’s Big Trip” HERE)
