Professor Graham Allison of Harvard has suggested that the US/China relationship might fall into the ‘Thucydides trap’, referring to conflict between an established power and a newly rising one. This is a possibility but not a certainty: both countries will have to take care to avoid exacerbating difficulties in the relationship and to make the right choices among the different scenarios for the way forward, and as things stand, China appears better placed to manage this change.

Cold War benefits no one.

The Trump administration gives no credit to China.

The US has to come to grips with the changed balance of power and accept the coming of a “new era” in international relations and global governance.

Jared McKinney uses three historical analogies to illustrate his point that it is a reductionist proposition that the U.S., as the ‘champion’ of democracy, and China, as a rising ‘revisionist’ state, are locked into an existential struggle in which one will lose and one win.

Zainab Zaheer argues that with the Belt and Road’s development, the next few years may be slightly reminiscent of the Cold War, where two rival nations both well equipped with resources and manpower fought for influence and dominance, while smaller nations were left playing a game of strategy, trying to maximize the benefits of fraternizing with giants.

The US faces three difficult questions.

By pursuing a variable sum game, China and the US will avoid war. In terms of development of science and technology and economic growth, both China and the United States have a sense of competition but only in a peaceful way.

The volatility of Donald Trump’s administration has added to the uncertainties in China-US relations. Circumstances present both opportunities and challenges.

Trump should be wary of two major traps that history has set for him - the “Thucydides Trap", as well as the “Kindleberger Trap”: a China that seems too weak rather than too strong.