Xi proposes terms to avoid US-China conflict at White House summit with Trump

Student exchange and ‘super intelligence’ on Trump-Xi summit agenda

At the opening of a White House summit on Sept. 24, Chinese President Xi Jinping presented President Donald Trump with a framework for expanded US-China cooperation and regular military-to-military dialogue as a path to avoiding what Xi called the “Thucydides trap” — described by the Greek historian Thucydides as the tensions that arise when an emerging power challenges the dominance of an established power.

“We should strengthen communication,” Xi said, with Trump looking on. “China and the United States are different in national conditions, but through candid, in-depth and continued dialog, our two countries can understand each other better, seek common ground while shelving differences, and build up mutual trust.” He added: “We should coexist in peace. China and the United States, as two major countries, stand to gain from cooperation and will both lose in confrontation.”

The phrase Xi invoked is attributed to the Greek historian Thucydides. Xi had used the same phrase in his meeting with Trump in Beijing in May, when he asked the U.S. president how he planned to avoid it.

Trump, earlier in the day, had welcomed Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan to the White House and noted that Xi was the first Chinese leader to make a second state visit to the United States. The previous one took place in 2015, when Barack Obama was U.S. president. Trump said he had forged “a truly great friendship” with Xi and added: “President Xi and I have made tremendous strides on the issues facing our two countries.”

“Our teams have been working to encourage a more balances trading relationship, including the new market access for American farmers and ranchers,” Trump said.

Trump said the current visit would also include discussions of security, technology and AI — a topic he has labeled “super intelligence,” a term he introduced in his Tuesday speech to the United Nations General Assembly.

The summit is unfolding amid a continuing tariff dispute between Washington and Beijing and intense US-China competition over artificial-intelligence development.

Xi’s package of proposals to ease tensions extended beyond security and trade, including an offer to invite 100,000 young Americans to visit China on student exchanges.