China’s president Xi Jinping appealed for “healthy” competition with the US, “not a wrestle in which one either wins or loses” at the start of a summit meeting with the US president at the White House.
Xi called for extensive co-operation with Washington to avoid the “Thucydides trap” that could put the US and China on a military collision course amid rising tensions over artificial intelligence, trade and Taiwan.
The Chinese president laid out terms for a mutual understanding that he said could steer the two competing superpowers away from future military conflict and on to a road of mutual gain.
Rather than confrontation, conditions for “achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and making America great again go hand in hand” should be the goal Xi said, citing Trump’s political catchphrase.
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“We should coexist in peace,” he said. “China and the United States, as two major countries, stand to gain from co-operation and will both lose in confrontation. Our two militaries should maintain regular dialogue and improve mechanisms for crisis communication and prevention.”
With such conditions in place, Xi said, “the Thucydides trap can be overcome”, referring to the phenomenon, defined by the Greek historian, of tensions that arise when an emerging power challenges the dominance of an established power.
Xi invoked the phrase in his meeting with Trump in Beijing in May, asking the US president how he planned to avoid it.
His proposals for lessening tensions – which also included the invitation of 100,000 young Americans to visit China on student exchanges – come amid a period of intense competition between the two powers over artificial intelligence and trade, with each side imposing tariffs on the other.
Trump had earlier welcomed Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, to the White House, noting that he was the first Chinese leader to make a second state visit to the US. The previous visit occurred in 2015, when Barack Obama was US president.
“President Xi and Madame Peng arrive at an important moment for America, the 250th anniversary of our founding,” he said.
Trump said that he had forged “a truly great friendship” with Xi. “President Xi and I have made tremendous strides on the issues facing our two countries,” he said. “Our teams have been working to encourage a more balances trading relationship, including the new market access for American farmers and ranchers.”
He said the current visit would include discussion overs security, technology and AI – which he called “super intelligence”, a term he introduced in his speech to the United Nations general assembly on Tuesday.
Xi also had news for the people of Atlanta: the pandas are coming.
Two giant pandas, Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, will arrive at an Atlanta zoo “in a few days,” Xi announced at the start of his state visit to the US on Thursday.
“The giant panda has been an envoy of friendship between the Chinese and Americans,” he said at the White House ceremony. “Here, I have a piece of good news.”
China closely controls the exhibition of pandas, one of its prized national symbols. The country claims ownership of all the world’s bears and leases them to international zoos in what’s been dubbed “panda diplomacy.”
The tradition began in 1957 when Mao Zedong gifted panda Ping Ping to the Soviet Union. Beijing gifted two pandas to the United States in 1972 as the countries began dialogue toward normalising relations.
Despite the harmonious tone adopted by both leaders, analysts have voiced scepticism about the possibility of long-standing stable arrangements being arrived at over a host of issues.
In the race for AI, the US has placed strict export controls on microchips, semiconductors, software and chipmaking equipment in a bid to slow China’s development. – Guardian/Reuters
